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Title: A manual on the origin and development of Washington

Author: H. Paul Caemmerer

Release date: January 18, 2023 [eBook #69827]
Most recently updated: October 19, 2024

Language: English

Original publication: United States: U.S. Government Printing Office,
1939

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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A MANUAL ON
THE ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF WASHINGTON ***

Please see the Transcriber’s Notes at the
end of this text.

Courtesy of Fairchild Aerial Surveys (Inc.).
THE HEART OF THE NATION’S CAPITAL

75th CONGRESS, 3d SESSION · SENATE DOCUMENT NO. 178

A MANUAL ON THE
ORIGIN AND
DEVELOPMENT OF
WASHINGTON

By H. PAUL CAEMMERER, Ph. D.

“The City of Washington—the central star of the constellation
which enlightens the whole world.”

General Lafayette, as Guest of the Nation, October 12, 1824.

UNITED STATES

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE
WASHINGTON: 1939

SENATE RESOLUTION NO. 280
Submitted by Mr. Hayden

In the Senate of the United States,
April 20 (calendar day, May 18), 1938.
Resolved, That the manuscript entitled “A Manual of the
Plan of Washington,” prepared by H. P. Caemmerer, be
printed in such style and manner as may be directed by the
Joint Committee on Printing, as a Senate Document.
Attest:
Edwin A. Halsey,
Secretary.

PREFACE
This Manual on the Origin and Development of Washington is published
for the use of students, particularly in high schools, desiring to make a study
of the National Capital a part of their course in civics.
The 25 chapters composing the book are of such interest and importance
that an hour a week may profitably be devoted to each, but the chapters on
public buildings and monuments require each two or three periods for
effective presentation. In this manner the Manual may serve as a textbook
for a year’s work; it will also be found helpful by the general reader
interested in Washington.
The Manual deals historically with the founding and development of the
National Capital. Beginning with the twentieth century we find a new
impetus given to the development of the city by the McMillan Park
Commission of 1901. Its work has been carried forward by the Commission
of Fine Arts and the National Capital Park and Planning Commission, in
cooperation with the Government of the District of Columbia, including the
Zoning Commission; also, of course, in cooperation with the President of
the United States, officials of the Government, and the Congress of the
United States, which by virtue of the Federal Constitution exercises
“exclusive legislation in all cases whatsoever” over the District of
Columbia.
It should be kept in mind that in the study of the National Capital we are
studying the seat of government of the greatest nation in the world, a city
that was laid on a broad, firm foundation, and although neglected for
decades during the last century, the twentieth century has seen Washington
transformed into a city in keeping with the dignity, power, and wealth of
this great Nation.
The Plan of Washington is at the basis of city planning in the United
States. The organization of the National Conference on City Planning in
1907 was inspired by the work of the McMillan Park Commission of 1901.
Many of the leading artists of the country—architects, sculptors, painters,
and landscape architects—have served in the work of beautifying the city.

Washington is a city that is ever growing and it is destined to be the most
beautiful city in the world.
The writer wishes to express his grateful appreciation to Senator Carl
Hayden for having introduced the legislation to print this volume.
H. Paul Caemmerer.

THIS PUBLICATION MAY BE PURCHASED FROM THE

SUPERINTENDENT OF DOCUMENTS, U. S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE
WASHINGTON, D. C. AT $2.00 A COPY (BUCKRAM)

CONTENTS

Chapter Page
I The Federal City: Story of the Movement Which
Established the Seat of Government Near the Potomac 1
II Establishment of the Temporary and Permanent Seats of
Government 7
III Development of the National Capital—The Plan of the
City 13
Site of the Federal City 13
Terms of Original Agreement 15
Boundary Stones of the District of Columbia 19
Preliminary Studies 20
IV Maj. Pierre Charles L’Enfant 23
V The L’Enfant Plan 25
The Ellicott Plan—The L’Enfant Plan Enlarged 29
VI Early Washington 35
VII Washington 1810-1815 41
VIII Washington 1816-1839 45
IX Washington 1840-1859 49
X Washington 1860-1870 53
XI Improvements Made During President Grant’s
Administration 61
XII The Influence of the Centennial Celebration and of the
World’s Columbian Exposition on Art in the United
States 65
XIII Highway Plan of the District of Columbia 69
XIV The McMillan Park Commission—The Plan of 1901 73
XV National Commission of Fine Arts 95
XVI Zoning of the Capital 101

