President Donald Trump’s paved makeover of the White House’s Rose Garden appears to be nearly finished.
The garden’s previously grassy lawn was fully covered by pavement as construction crews put the final touches on Trump’s project July 29. The last rows of pavers were put in place as workers taped off their edges.
It’s part of Trump’s bigger plan to add his own flourishes to the Executive Mansion and its grounds. His updates have already added flagpoles to the North and South lawns, and he has plans to build a ballroom on the grounds.
The Republican president said in March he'd pave over the Rose Garden because the grass is always wet and is an inconvenience for women in high heels. The project was expected to be finished in August.
The Rose Garden was created during Democrat John F. Kennedy's administration. Presidents have used the space for everything from big announcements to Thanksgiving turkey pardon ceremonies.
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It’s Trump’s second makeover of the garden just outside the Oval Office. In 2020, first lady Melania Trump announced an update that included a limestone walking path bordering the central lawn. It also improved drainage and added accessibility for people with disabilities.
Photos: The White House Rose Garden through the years
President John Kennedy walks toward the microphones on the White House portico outside his office on July 13, 1961, in Washington to address a group of 1,827 teenagers from 51 countries, exchange students who have been in the United States the past year. The students jammed the Rose Garden. Some were pushed to the ground in a surge to get closer to the president.
President Ronald Reagan is pulled along by his pet dog Lucky, while he and British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher take a stroll Feb. 20, 1985, in the White House Rose Garden.
President Ronald Reagan delivers the commencement speech to the John A. Holmes High School senior class from Edenton, N.C., in May 13, 1986, in the Rose Garden of the White House.
President George H. W. Bush holds a news conference April 11, 1992, in the Rose Garden of the White House.
View of flowers in the Rose Garden of the White House June 12, 1996, with the Oval Office in the background.
President Clinton, flanked by National Turkey Federation (NTF) Chairman Frank Gessell, left, and NTF Secretary Treasurer Jerry Jerome, watch a 45-pound turkey in the Rose Garden of the White House, Nov. 24, 1998, where the president, in a pre-Thanksgiving tradition, pardoned the bird.
President George Bush makes a statement about the transition of the administration of President-elect Barack Obama, Nov. 5, 2008, in the Rose Garden of the White House.
President Barack Obama, right, and Vice President Joe Biden, left, have a beer with Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr., second from left, and Cambridge, Mass., police Sgt. James Crowley on July 30, 2009, in the Rose Garden.
Construction proceeds July 25 in the Rose Garden of the White House.
The White House Rose Garden is seen under construction July 23 in Washington.
