Tribute Benches in Rock Creek

Dedicated to the memory of pioneering artist Sam Gilliam (1933-2022) by David Kordansky Gallery. Sam Gilliam was one of the great innovators in American painting. Rock Creek Park was a refuge and inspiration for Gilliam for more than sixty years. In the 1960s, when he was producing the breakthrough works for which he would soon receive wide acclaim, he would bring his baby daughter on walks in the park and stop to make abstract drawings en plein air, responding to the colors, movements, and textures he observed. The effects of these formative experiences are apparent in the varied paintings he made throughout the subsequent decades, during which Rock Creek Park continued to delight and nourish him and his wife Annie Gawlak on a daily basis. Gilliam’s poetic understanding of the natural world, with its inexhaustible sense of change and evolution, moved him to constantly reinvent himself.

Dedicated in honor of Gary Guzy's service as chair of Rock Creek Conservancy's board, this bike rack sits in the park's Brightwood complex, between the soccer fields, tennis facilities, and picnic grove 24. The location honors Gary's previous leadership of his children's soccer teams, his commitment to cycling and 21st century transportation solutions, and prioritizing resources to the east side of the park. Gary has served as the Deputy Director of the White House Council on Environmental Quality and as the General Counsel of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Throughout his career, he has worked to protect public lands from the Everglades to Alaska's north slope, and always comes home to Rock Creek Park.

Dedicated for an anonymous lover of the woods and birds, this bench sits near the Western Ridge Trail, near picnic areas 27 and 28 and the equitation field. Just up the trail from Rock Creek Conservancy’s Trail 9 mini-oasis, the bench provides a respite in an active recreational area of the park. Surrounding the bench is a hilled, forested area made up of mature, secondary growth trees.

Dedicated by Mary and Abe Clayman in honor of their fifth wedding anniversary, this bench sits on the edge of the gently flowing Pinehurst Tributary to Rock Creek. This classic mixed mesic hardwood forest and floodplain terrace is punctuated by gorgeous mature white oaks, beech and tulip trees. It is also the site of a delightful trail that follows the Pinehurst Branch ravine from Western Avenue to Rock Creek. Home to numerous native plant, bird, and mammal communities, dedicated volunteers have been hard at work here for the past several years to reclaim this area from the several invasive plants that have threatened to overwhelm the habitat.  

Dedicated by Rena Subotnik, this bench overlooks the Reservation 630 area of Rock Creek Park. Owing to the diligent work of Weed Warrior Rena Subotnik and many other volunteers who work with her, a swath of forested area between Connecticut Avenue and the Klingle Mansion is in the process of being cleared of invasives, allowing the native seedbank to revegetate the characteristically steep slopes.

Dedicated in honor of William ("Bill") Frey's 75th birthday, this bench offers a place to rest for runners, cyclists, and walkers just before the steep climb between the pedestrian bridge crossing Rock Creek and the Shoreham Drive exit to Calvert Street. Like so many others who regularly take advantage of this heavily used area of the park as a respite from their day-to-day lives, Bill and his wife, Olivia Golden, have regularly walked, cycled and run here over the fifteen years they've lived together nearby. He is thrilled to be able to contribute to the enjoyment of others at this beautiful site, which has the main stem of Rock Creek running behind it and overlooks mature mixed hardwood forests characteristic of the park.

Dedicated in honor of Frederick Ludwig Joutz (1953-2022), this bench sits on a spur between the paved, multi-use trail along Oregon Avenue with the network of natural surface trails throughout Rock Creek Park. The neighborhood around this area has many rain gardens along the streets to protect the Pinehurst tributary, visible behind the bench, from the impacts of stormwater runoff.

Map: 38.97710866258223, -77.05206607988525

This bench, given for the community by an anonymous donor, sits amid Grant Circle in the Petworth neighborhood in recognition of the volunteer service and community activism that has helped preserve the circle and keep it vibrant.

The bench located in the Pinehurst Branch of Rock Creek Park near the corner of Aberfoyle Place and Barnaby Street NW is placed in loving memory of Thomas Edward Mauger.