XVII The National Capital Park and Planning Commission 105
XVIII The Lincoln Memorial and the Arlington Memorial
Bridge 131
XIX The Parks of the District of Columbia 143
XX Architecture of Early Days 165
XXI Public and Semipublic Buildings 219
XXII The Public-Buildings Program 293
XXIII The Government of the District of Columbia 305
XXIV Arlington National Cemetery 309
XXV Statues and Monuments 319
Appendix 347
List of Statues and Monuments in Washington 347
Bibliographical List of Books on Washington the
National Capital 353
List of Presidents of the United States 355
Quotations from Great Americans on Washington the
National Capital 357
Index 359

ILLUSTRATIONS

Page
The heart of the Nation’s Capital Frontispiece
Adams Memorial, the 324
Anacostia Park, plan of 160
Aqueduct Bridge, old 180
Arboretum, National, map of 162
Arlington Cemetery, Arlington Mansion, and Fort Myer 308
Arlington Mansion, reception hall 310
Arlington Memorial Bridge 138
Arlington Memorial Bridge, architect’s design 136
Arlington Memorial Bridge development 141
Arlington Memorial Bridge, eagle and fasces 139
Arlington Memorial Bridge, eagle and bison head 137
Arlington National Cemetery—Memorial Amphitheater 312
Arlington National Cemetery—Maine Monument and the
Memorial Amphitheater 316
Arlington, plan for development of greater 142
Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Station, old 73
Boundary stone near Sixteenth Street NW. 19
Boundary stones of the District of Columbia 17
Boundary stones, three of the 18
British Embassy 290
Building regulations issued by President Washington 21
Burke, statue of Edmund 344
Burnham, Daniel H., on city planning 81
Cabin John Bridge 214
Capitol, the 220
Capitol, the, 1840 49

Capitol, the, 1870 60
Capitol at night 222
Capitol, basement plan of, 1800 171
Capitol, bronze doors to the 225
Capitol, bronze doors to the House of Representatives
wing 229
Capitol, bronze doors to the Senate wing 227
Capitol, design by Thornton, 1800 165
Capitol, from Pennsylvania Avenue, 1830 166
Capitol, from the west, showing the Tripoli column 167
Capitol Grounds and Union Station Plaza, 1917 96
Capitol Grounds, treatment of the 297
Capitol Prison, old 53
Capitol, showing uncompleted dome, 1860 54
Capitol, treatment for area west of the, plan of 1901 85
Capitol upon its restoration, 1827 164
Capitol, view from dome of, looking east 106
Capitol, view of dome of the, looking south 107
Central composition of the National Capital 100
Chesapeake & Ohio Canal, Georgetown, lock of the old 178
Chesapeake & Ohio Canal, gatehouse 48
Christ Church, Washington 189
Christ Church, Alexandria, Va 120
Christ Church burial ground, later known as
Congressional Cemetery 44
Columbia Island Plaza and Memorial Avenue 140
Constitution Hall 278
Dante, statue of 337
Decatur House 176
Declaration of Independence and the Constitution 251
Dermott map, the 32
District of Columbia Supreme Court Building 194
Dolly Madison House 175
Dupont Memorial Fountain 335

East Capitol Street 111
Ellicott plan, the 30
Ellicott map, the 39
Executive Building, 1820-66 267
Fish market along the water front 115
Folger Shakespeare Library 253
Folger Shakespeare Library, exhibition hall 254
Ford’s Theater 216
Fort Drive 110
Francis Scott Key Bridge 181
Francis Scott Key House 183
Freedom, statue of 223
Gatehouse by Bulfinch, formerly near the Capitol 72
Gatepost designed by Bulfinch, near the Capitol 63
George Washington Memorial Parkway 114
Georgetown, house of the early days in 184
Government Printing Office, the United States 258
Grand Army of the Republic Memorial 330
Grand review of Union Army, May 1865 58
Grant, Gen. U. S., memorial 338, 342
Grant, Gen. U. S., memorial, Artillery group 341
Grant, Gen. U. S., memorial, Cavalry group 340
Great Falls of the Potomac 116
Hamilton, statue of Alexander 345
Haymarket Square, old 59
Horse cars, view showing 61
House of Representatives Chamber 231
House of Representatives about 1820, painting by Samuel
F. B. Morse 46
House of Representatives Chamber, 1830 169
House of Representatives Office Building, New 233
House of Representatives Office Building, Old 233
Italian Embassy 291
Jackson, statue of Gen. Andrew 323

