May 15, 2026
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Kobe Bryant is one of 23 people with connections to the Philadelphia area who are included in President Donald Trump's proposed sculpture garden.
President Donald Trump said Friday that his proposed "National Garden of American Heroes," which will feature sculptures of nearly two dozen prominent Philadelphians, will be built in West Potomac Park in Washington, D.C.
He announced the location in a Truth Social post, although it's unclear whether the exhibit will require congressional approval for it to be built.
Trump first proposed the sculpture garden in 2020, when statues of controversial historical figures were being taken down amid racial justice protests. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act that passed in July 2025 allotted $40 million to the project.
"When finished, West Potomac Park will be a World Class Masterpiece with elegant Landscaping, and adorned with Beautiful Statues, and be yet another one of my great projects to make Washington, D.C., the Safest and Most Beautiful Capital in the World," Trump wrote.
The 2021 executive order includes a list of 244 deceased Americans and says the garden is meant to "reflect the awesome splendor of our country’s timeless exceptionalism." It features 23 people with connections to the Philadelphia region, including founding fathers, writers, musicians and athletes.
The Philadelphia-area selectees are:
• John Adams
• Muhammad Ali
• Kobe Bryant
• Whittaker Chambers
• Mark Twain
• James Fenimore Cooper
• Katharine Drexel
• Benjamin Franklin
• Billie Holiday
• Dolley Madison
• James Madison
• Lucretia Mott
• John Neumann
• Charles Willson Peale
• William Penn
• Edgar Allen Poe
• Betsy Ross
• Antonin Scalia
• Norman Schwarzkopf
• Bessie Smith
• Thomas Ustick Walter
• George Washington
• Walt Whitman
A task force selected the 244 people with assistance from state and local officials. Vince Haley, Trump's chief of domestic policy agendas, will add another six names.
However, the original list was created before Trump's effort to scrub diversity, equity and inclusion practices and remove certain people and facts from federal spaces such as national parks. In Philadelphia, officials removed panels from the President's House about the nine people enslaved by George Washington during his presidency. The exhibits have since been returned, but a court case is ongoing.
West Potomac Park is located between the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial and includes the famous cherry blossom site along the Tidal Basin. However, portions of the selected site are part of a reserve area, which falls under the purview of the Commemorative Works Act, the Washington Post reported. Per that legislation, any new project would need approval from Congress. It also says that works memorializing people can't be authorized until 25 years following their death, but the list includes several Americans who died less than 25 years ago.
The park was originally intended to open on July 4, 2026, for the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. However, the new timeline is before January 2029, which is the end of Trump's presidency, the Washington Post reported in July.
