The Reinventions of the White House Lawn: Playground, Pasture, Stage

Every so often, the White House transforms its South Lawn into something unexpected. While best known as the backdrop to American political power, the grounds have doubled as high-stakes playing fields and performance spaces for over a century.

From “scandalous” pop concerts to full-scale youth baseball diamonds, the South Lawn has frequently been dug up, relined and reinvented in the name of recreation.

In 1801, President Thomas Jefferson opened the White House lawn for the first major holiday celebration at the executive mansion. He invited the U.S. Marine Band to perform, a group Jefferson affectionately dubbed “The President’s Own.”

The party was revolutionary for its era. Jefferson’s presidential predecessors George Washington and John Adams were strict Federalists and believed in formal protocol. Jefferson, a Democratic-Republican, viewed traditions such as bowing to the president and refusing handshakes as dangerously close to the practices used by British monarchy. Opening the White House to guests was meant to demystify the office.

While there was some grumbling among the elites, seeing guests drinking punch and eating cake, historian Lina Mann of the White House Historical Association says that the event was largely reviewed favorably.

Similarly, beginning in 1878, Easter Monday drew crowds to the White House grounds. The tradition grew out of a popular pastime among local children, who rolled hard-boiled eggs down the grassy terraces of the U.S. Capitol. After Congress passed a bill to prevent the wild youth from destroying the landscape, President Rutherford B. Hayes stepped in and invited children under the age of 12 to the South Lawn for a day of backyard games.

The White House Easter Egg Roll grew over the years. In 1889, President Benjamin Harrison decided the event needed a proper soundtrack and invited John Philip Sousa to fill the silence. And in 1969, first lady Pat Nixon introduced the tradition of a staffer in an oversized Easter Bunny suit.

However, there was one visitor to the event that particularly stood out, Mann says. “In my opinion, the most notable Easter Egg Roll event would be the 1927 Easter Egg Roll,” she says. “At this event, first lady Grace Coolidge enlisted a co-host, her pet raccoon, Rebecca.’”

Theodore Roosevelt was perhaps the first president to make organized recreation a defining feature of White House life. Roosevelt installed a tennis court on the grounds in 1902 and regularly invited cabinet members, military officers and friends to play. Other presidents reinvented the grounds in more unconventional ways.

In an act of World War I frugality, President Woodrow Wilson brought in an unusual automated mowing system: a flock of Shropshire sheep to care for the White House grass. As many as 48 sheep routinely grazed the North and South lawns. The ad hoc pasture became a local attraction, and the sheep themselves became celebrities. During shearing season, the White House auctioned off 2 pounds of White House-sanctioned wool to all 48 states, raising nearly $52,823 for the American Red Cross war relief efforts in the process.

President Herbert Hoover inadvertently turned his daily exercise routine into a public spectacle. Concerned about the president’s health, Hoover’s physician combined elements of tennis, volleyball and medicine-ball training to create a new sport that a 1931 newspaper dubbed “Hoover-Ball.”

Every morning at 7 a.m., a group of Supreme Court justices, cabinet members and the president would gather on a designated South Lawn court. There, they’d stand on either side of an 8-foot net and toss a heavy medicine ball back and forth. While access to the public was limited, the event captured public attention. Hoover’s morning routine was a publicized symbol of presidential fitness that people found fascinating. “President Hoover played just about every day, so it was well-known,” Mann says.

Although music has long been a part of White House celebrations, presidents have occasionally transformed the South Lawn into an outdoor performing arts venue. In June 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson hosted the White House Festival of the Arts, which brought musicians, artists and dancers like The Joffrey Ballet to the South Lawn. The grounds also served as the setting for a performance by ballerina Maria Tallchief and Jacques d’Amboise later that year. Performances grew larger and more eclectic in the decades that followed.

President Jimmy Carter upped the stakes in September of 1980, when he invited Willie Nelson for a massive outdoor concert on the lawn. The evening culminated in a surprise duet with first lady Rosalynn Carter, in which the two sang “Up Against the Wall, Redneck Mother.” Later that year, the Carters transformed the South Lawn by installing a temporary ice rink so Olympic figure skater Peggy Fleming could perform for the president and guests.

But Washington hasn’t always been a friend to music fans. Just three years later in June 1983, the South Lawn became the site of defiance during The Beach Boys’ South Lawn Beach Party. The event was held in response to Interior Secretary James Watt, who attempted to ban rock bands from the National Mall on Independence Day, citing the “undesirable element” that came with them. (Wayne Newton was suggested as a replacement.) President Ronald Reagan countered by inviting The Beach Boys to perform in his backyard as part of a Special Olympics benefit.

The Clinton administration expanded the South Lawn’s legacy as an entertainment spot in 1995. On May 17, President Bill Clinton turned the grounds into a broadcast-ready stage for the televised WETA “Women of Country” music show. 

After the millennium, presidents continued to use the South Lawn as a field for recreational sports. Beginning in 2001, President George W. Bush hosted annual T-ball games, presiding over 20 contests during his presidency.

In an echo of the tradition created by Jefferson, President Barack Obama invited military families on July 4, 2009, for an Independence Day celebration featuring a six-song set from the Foo Fighters. Again in 2016, he opened the gates for the South by South Lawn (SXSL) festival. In partnership with South by Southwest (SXSW), the event converted the entire executive space into a collaborative arts festival, cementing the White House lawn as the nation’s ultimate public forum.

To mark America’s 250th anniversary of American independence, the White House is set to host a UFC mixed martial arts event for an audience that includes 1,200 active-duty military members on June 14, 2026.