Preserving a Place of Strength, Comfort and Inspiration

A message form Catherine Townsend, President & CEO

Living less than two miles from the National Mall on Capitol Hill, America’s Front Yard has always been my family’s backyard. It has been my family’s local park in addition to being the premier national park of our country.  It has been a place of many photos and even more memories. I have walked its entirety multiple times, run with my dog, taken long bike rides; and it is also where my family and friends have celebrated inaugurations and 4th of July, gathered for festivals, and marched in historic demonstrations.   

May is National Preservation Month and it celebrates the places that are meaningful to us. Now more than ever, places of historical, cultural, and personal significance are sources of strength, comfort and inspiration. These places are worth protecting.

The National Mall is no exception. That is why the Trust stays committed to preserving the National Mall as a symbol of our nation’s ideals and civic purpose. We are finishing the Lockkeeper’s House interior exhibits and future educational programming, developing plans for the ground-breaking of the US Park Police Horse Stables project, and finishing the next phase of the Tidal Basin Ideas Lab. The Trust is committed to making your visit on the National Mall a memorable and inspiring experience. Please reach out and share your ideas with us.

Like you, the Trust Team needed to adjust our plans to confront these unprecedented challenges. But, our work continues, because we know just how important the National Mall is to our country but also to you. Unlike other historical places, the National Mall’s importance is not simply a reflection of our history, but instead is an embodiment of all the individual stories that define us as a people and as a nation.  

I am reminded of a wonderful quote from an article in the Washington Post by David Montgomery in 2015:  

“What’s permanent about the Mall is the bigger story it tells. Yet what makes it at once so elusive and engaging is that this bigger story, on closer inspection, is really the sum of all the stories, large and small and often contradictory — the ones we find on the Mall and the ones we carry there to share.”  

That is why we want to hear what the National Mall means to you!  
 
Share your stories here or use #MyNationalMall on social media and tag us @thenationalmall. We are looking for stories to feature and I hope we hear from you.

We will get through this together and soon we will be able gather together on the National Mall again. And when we do, we will all be carrying new stories to share. Thank you, as always, for your continued support of the Trust for the National Mall.