A Look Into D.C.’s Skate Destination, Pulaski Park

Freedom Plaza, otherwise known as Pulaski Park, has provided a home to D.C.’s skate community for years.

Washington, D.C. has cemented itself into skate culture thanks in part to the famous Freedom Plaza. The plaza is also referred to as “Pulaski Park” by the skating community due to the statue of Brigadier General Casimir Pulaski standing at the east end. 

Braiden is skating alone near the west end of plaza, closest to the White House. He had just moved to D.C. and started a job at the International Spy Museum. Though new to the area, Braiden knew about Pulaski Park beforehand.

“I’ve heard about the skate scene at Freedom Plaza from videos,” he says. “It’s a legendary spot. It’s impressive there aren’t any skate stoppers or anything drilled into the marble to keep it from happening.”

Skate media mogul Thrasher magazine once recorded a documentary/montage-style video dedicated to the history of the plaza and the skate icons that would frequent it. Respected skate figures such as Darren Harper and the late Pepe Martinez have helped propel the repertoire of the plaza. On a normal day, Braiden says to expect at least 15 people skating.

Gabe is recording his friend Eric skating for one of their sponsors Slug Skate. Both have been skating for a couple years and claim Freedom Plaza is one of their favorite spots to skate.

“The overall layer and structure of Freedom Plaza is what makes it such a great spot,” Gabe says. “It was perfectly built for skateboarding. There are the ledges, the stair sets, the gaps, etc.” 

The plaza was not intentionally built to be a skate spot. Instead, it was intended to be an engaging add-on to Pennsylvania Avenue, a historical street that connects the U.S. Capitol to the White House. However, the plaza has generally been avoided by people and viewed as a space needed of redesign. 

The Pennsylvania Avenue Initiative was proposed to do exactly that. With a comprehensive redesign of the entire street that connects the Capitol to the White House, Freedom Plaza will be transformed as well. There are three different design concepts meant to emphasize people over cars; each would restructure Freedom Plaza, which has the skate community worried their favorite spot might be in jeopardy. 

This wouldn’t be the first time a popular skate spot was taken away. Freedom Plaza is looking to join the ranks of other dismantled skate locations such as Embarcadero in San Francisco, the El Toro in California, Love Park in Philadelphia and many others. 

In order to combat the initiative, Crushed Skate Shop owner Brian Aguilar started an online petition to preserve the current design of the plaza. So far more than 12,000 people have signed. 

After ollie-ing over a stack of construction cones, Eric reflects on how much Freedom Plaza means to him and the skate community.

“It’s like a proving ground,” he says. “There’s a lot of iconic tricks that have been done here. Every time I’m here I want to try something new. My own name could be stamped here.”

Freedom Plaza: 1455 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, DC; downtowndc.org/go/freedom-plaza // @downtowndcbid

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Max Abbatiello