Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens

Civil War veteran Walter B. Shaw, orginally from Maine purchased land on the banks of the Anacostia River in the 1880s. Homesick for his home state, he brought and planted wild waterlilies native to Maine. In 1912, he opened W.B. Shaw Lily Ponds as a commercial attraction. The gardens are now run by the National Park Service and are on the National Register of Historic Places.