Historic American Landscapes Survey
Source: Library of Congress
June 1939. The King and Queen, President and First Lady left the camp at Fort Hunt. Their visit had been short, perhaps only half an hour, but the young men that they met would not quickly forget the experience. These lucky members of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) recounted their interactions with the Royals for newspaper reporters and for each other. Sergeant John Draganza, Senior Leader of the camp, accepted tokens (a soda, a shoe shine) from his peers who wanted to shake the hand that shook the king’s hand. In contrast, Richard St. Barbe Baker, a conservationist and no stranger to the dignitaries, commemorated the visit in a longer-lasting way. Following their departure, he planted two trees to commemorate both the success of the CCC and the royal visit. One of those trees, a large Pin Oak, still stands.
For King George VI and his wife, the Queen consort, Elizabeth, it was not a simple social call. Planning for journey began more than a year earlier. In August 1938, upon learning that the British monarchs were planning a visit to Canada, President Franklin D. Roosevelt wrote to the King, “If this visit should become a reality, I hope very much that you will extend your visit to include the United States.” Both leaders expected this trip to cement ties between the two countries as war seemed on the horizon.
As the trip was taking shape in 1939, King George VI invited Richard St. Barbe Baker to Buckingham Palace to discuss the potential inspection of a CCC camp near Washington DC. St. Barbe, as he was commonly called, studied botany and forestry as a young man. He served as a logger and missionary in Canadian lumber camps. After serving in World War I, he graduated from Cambridge and received an appointment as a forest conservationist in Nigeria and Kenya. There he founded an organization, “Men of the Trees,” which later became The International Tree Foundation. Through this organization, his books and lectures, St. Barbe had traveled to the United States and worked with FDR to conceive and establish the CCC.
The King and Queen only planned to spend 4 days in the U.S., but the preparations were extensive. Mrs. Roosevelt had to provide particular furniture, bedding and even special water for their majesties’ tea. She wrote in her autobiography that there was a concern “that the king and queen would not enjoy their tea unless it was made with the same kind of water that they used in London.” After analysis of that water, and attempts to reproduce it, Mrs. Roosevelt recalled, “I think it was finally decided that even if the tea did not taste so good to them it was safer for their majesties to use Potomac River water.”
As the King and Queen crossed the border at Niagara Falls, they became the first reigning monarchs of England ever to visit the United States. They were met by Secretary of State Cordell Hull and his wife. The entire party boarded the train south and arrived at Union Station at 11am on Friday, June 8. The International Wool Growers had gifted the Queen and the First Lady with some thin woolen material with which to make dresses for the momentous occasion of their first meeting. Eleanor Roosevelt recorded, “I had mine made and wore it, but the day was so warm I took it off as soon as I could. The queen could not bear to wear hers that morning, for she was already suffering from the unusual heat which can come to Washington even in early June.” The King and Queen had a full schedule that afternoon with the reception at Union Station, sight-seeing, a garden party at the British Embassy and finally a dinner at the White House featuring music from Marian Anderson and Kate Smith.
Sovereign’s Schedule– Saturday, June 9, 1939 (excerpt):
- 12 noon Arrival at Navy Yard to board Presidential yacht Potomac.
- 1:30 p.m. Arrival of Potomac at Mount Vernon.
- 1:45 p.m.—King George will lay a wreath on the Tomb of George Washington.
- 2:30 p.m.—Departure from Mount Vernon. Their Majesties will ride to Fort Hunt, VA via the Memorial boulevard
- 2:40 p.m.—Arrival at Fort Hunt for visit to CCC Camp
- 3 p.m.—Their Majesties leave Fort Hunt. Their route to Arlington Cemetery will be over the Mount Vernon boulevard to the Memorial Bridge and through the Memorial Gate to cemetery where the King will place wreaths on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and on the Canadian Cross.
U.S.S. Potomac
Archives of the FDR Library and Museum
On Saturday Morning, June 9th, King George and Queen Elizabeth met with Vice President John Nance Garner and members of the House and Senate at the U.S. Capitol. At Noon, they joined the President and First Lady aboard the Presidential Yacht, U.S.S. Potomac, at the Navy Yard. They set out for Mount Vernon, sailing under both the Royal and Presidential flags. Like every aspect of this trip, the 90-minute voyage required extensive preparations. Canada’s Prime Minister and many members of President Roosevelt’s cabinet were along for the ride. A guest book for the journey and seating diagram for the luncheon en route attest to the formality of the occasion. The Assistant Secretary of Commerce ensured that the channel from the Potomac River to the Mount Vernon Wharf was dredged and marked for use by the Presidential Yacht.
(Photo Source: FDR Presidential Library & Museum Flickr,
used via Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic License.)
Archives of the FDR Library and Museum
Archives of the FDR Library and Museum
At the boat landing, Charles Cecil Wall, Superintendent of Mount Vernon, and Harriet Elizabeth Towner, the Regent of the Mount Vernon Ladies Association, met the sizeable party as they disembarked. Newsreels captured the King solemnly laying a wreath at Washington’s tomb, After some confusion as to where the cars were to meet them, the motorcade left Mount Vernon with FDR and the King in one vehicle and Eleanor and the Queen in another. The following newsreel ends with the motorcade departing Mount Vernon, but the Royal and Presidential party’s next stop was Fort Hunt. Perhaps the larger press corps was not invited to the tour of the CCC camp.
