See Every Era of the White House Rose Garden, Including the Famed Kennedy Redesign & the Trumps' Concrete Overhaul
- - See Every Era of the White House Rose Garden, Including the Famed Kennedy Redesign & the Trumps' Concrete Overhaul
Kyler AlvordAugust 1, 2025 at 2:32 PM
Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, photograph by Harris & Ewing; Brooks Kraft LLC/Corbis via Getty; Bonnie Cash/UPI/Bloomberg via Getty
The White House Rose Garden has evolved many times, from a colonial garden in the early 1900s (left) to the Kennedy-era redesign (center) to the 2025 concrete renovation (right)
The White House Rose Garden is one of the most cherished areas of the People's House, where presidents have been known to play fetch with their dogs, world leaders have gathered to engage in high-level conversations, history-altering speeches have been broadcast to the public, and some of the presidents' loved ones have even been married.
Since the turn of the 20th century, a handful of first families have played a role in creating, updating and preserving the Rose Garden as a scenic feature of the Executive Residence. From first ladies Edith Roosevelt and Ellen Wilson, who helped establish the garden, to President John F. Kennedy, who modernized it, the space has become a labor of love shared by White House residents throughout history.
As Donald and Melania Trump mark a new era for the Rose Garden with their installation of a concrete patio in the center, revisit the full history of the White House's most famous garden, from its inception to its 2025 redesign.
The original White House lacked a West Wing, which frames the modern-day Rose Garden.
When the White House was first built, it didn't have the neatly defined areas that we can see on the complex today. The unfinished grounds featured stables near the area where the Rose Garden sits today, and a small fence that separated the Executive Mansion from the publicly accessible area to the south.
Ken Welsh/Design Pics/Universal Images Group via Getty
A depiction of the fenced-in White House ca. mid-1800s, when little was happening on the west side of the property
In the mid-1850s, the White House was upgraded with a conservatory and greenhouses that connected to the West Terrace. Though flowers were grown in the greenhouses, there was no central gathering place to enjoy them.
John Short/Design Pics/Universal Images Group via Getty
A picture from the late-1800s shows the White House Conservatory at the bottom of the frame where the West Wing and Rose Garden now sitAfter the conservatory was demolished to make room for the West Wing in 1902, first lady Edith Roosevelt added flair to the area with her colonial-style West Garden.
Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, photograph by Harris & Ewing
Edith Roosevelt's West Garden, pictured between 1905 and 1913, which preceded the White House Rose Garden
The West Wing was designed to offer the president a separation between his residence and his offices. The garden that lined the walkway between the two offered a peaceful sitting area for the first family.
Roosevelt's paisley-patterned plant beds survived only a decade before a different first lady put her more permanent stamp on the space.
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First lady Ellen Wilson moved to the White House in 1913 and immediately began installing what we today know as the White House Rose Garden.
With the help of landscape architect George Burnap, Wilson leaned into a symmetrical design and centered the garden around roses for the first time.
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First lady Ellen Wilson's garden, later called the White House rose Garden, pictured in 1914
Though Wilson died only a year into her husband's presidency, she is still credited with establishing the White House Rose Garden as a beloved feature of the People's House.
Heritage Art/Heritage Images via Getty
The symmetrical rose garden designed for first lady Ellen Wilson, pictured in 1921
For decades, the Wilson-era Rose Garden underwent only minor changes, according to a landscape report compiled in 2020.
Under President Harry S. Truman, the garden was used as a building site during massive White House renovations, but it was quickly restored to its former glory upon the completion of construction. President Dwight D. Eisenhower scaled back the number of roses and removed some hedges to widen the small lawn area.
Then, under President John F. Kennedy, the modern White House Rose Garden was born.
AP Photo
The Kennedy-era Rose Garden takes form with a newly sodded lawn, pictured in May 1962
After returning from a trip to Europe, Kennedy reportedly grew adamant that the White House needed an impressive garden like the ones he'd seen abroad. Fortunately first lady Jackie Kennedy was close friends with a garden designer, Rachel "Bunny" Mellon, who worked to bring his vision to life in 1961.
AP Photo/JR
The present-day layout of the White House Rose Garden, pictured above in 1963, is credited to the Kennedy administration
The Kennedy redesign aimed to establish the Rose Garden as a place that could accommodate high-level ceremonies without losing its charm as a secluded retreat for the first family.
Its most notable feature was its massive central lawn, framed with bright flower beds and flowering trees.
ImageCatcher News Service/Corbis via Getty
The Kennedy-era Rose Garden, pictured above in 2014, remained largely unchanged for decades
Between the Kennedy administration and the first Trump administration, the most notable structural change to the Rose Garden was the addition of a bluestone walkway on the eastern border, which is where many guests enter.
The specific flowers, shrubs and trees that are seasonally planted in the garden have also changed over time, sometimes out of necessity. When first lady Nancy Reagan did one of the more prominent overhauls in 1981, she sought advice from Mellon — the Kennedys' garden designer — on which changes to make.
PAUL J. RICHARDS/AFP via Getty
Magnolia trees bloom around the perimeter of the White House Rose Garden, pictured above in 2014Nearly 60 years after the Kennedy redesign, first lady Melania Trump began a controversial 2020 renovation.
In the final year of Donald Trump's first presidency, Melania brought the most significant updates to the White House Rose Garden since the 1960s, making headlines for changing up the flower beds, removing the Kennedys' crabapple trees and narrowing the lawn area to add a limestone walk around the border.
Drew Angerer/Getty
Melania Trump's Rose Garden opens in August 2020 with a new limestone perimeter and fewer trees
When the Trumps moved back into the White House for a second term, they expressed a desire to continue working on the garden — only they described their vision as something that was more in line with a presidential patio.
In the summer of 2025, the Trumps swapped out one of the major remnants of the Kennedys' influence: the central lawn.
Bonnie Cash/UPI/Bloomberg via Getty
A photo of the Trumps' newly paved White House Rose Garden on July 29, 2025
While the new, Trump-era Rose Garden has not yet reopened, the lawn was replaced with concrete pavers in July 2025.
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