Jeanne d’Arc, statue of 334
Joaquin Miller Cabin in Rock Creek Park 159
King map, the 33
Lafayette Park, showing statue of Gen. Andrew Jackson 152
Lafayette, statue of General 327
L’Enfant, Maj. Pierre Charles 23
L’Enfant plan, the 26
L’Enfant plan, sketch of the 22
L’Enfant, tomb of 317
Library of Congress 244
Library of Congress addition 248
Library of Congress, grand staircase 246
Library of Congress, reading room 249
Lincoln died, house in which President 217
Lincoln, second inaugural of President, 1865 56
Lincoln Memorial, the 130, 154
Lincoln Memorial and approaches, the 130
Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Basin 134
Lincoln Memorial, site of the, 1901 92
Lincoln Memorial, statue of Abraham Lincoln 132
Lincoln Memorial, Memorial Bridge, and Riverside Drive,
plan of 1901 93
Longfellow, statue of Henry Wadsworth 328
Mall about 1890, view of the 64
Mall, the, 1930 97
Mall, view from the Washington Monument, looking east 295
Mall, view from the Capitol dome, looking west 294
Mall, the, inundated 79
Mall and Monument Gardens, plan of 1901 88
Mall, plan of the 90
Mall, the, showing railroad tracks crossing it 78
Meridian Hill Park, lower garden 156
Meridian Hill Park, upper garden 156
Mount Vernon 125

Mount Vernon from the air 124
Mount Vernon Memorial Highway 118
Mount Vernon Memorial Highway, bridge over Hunting
Creek 121
Mount Vernon Memorial Highway, north of Little Hunting
Creek 117
Mount Vernon Memorial Highway, bridge over Boundary
Channel 119
Mount Vernon Memorial Highway, underpass at highway
bridge 121
National Archives Building 282
National Archives Building, mural paintings in 283
National Gallery of Art 281
National Geographic Society 278
National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception 287
New Hampshire Avenue 144
Octagon House 174
Old Tobacco Barn (old Christ Church) 188
Park areas acquired to July 1, 1938 149
Patent Office Building, Old 198
Pennsylvania Avenue, plan of 1910, plan for developing
south side 293
Pennsylvania Avenue, between the Treasury and the
Capitol 298
Pennsylvania Railroad Station, old 77
Pulaski, statue of Gen. Casimir 332
Rock Creek Church 186
Rock Creek Park, map of 158
Senate Chamber 230
Senate Chamber, 1830 168
Senate Office Building 232
Six Buildings, the 36
Smithsonian Institution 255
Soldiers’ Home, United States 212
St. John’s Church 191

St. John’s Church, early view of 192
State Building, Department of, 1801 265
State Building, Department of, when remodeled 264
Thornton, Dr. William 197
Treasury Building, Department of the 270
Treasury Building, Department of the, 1855 52
Treasury Building, site and material for, 1839 47
Triangle group of public buildings along Constitution
Avenue 280
Tripoli Column, at Annapolis, Md 320
Tudor Place, showing gardens on the east side 187
Tudor Place, Thirty-first and Q Streets 185
Unknown Soldier of the World War, the Tomb of the 314
Union Square, plan of 1901 86
Union Station 234
Union Station, concourse 236
Union Station, waiting room 238
Union Station and Plaza, looking north from the dome of
the Capitol 300
United States Supreme Court Building 302
United States Supreme Court Chamber 303
Van Ness Mansion 177
Wakefield, at Popes Creek, Westmoreland County, Va 127
Wakefield, Washington family burying ground 129
Washington and Wakefield, map showing 128
Washington, 1852 50
Washington, 1890 62
Washington and environs, regional plan of 104
Washington Cathedral 285
Washington Cathedral, interior 286
Washington City Post Office 242
Washington, early, showing the Jefferson poplars 38
Washington, view of early 34
Washington from Arlington Heights, 1865 55

