Monroe Park Monroe Park Monroe Park is a landscaped park located northwest of the Virginia State Capitol Building in Richmond, Virginia. It is named after James Monroe, the fifth President of the United States (1817–1825). The park unofficially demarcates the eastern "point" of the Fan District and is considered to be Richmond's oldest park. Monroe Park is pentagonal in shape, with an arrangement of paved paths among lawns and mature deciduous trees, intersecting at a cast iron fountain in the center of the area. This Victorian park is currently in the planning process of a historically sensitive, extensive renovation. The "Monroe Park
Bonus Bill of 1817 that while the Constitution did not empower Congress to establish any system of internal improvements, he stated, "To the appropriation of the public money to improvements... I do not see any well-founded constitutional objection..." With that statement, Monroe now held that congress had the power to appropriate the public moneys at its discretion; and that though it was in duty bound to select objects of general importance, it was not the province of the president to sit in judgment upon its selections. Additional internal improvements legislation would soon follow. Bonus Bill of 1817 The Bonus Bill of 1817 was legislation