The Rose Garden as planted in 1913 according to Mrs. Wilsons modifications of plans by George Burnap.

Ellen Axson Wilson's rose garden was the first open air rose garden at the White House (technically there had been a rose garden under glass on the spot when the great conservatories still stood), reflected the sophisticated gardening taste of a woman familiar with the modern Beaux-Arts ideas that gardens served architecture. The long, privet-bordered walkway in the foreground she called the "President's Walk", which she created to give the president a handsome approach from the White House to the West Wing.