Washington from Arlington, plan of 1901 76
Washington from the President’s House, 1830 44
Washington, the future 94
Washington in 1792 12
Washington in embryo 14
Washington, looking north from the White House 70
Washington, looking south from Sixteenth Street and
Columbia Road 71
Washington, model of the future, plan of 1901 75
Washington, model of, showing conditions in 1901 74
Washington, George, Houdon bust of 122
Washington, George, statue of 322
Washington, George, statue of Gen. 318
Washington, tomb of 126
Washington Monument, the 208
Washington Monument, as seen from the Mall grounds 206
Washington Monument, plan of the, by Robert Mills 200
Washington Monument, uncompleted, as it appeared from
1852-78 204
Washington Monument, under construction, 1872 202
Washington Monument, view northwest from the 274
Water front, plan for improvement of the 112
White House, early view of the 170
White House, north side 262
White House, view showing terrace on south side, 1827 172
Witherspoon, statue of John 329
World’s Columbian Exposition, Court of Honor, looking
east 66
World’s Columbian Exposition, Court of Honor, looking
west 67
Zero milestone 336

Chapter I
THE FEDERAL CITY
STORY OF THE MOVEMENT WHICH ESTABLISHED THE SEAT OF
GOVERNMENT NEAR THE POTOMAC

The problem of establishing a permanent seat of government for the
United States was most perplexing. The Continental Congress was obliged
for its own protection to travel from place to place to conduct its sessions.
By the treaty of Paris, in 1783, the independence of the Colonies had been
recognized, but they were then united simply as a confederation, and there
was lacking Federal authority through which the needs of the Government
could be asserted and provided for. This was felt keenly in the matter of
obtaining the necessary revenue to maintain the Government, for the
Continental Congress did not have the power of taxation and had to depend
upon the good will of the Colonies.
The demands upon the Continental Congress were many. The War of
Independence had impoverished the Colonies. There were the debts of war
incurred by the Continental Congress and also the debts of the Colonies
themselves—in all, $20,000,000, a huge sum in those days, and a factor
which, as we shall see, figured in the location of the Federal City south of
the Mason and Dixon line. Then, too, there was an army of soldiers being
discharged, with no funds at hand to pay them for their services.
Prior to the establishment of the Federal City on the banks of the
Potomac, the Continental Congress met in eight different cities and towns,
viz:
Philadelphia, September 5, 1774, to December 12, 1776.
Baltimore, December 20, 1776, to February 27, 1777.
Philadelphia, March 4 to September 18, 1777.
Lancaster, Pa., September 27, 1777.
York, Pa., September 30, 1777, to June 27, 1778.

Philadelphia, July 2, 1778, to June 21, 1783.
Princeton, N. J., June 26, 1783, to November 4, 1783.
Annapolis, Md., November 26, 1783, to June 3, 1784.
Trenton, N. J., November, 1784, to December 24, 1784.
New York City, January 11, 1785, to March 4, 1789.
From March 2, 1781, the Continental Congress was also called by some
the Congress of the Confederation. The first Congress under the
Constitution met on March 4, 1789, and adjourned September 29, 1789. On
December 6, 1790, the third session of the First Congress began in
Philadelphia, which was the temporary seat of government until November,
1800.
The Continental Congress was seriously inconvenienced by this moving
from place to place. They could not take with them their records and files,
were required to seek protection, and there was lack of adequate
accommodations in some of the towns where they met. In Princeton the
sessions were held in the college building, Nassau Hall, where the average
attendance was only 22 Members.
The suggestion had been made in November, 1779, by some Members
that the Congress purchase a few square miles near Princeton village,
whereon to erect public offices and buildings for a permanent home for
Congress.
The two leading factors that entered into the question of establishment of
a seat of government of the United States were jurisdiction and
geographical location. It was deemed very important to give to the National
Capital a central location along the Atlantic coast. Debates on this question
continued until 1790.
On January 29, 1783, the trustees of the corporation of Kingston, N. Y.,
took the first recorded action by sending a memorial to the New York State
Legislature that “their estate be erected into a separate district for the
Honorable Congress of the United States.” It was proposed to grant to
Congress 1 square mile within the limits of the town of Kingston, and the
New York Legislature consented to this by the adoption of a resolution on
March 14, 1783. Upon the suggestion of Alexander Hamilton and William
Floyd this area was, in September, increased to 2 square miles.
On May 12, 1783, the corporation of Annapolis adopted a resolution
calling upon the Maryland Legislature to allow the establishment of the seat
of government at Annapolis, because of its central location along the

