Mary Livingston Ripley Garden

The Mary Livingston Ripley Garden stretches between the National Museum of Natural History and the National Gallery of Art, marked by its dense, shaded canopy and curved, brick-lined pathways. While the surrounding Mall is dominated by wide-open lawns and monumental stone, this narrow space mimics a Victorian-era conservatory without a roof. Mary Ripley designed the garden in nineteen seventy-eight to provide a sensory escape from the city, filling the beds with thousands of perennials and fragrant vines that change with the seasons.