Franklin Square Park

Great idea to have parks in the city but ot attracts homeless people, especially at night. Makes the area feel dingy, especially if you are walking alone & people come up to you asking for money.

Nice park, had a sandwich here in peace and quiet and just watched the marvelous trees. Not that many homeless people around but the ones that were there seemed nice enough. Cool place to just sit tight and relax for a bit when you are hustling and bustling in the downtown area.

Right outside my office, so it’s easy to grab food and relax for an hour in the Sun on my lunch break. The food trucks rotate, so there is always a different variety for lunch.
There are homeless people, but they’re don’t really bother anybody. They’re just trying to soak up some sun too.
My only recommendation is to not feed the pigeons! You will be chased by birds for the rest of your lunch!

Franklin Square Park is a great place to catch the food truck line-​up at lunch time. There’s plenty of park benches and lawn space to sit.
The Downtown DC BID staff are there cleaning the park pretty often, so you won’t see much litter and trash lying around.
You’ll see all sorts of people at this park; worker bees, homeless people, joggers and people just waiting to catch the next bus. Good place to people-​watch, too.

Lots of food trucks, and plenty of space. Great place to grab a seat, read a book or munch on your lunch. Lovely park.

I wasn’t a huge fan of this park. It’s not the nicest and there are homeless people literally taking up every bench. I don’t even see how someone could possibly go and grab a seat. The wife and I cut through this park one night on the walk back to our hotel and it was pretty sketchy, to say the least.
There are much nicer places in DC to go on a nice, sunny day than here.

On December 4, 2011 In Franklin Square, Washington DC I found a picture propped up on the statue of Commodore John Barry. It’s painted on a 6×8 canvas board.
Mostly a study in blue with a «broken» red heart, and two eyes. Depending on how you squint … it looks a bit like a sheep dog’s face … or has a crow flying.
I’ve post a photo of the picture in the photos section here.

i’ve been living in this city since 2003. WHY have i never been here? my square burger and mini-​golf compadres all asked themselves the same thing. is it because it’s off the beaten path? is it because it’s normally littered with children? whatever the reason, i’ve now pushed this park ahead of rittenhouse square any day… or at least a non-​kid-​overrun weeknight. in a short bike ride we were magically whisked away to a small patch of the city that was out of mary poppins: lovely center fountain, lush grass, carousel, food and gift stands, sculptures, and minigolf! arriving somewhat late, we snatched up our comfort foods and shakes from square burger and pulled up chairs next to the fountain. thinking we could squeeze in a minigolf game at 8:30 we asked the girls if we could stay past closing hours at 9:00 to finish our game if need be. the owner said that we can play for free if we are sure to finish by 9. in a light-​hearted game of putt-​putt, we raced through all 18 holes that featured different philadelphia landmarks. having worked at elfreth’s alley, i took issue with it’s rendering… not historically accurate. ;) clean and carved out with waterways and familiar toy-​sized figures, this minigolf course was fun fun fun! i’ll be back to actually play for real now that i have the ins on the course. ;) a great way to have some good clean fun with friends!

I ate lunch here yesterday with my friend and it was a beautiful day to be eating outside. It took a bit of wandering around before we found a perfectly shaded bench free of napping homeless people.
If I worked downtown, I could totally see myself eating lunch here in the afternoon. Thankfully there were very few pigeons that came near me to «beg» for food, but I was constantly swatting flies away from my bulgogi.

I eat lunch in this park almost every day because it’s like watching a one hour sitcom on your lunch hour. It’s like an adventure every day to try to find a bench without bum scum on it – or a bum themselves.
Today alone, I witnessed an old man doing tai chi (he’s there almost every day.) He has a cane and wears the same clothes every day with this big floppy fishing hat. But, he is out there, EVERY day, finding his chi or whatever the eff you do with tai chi.
Then, there came the crazy bums. Today, one man decided to walk around in a black blazer with no shirt on and a white trucker hat. Oh, right, white tube socks and orthopedic shoes as well. At one point, he apparently was so hot that he decided to take off his blazer and run around preaching (to himself) about God only knows what (probably God… or his imaginary girlfriend Priscilla the Pigeon.)
Also — pigeons. Yes, they are everywhere. Do not throw one peice of food on the ground, or they will become your new best friends forever. I suggest trying to kick one of them to show them who’s boss. They take the hint most of the time.
And last, but certainly not least, the SEGWAY TOURISTAS! There is the segway tour headquarters across from the park. Before our lovely tourists venture out to the White House and the National Mall to *hopefully* accidentally wheel into uncoming traffic, they come to practice – in Franklin Square Park. Imagine: your 70 year old grandmother on a motorized stand-​up scooter with a futuristic helmet on following a crowd of 20 other Segwayers. Imagine… for a moment. You will not want to miss it. If I’m accompanied by someone at lunch and we’re observing them, we usually take bets on who is going to fall first straight into the fountain. Usually, it’s the hawaiian shirt dude or the fanny pack mom.
That is the CliffNotes version of the one hour season première of Franklin Square Park. Next week: the crazy homeless woman who tries to start fights with everyone and the church groups who feed everyone – just ’cause they love Jesus.

There were a lot of homeless people, sunning themselves on the lunch hour, a couple weeks ago in Franklin Square Park. I was watching from a sidewalk café on 13^th street, and It looked so pleasant that I decided to cross the street and join them (not like I actually talked to them – I just followed suit).
Anyway, it is a great park, described by the national register of historic places as «A bustling square in the heart of DC». I know it as a place where I can throw a football over lunch break or just take my shirt off and lay in the sun, putting off the afternoon work shift for another five or ten minutes. The fountain there is shaded by some tall trees, and on a sunny day it seems like an oasis in the middle of the concrete jungle…