Atlantic coast. The Continental Congress took note of this on June 4, 1783.
New Jersey, on June 19, 1783, offered a site anywhere in the State. On June
28, 1783, the Legislature of Virginia offered to Congress the town of
Williamsburg and agreed to present the capitol, the palace, and all the
public buildings, together with 300 acres of land adjoining the city, and a
sum of money not to exceed £100,000. This money was to be expended in
erecting 13 hotels for the Delegates to Congress. Also the town would cede
a district contiguous to it not exceeding 5 miles square. The legislature also
offered to cede a like district on the banks of the Potomac and to assure a
sum not exceeding £100,000 for the erection of hotels, and would also
purchase 100 acres of land for the erection of public buildings. Virginia
offered to cede land along the banks of the Potomac if Maryland would
unite and offer a similar tract on the opposite bank of the river; but should
Congress build on the Maryland side only the sum of £40,000 would be
appropriated and the State would be expected to supply the deficiency.
The offers of New York and Maryland, as recorded in the proceedings of
Congress of June 4, 1783, having emphasized the importance of the subject
to establish a permanent seat of government, we are told in the annals of
Madison that a day in October was named when the subject would be
considered. However, during that very month a mutiny of dissatisfied
soldiers took place. A band of soldiers started from Lancaster, Pa., on June
17, 1783, for Philadelphia, to demand from the Continental Congress the
money then due. Congress appointed a committee to appeal to the executive
council of the State of Pennsylvania, in session in the same building, for
protection against the threatened attack by the soldiers, but the council
refused, saying that the militia would doubtless not be willing to take up
arms “before their resentment should be provoked by some actual
outrages.” The soldiers, about 300 in number, proceeded to the state-house
—Independence Hall—where Congress and the executive council were in
session, surrounded that building, but attempted no violence. Occasionally
some soldier would use offensive language and point his musket at the
windows of the Halls of Congress, but at night the soldiers departed.
Congress thereupon adjourned hastily to meet in Princeton eight days later.
General Washington ordered a court-martial, in which two of the mutineers
were sentenced to death and four to receive corporal punishment; but the
convicted men were all pardoned by Congress. General Washington
regarded the mutineers as “recruits and soldiers of a day who have not

borne the heat and burden of war, and who can have in reality very few
hardships to complain of.” The legislators were invited to return to
Philadelphia, but the offer was refused, for the reason that the armed
soldiers had grossly insulted Congress and it seemed useless to apply to the
executive council for protection. This led to the appointment of a
committee, of which James Madison was chairman, on the subject of a
permanent seat of government. They submitted a report on September 18,
1783.
The committee reported on two questions: First, the extent of the district
necessary; second, the power to be exercised by Congress in that district. As
to the first question, it was reported that a district should not be less than 3
miles or more than 6 miles square; and second, that Congress ought to have
exclusive jurisdiction. The report was referred to a committee as a whole,
but there is no record that further action was taken.
When the question of a permanent seat of government was again taken
up by the Continental Congress, it was the question of location that
predominated; the question of exclusive jurisdiction had generally been
conceded. The discussion was finally limited to two sites: First, a location
on the banks of the Potomac at least as far south as Georgetown, which was
favored particularly by the southern Members of Congress as being the
geographical center of the United States; second, a site on the Delaware
River near the falls above Trenton, which Pennsylvania, Delaware, and the
other States near by favored.
On October 7, 1783, Congress decided that a permanent seat of
government should be established on the Delaware River site, and a
committee was appointed to visit the location. Ten days later, on October
17, 1783, Congress decided that there should be a National Capital at the
lower falls of the Potomac, at Georgetown. This is the first mention of the
present location of the National Capital. Pending the completion of
necessary buildings, it was decided that the Continental Congress would
meet at Trenton and Annapolis. But the idea of having two capitals was
ridiculed by such men as Francis Hopkinson, who suggested that there be
one Federal town to be placed on a platform supported by wheels and two
places of residence. As to a statue of George Washington that had been
authorized by Congress at the same session, he suggested it be placed on
wheels and be taken to wherever Congress met. The idea of having two

