There are two parks in the Navy Yard. Leutze Park, between building
57 and the residence of the Chief of Naval Operations (Tingey House), is
the parade ground for official change-of-command and retirement ceremonies.
The park is named in honor of Rear Admiral Eugene H. C. Leutze, Yard Commandant
from 1905 to 1910. Bronze cannon and other ordnance dating from the seventeenth
to the nineteenth centuries, some captured by U.S. forces in the Barbary
Wars, the Civil War, and the Spanish American War, rim the park.
Across from the Navy Museum on the banks of the Anacostia River lies
Willard Park, named after Rear Admiral Arthur Lee Willard, Yard Commandant
from 1917 to 1919 and again from 1927 to 1930. The park is filled with naval
ordnance from the Civil War, both world wars and the Vietnam era. A 14-inch
railway gun, of the type used in France by the Navy in World War I, embellishes
the museum's outdoor extension. Also at the west end of the park sits a
Patrol Craft, Fast (PCF), or "Swift boat," as it was affectionately
known. Eighty-four Mark I Swift boats served in Vietnam, while twenty, including
the museum's PCF-1, remained in the Western Hemisphere for training. Last Update: 24 September 1996
