Glover’s business and social connections with Washington power brokers helped him exert a strong influence on beautification projects around the capital. He was an instrumental force behind many of the City Beautiful works that transformed Washington at the turn of the century. The Potomac Park, National Arboretum, and Glover-Archibald Park all owe their existence to his commitment to enhancing District’s natural beauty. Monumental buildings like National Cathedral and the Lincoln Memorial are also covered in Glover’s fingerprints.

The establishment of Rock Creek Park was Glover’s proudest achievement. Before it was a park, the valley around Rock Creek was dotted with mills, lime works, and other industrial concerns.

According to the Washington Post, the inspiration for Rock Creek Park came during a pleasure drive in 1888 with the historian George Bancroft, Senator Randall Lee Gibson, and Librarian of Congress A.R. Spofford. “It occurred to Mr. Glover that the rough and exceedingly picturesque valley of Rock Creek would make an ideal park.” “Soon thereafter the necessary bills were prepared and introduced into the two houses of Congress.”

Discouragingly, the budget-minded House of Representatives killed the bill, and a similar proposal the following year.

Glover pushed forward full tilt, temporarily abandoning his banking job and devoting “his entire time to driving members of congress over the area he proposed that the government acquire.” His lobbying succeeded and in 1890 “When the measure again came to a vote in the House it was passed by more than a quorum of the entire house.” Glover met personally with President Cleveland and got him to sign the bill into law on his last day in office.

Glover’s pride in the Rock Creek Park project led to a violent conflict in 1913 when Tennessee Congressman Thetus Sims suggested on the House floor that there were selfish and corrupt motives behind his pro-park advocacy.

Roll Call sets the scene:

“The Tennessee Democrat had given what must have seemed to be a fairly insignificant speech on the House floor in the spring of 1913. He was, like many other Congressmen, speaking out against the establishment of national parks in the District of Columbia. Sims’ mistake, however, was accusing local crusader Charles Carroll Glover of charging exorbitant prices for the land.”