capitals was abandoned by legislation adopted at Trenton on December 23,
1784.
Two years elapsed before Congress took up the subject again. In the
meantime a movement began, under the leadership of George Washington,
to promote trade relations between Virginia and Maryland, and to establish
trade with the western frontier by the construction of a canal along the
banks of the Potomac. Washington became president of the Potomac
Company at the time of its organization in 1785, and was its guiding spirit
for a period of four years, until 1789, when he resigned from that office to
take up his duties as first President of the United States.
A trade convention, held at Annapolis, led to the call for the
Constitutional Convention, February 21, 1787, to meet in Philadelphia in
May of that year.
On May 29,1787, the draft of the Constitution submitted by Charles
Pinckney, of South Carolina, first mentions the section relating to the
Federal district in the form in which it became a part of the Constitution of
the United States (Art. I, sec. 8, par. 17), under the powers of Congress—
To exercise exclusive legislation in all cases whatsoever over such district (not exceeding 10 miles
square) as may, by cession of particular States, and the acceptance of Congress, become the seat of
the Government of the United States, and to exercise like authority over all places purchased by the
consent of the legislature of the State in which the same shall be, for the erection of forts, magazines,
arsenals, dockyards, and other needful buildings.

There was objection on the part of some lest such a provision in the
Federal Constitution would create a government that would become
despotic and tyrannical and result in unjust discrimination in matters of
trade and commerce between the merchants within and outside of the
district. But on the other hand the advocates for a Federal City over which
Congress would have exclusive jurisdiction called attention to the great
importance for the Government to have a permanent residence for the
Congress and the executive departments, with their files and records
properly housed, and cited the mutiny in Philadelphia as an illustration as to
what might happen to the Government again in the absence of such Federal
authority. On September 17, 1787, the Constitution of the United States was
adopted and soon after was ratified by a majority of the States.
When the time came for the inauguration of President Washington, on
April 30, 1789, in New York City, the Continental Congress was completing
its sessions, having resided in that city from 1785, a period of four years. Of

a population of 25,000 in 1776, the city in 1789 had a population of only
half that number, due to the continuous occupation by the British Army for
a period of seven years. During the evacuation the city was partly ruined.
But a new era began; trade increased, and the city began to grow rapidly.
The Continental Congress was meeting in the old city hall, which had been
used by the British as a prison and was in a dilapidated condition. As
Washington was to be inaugurated in New York, the people thought that city
would become the seat of government, so the city hall was torn down and a
new building erected on the site where the subtreasury building on Wall
Street now stands.
It was recognized that the presence of that national body was a valuable
asset to the city. Pierre Charles L’Enfant, who late in 1791 made the plan
for the Federal City, was selected to design and construct the building.
When the Members of Congress assembled for the First Congress under the
Federal Constitution, they met in a building constructed with classical
arches and columns, painted ceilings and marble pavements, and furnished
in a magnificent manner with crimson damask canopies and hangings. The
exterior was marked by a portico with arcaded front and highly decorated
pediments. But the building had been erected too rapidly to endure
permanently; poor work had been done, and in a few years it was
demolished.
The building was called Federal Hall. Here on April 30, 1789, a date
never to be forgotten in the annals of American history, George Washington
was inaugurated first President of the United States of America. The spot
where General Washington stood is now marked, as nearly as possible, by
the J. Q. A. Ward statue of the first President, which stands in front of the
subtreasury building on Wall Street. Just inside the door, preserved under
glass, is a brownstone slab on which is inscribed:
STANDING ON THIS STONE, IN THE BALCONY OF FEDERAL HALL,
APRIL 30, 1789, GEORGE WASHINGTON TOOK THE OATH AS THE
FIRST PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

During the sessions of this Congress long and careful consideration was
given to the question of a permanent seat of government. It had its place
with great problems before Congress at the time—as the revenue bill, which
would provide money for the newly established Republic, creating
executive departments, plans for the funding of the public debt and the