Departing Mount Vernon for Fort Hunt
Courtesy of the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association
Photograph by Abbie Rowe
Departing Mount Vernon for Fort Hunt
Courtesy of the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association
Photograph by Abbie Rowe
Fort Hunt was considered a model facility. King George VI was eager to inspect the troops and see the work that was being done by the CCC. FDR created the CCC in the Spring of 1933 as a work relief program designed to combat joblessness and raise morale during the Great Depression. President Roosevelt lobbied Congress for the program saying “The forests are the lungs of our land [which] purify our air and give fresh strength to our people.” He sometimes referred to the CCC as his “Forest Army”. The program focused on outdoor manual labor. Participants were often engaged in constructing trails and bridges, restoring parks, beaches, historic structures and planting and maintaining trees. Camp NP-6 at Fort Hunt was established October 17, 1933, following the Fort’s usage to house veterans during the Bonus Marches. The recruits were young men ages 17-28 working within the National Park Service.
Ahead of the visit, the Washington Post printed an array of photos showing preparations. They reported that the men were, “dolling up the barracks,” watering flowers, shining shoes, donning new uniforms, practicing opening doors for the King and Queen and making the kitchen “spick and span.” This was not Eleanor Roosevelt’s first visit to Fort Hunt. In 1933 she stopped by to talk with veterans camped there during the second Bonus March. She documented the 1939 visit with excellent detail.
On the way home we stopped at Fort Hunt to visit a Civilian Conservation Corps camp. My husband, of course, could not walk with the king and queen, but I have a vivid recollection of that visit; it taught me a great many things.
The king walked with the commander of the camp towards the boys who were drawn up in two lines in the broiling sun. A large bulletin board had been up with pictures of various camps throughout the country, showing the different kinds of work done by the boys, but he did not stop to look at it then.
As we went down the long line, the king stopped at every other boy and asked questions while the queen spoke to the intervening boys. I, of course, walked with the queen. At the end of the first line, the commandant was prepared not to go down the second one, but the king turned automatically and started down. He asked really interested questions, such as whether they were satisfied with their food, what they were learning and whether they thought it would help them to obtain work and lastly, how much they were earning. He had explained to us beforehand that for a long time he had had a summer camp where boys from the mining areas of Great Britain went. He had been deeply troubled to find that many boys had no conception of doing a full day’s work, because they had never seen their fathers do a day’s work, many of Great Britain’s miners having been on the dole for years. This spoke volumes for the condition of the mining industry in Great Britain, but the king seemed interested chiefly in the effect it had on these young men; he wanted to set up something as useful as the CCC camps in Great Britain.
When we reached the end of the second row of boys, the commandant said “Your Majesty, the day is so hot that, while the boys have prepared their barracks and mess hall for your inspection, we shall all understand if you do not feel it wise to cross the field in this sun.” The king responded: “If they expect me to go, of course I will go.” That was a kind of noblesse oblige that I had not often seen in our own officials with whom I had inspected CCC camps and NYA activities and other projects.
The queen and I followed slowly across the field in the hot sun, and I saw one of the most thorough inspections I have ever witnessed. They looked at the shelves where supplies were kept and when they heard the boys made their own equipment, they had tables turned upside down to see how they were made; they looked into the pots and pans on the stove, and at the menu; and when they left there was very little that they did not know. In the sleeping barracks the king felt the mattresses and carefully examined shoes and clothes.
Finally we trudged back across the field and when we reached the bulletin board with all its pictures, the queen murmured gently in my ear that the heat had made her feel very peculiar and did I think she could return to her car. I assured her that no one would mind and we went back and sat in the car while the king examined every picture.”
Eleanor Roosevelt, 1949, This I Remember
Senior Leader, Sergeant John Draganza Front Row at left.
FDR Presidential Library & Museum Flickr,
Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic License.)
Fort Hunt, June 9, 1939
National Archives
The King returned to the car with assurances that he would be provided with copies of all photos for further study. The motorcade departed for Arlington Cemetery for an emotional wreath-laying at both the Tomb of the Unknowns and the Canadian Cross. By evening, the King and Queen would be headed to New York to visit the World’s Fair, sightsee with Mayor Laguardia, and enjoy hot dogs with the Roosevelts at Hyde Park. The trip was a success. The U.S. and Britain had forged a closer relationship, which they would rely on in the very near future. Hilter invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, less than three months later, beginning World War II.
Today at Fort Hunt Park, there are few reminders of the King and Queen’s visit to the camp. There is an interpretive panel with photos of the royal visit. The buildings toured by the King are all gone. A small brick storage facility on the North side of the loop road is the only structure remaining that was likely built by the CCC. And then there’s St. Barbe’s Pin Oak. Quercus palustris, also known as a Swamp Spanish Oak. Palustris means marshy or swampy. Pin oaks grow best in poorly drained soils with high clay content, which accurately describes the land on which Fort Hunt sits. The Royal Visit Pin Oak has the distinctive full shape of its species. Its middle branches spread at right angles to the trunk while lower branches droop down toward the ground. This special tree is on the North side of loop road across from picnic area B. It sits close to the pedestrian gate at the intersection of Fort Hunt Rd. and Winthrop Dr. If you’ve been to Fort Hunt Park, you’ve likely driven, cycled or walked right past it.
(Small CCC-era brick storage building can be seen next to the road in the distance)
Photo: Tammy Mannarino
While the tree is unmarked, the National Park Service has documented it as part of the Witness Tree Protection Program. In addition, it is included a recent NPS Tree Story map. Pin oaks generally have a lifespan of about 120 years. So, with some additional attention, visitors may continue to enjoy the Royal Visit Pin Oak while remembering King George, Queen Elizabeth, the Roosevelts, the Forest Army and perhaps even Richard St. Barbe Baker, man of the trees.
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