-- Restoration and Renewal of Judiciary Square Continues --  
 
WASHINGTON, DC – The DC Courts completed the latest step in a comprehensive upgrade of the Judiciary Square campus in the city’s Penn Quarter neighborhood:  the park that comprises the southeast corner of the Historic Courthouse property, running along Fourth Street, NW, north of Indiana Avenue.  Complete with a new water feature, trees, grass, and curving brick paths, this new open space expands the urban oasis the DC Courts have worked to create surrounding the Historic Courthouse and reflects the DC Courts’ commitment to renewing Judiciary Square for the community, a public green space as originally envisioned by Pierre L’Enfant. 
 
“The park and water feature expand on the significant renovation that the Courts’ Capital Projects and Facilities Management Division has managed of the Historic Courthouse and adjoining land in the Judiciary Square neighborhood.  Much of our campus architecture and greenery are now restored to their original splendor,” said Chief Judge Eric T. Washington of the DC Court of Appeals, Chair of the Joint Committee on Judicial Administration that oversees the DC Courts.  “The Courts are part of the community and we want to make sure that our property reflects well on our city and invites those with court business and others in the neighborhood to enjoy the beauty of the original architecture,” he explained. 
 
The park was officially opened on Friday, April 16, 2010, DC Emancipation Day, a fitting tribute for property adjacent to the first public memorial to Abraham Lincoln and to the building in which he reportedly signed the DC Emancipation Act in 1862.