assumption of State debts, disposal of public lands, and establishing a
judicial system. At the opening of the last month of the session the question
of a residence for the United States Government was brought up. Protest
was made against consideration of the subject in view of the other
important questions pending before Congress that seemed to some to be
more urgent, also because, they said, Congress was properly housed, and
that other towns like Trenton, Germantown, Carlisle, Lancaster, York, and
Reading would be glad to have Congress locate with them.
However, the southern Members, led by Richard Bland Lee and James
Madison, Representatives from Virginia, argued for present consideration of
the subject. They favored the Potomac River site at least as far south as
Georgetown, which they asserted would be geographically the center of the
United States. They claimed for their section of the country in this matter
the consideration of justice and equality. They argued that there was no
question more important—one in which the people of the country were so
deeply interested and one on the settlement of which the peace and the
permanent existence of the country so much depended. The question of
location finally resolved itself into the consideration of two localities: First,
a site near the falls of the Susquehanna, at Wrights Ferry, Pa., 35 miles from
tidewater; and second, a site at Georgetown, Md., near the lower falls of the
Potomac.
Great stress was laid on the importance of a site that would place the seat
of government on a navigable stream far enough from the sea to be safe
from hostile attacks. But it was also deemed very important to select a place
that would offer means of communication with the western country, which
was a subject, as we have seen, in which George Washington was interested
for years previously. This argument was effective, as it offered advantages
for carrying on trade with the vast western country for which the Potomac
Company had been established.
The subject received the consideration of both the House and Senate in
September, 1789, but its final consideration was deferred until the following
year, in June, 1790. The southern Members, especially the Representatives
of Maryland and Virginia, were particularly active, believing a decision on
the Potomac River site was in their favor. In December, 1789, Virginia had
made a grant of $120,000, and a sum equal to two-thirds of that amount had
been voted by the Legislature of the State of Maryland for the construction
of buildings, in addition to their willingness to cede the portion of the 10-

mile square in their respective States along the Potomac River desired for
the Federal district.
The final disposition of this question was settled by compromise.
At the time Hamilton had the funding bill before Congress, and lacked
one vote in the Senate and five in the House to secure its passage, he came
to an agreement with Robert Morris, financier of the Revolution, on the
question of location of the seat of government. Also, Thomas Jefferson tells
us, in his “Anas,” of a dinner given by him at which the residence question
was discussed and an agreement reached whereby the southern Members
agreed to the funding bill in consideration of the designation of Philadelphia
as the seat of government for a 10-year period and thereafter along the
Potomac.

Chapter II
ESTABLISHMENT OF THE TEMPORARY AND
PERMANENT SEATS OF GOVERNMENT
The House of Representatives had proposed a bill naming Baltimore as
the site, but the Senate struck out this provision, and on July 1, 1790, voted
14 to 12 for the Potomac River site between the mouth of the Eastern
Branch and the Connogochegue, a tributary of the Potomac, 20 miles south
of the Pennsylvania State line. The bill which became a law July 16, 1790,
reads as follows:
An Act for establishing the temporary and permanent seat of the Government of the United States
Section 1. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of
America in Congress assembled, That a district of territory, not exceeding ten miles square, to be
located as hereafter directed on the river Potomac, at some place between the mouths of the Eastern
Branch and Connogochegue, be, and the same is hereby, accepted for the permanent seat of the
government of the United States. Provided nevertheless, That the operation of the laws of the state
within such district shall not be affected by this acceptance, until the time fixed for the removal of the
government thereto, and until Congress shall otherwise by law provide.
Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, That the President of the United States be authorized to appoint,
and by supplying vacancies happening from refusals to act or other causes, to keep in appointment as
long as may be necessary, three commissioners, who, or any two of whom, shall, under the direction
of the President, survey, and by proper metes and bounds define and limit a district of territory, under
the limitations above mentioned; and the district so defined, limited and located, shall be deemed the
district accepted by this act, for the permanent seat of the government of the United States.
Sec. 3. And be it further enacted, That the said commissioners, or any two of them, shall have
power to purchase or accept such quantity of land on the eastern side of the said river, within the said
district, as the President shall deem proper for the use of the United States, and according to such
plans as the President shall approve, the said commissioners, or any two of them, shall, prior to the
first Monday in December, in the year one thousand eight hundred, provide suitable buildings for the
accommodation of Congress, and of the President, and for the public offices of the government of the
United States.
Sec. 4. And be it further enacted, That for defraying the expense of such purchases and buildings,
the President of the United States be authorized and requested to accept grants of money.
Sec. 5. And be it further enacted, That prior to the first Monday in December next, all offices
attached to the seat of the government of the United States, shall be removed to, and until the said
first Monday in December, in the year one thousand eight hundred, shall remain at the city of

Philadelphia, in the state of Pennsylvania, at which place the session of Congress next ensuing the
present shall be held.
Sec. 6. And be it further enacted, That on the said first Monday in December, in the year one
thousand eight hundred, the seat of the government of the United States, shall, by virtue of this act,
be transferred to the district and place aforesaid. And all offices attached to the said seat of
government, shall accordingly be removed thereto by their respective holders, and shall, after the said
day, cease to be exercised elsewhere; and that the necessary expense of such removal shall be
defrayed out of the duties on imposts and tonnage, of which a sufficient sum is hereby appropriated.

It is said that the loftiest minds of Congress were swayed by the
judgment of George Washington in this matter. They agreed with him that
America should establish the precedent of a nation locating and founding a
city for its permanent capital by legislative enactment. Furthermore, they
wished to honor that first President and great general and counselor, who
had made their independence possible, by conferring upon him the power to
select for this Federal City the locality he had in prophetic vision chosen as
a suitable site for the capital of the Republic. By this act Congress
expressed its faith in President Washington by permitting him to establish
the capital anywhere along the Potomac between the Eastern Branch and
the Connogochegue, a distance of 80 miles. The boundaries of no other city
were ever fixed with more certainty. It is recorded that George Washington
was harassed by the importunities of anxious residents and aggressive
speculators, but that he never wavered in his purpose to select for the site of
the Federal City that which in former years he had chosen for the Federal
home upon the establishment of the Republic.
By proclamation of January 24, 1791, President Washington directed that
a preliminary survey be made, or, in the President’s words, “lines of
experiment” were to be run. This survey was substantially in accord with
the lines subsequently adopted, moving the southern boundary point of the
“ten miles square” farther south so as to include a convenient part of the
Eastern Branch and also the town of Alexandria.
The act of July 16, 1790, was thereupon amended accordingly by act
approved March 3, 1791, as follows:
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in
Congress assembled, That so much of the act, entitled “An act for establishing the temporary and
permanent seat of the government of the United States,” as requires that the whole of the district of
territory, not exceeding ten miles square, to be located on the river Potomac, for the permanent seat
of the government of the United States, shall be located above the mouth of the Eastern Branch be
and is hereby repealed, and that it shall be lawful for the President to make any part of the territory
below the said limit, and above the mouth of Hunting Creek, a part of the said district, so as to
include a convenient part of the Eastern Branch, and of the lands lying on the lower side thereof and
also the town of Alexandria, and the territory so to be included, shall form a part of the district not

exceeding ten miles square, for the permanent seat of the government of the United States, in like
manner and to all intents and purposes, as if the same had been within the purview of the above
recited act: Provided, That nothing herein contained, shall authorize the erection of public buildings
otherwise than on the Maryland side of the river Potomac, as required by the aforesaid act.

Thus within a period of nine months the limits of the Federal territory
were established. The corner stone was set with appropriate ceremonies at
Jones Point, Alexandria, Va., April 15, 1791. Not a cent was advanced by
Congress for buildings or grounds. In fact, the Treasury was empty, and
without credit Congress was unable to give financial assistance. Washington
himself drew up the original agreement by which the owners were to
convey the land to the Government which the Cincinnatus of the West
bought from the landholders at £25 per acre.
Of George Washington, Daniel Webster said, at the ceremonies for
enlarging the Capitol to its present size, on July 4, 1851:
He heads a short procession over naked fields, he crosses yonder stream on a fallen tree, he
ascends to the top of this eminence, where original oaks of the forest stood as thick around as if the
spot had been devoted to Druidical worship, and here he performed the appointed duty of the day.

In earlier years Washington had noted the beauty of the broad eminence
on which the Capitol was destined to be reared, and had marked the breadth
of the picture and the strong colors of the landscape with its environing wall
of wooded heights, which rolled back against the sky as if to inclose a
beautiful area fit for the supreme deliberation of the governmental affairs of
a great Republic in the New World, founded on the truths “that all men are
created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain
inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of
happiness.” These truths, as set forth in the unanimous declaration of the
thirteen original colonies of the United States of America adopted July 4,
1776, formed the basis of the Magna Charta of American liberty, known to
us as the Declaration of Independence.

HISTORY OF EARLY SETTLEMENTS ALONG THE
POTOMAC
Somewhat more than a century and a half before (in 1608) Capt. John
Smith and his men sailed up the Patawomeck and visited the site of the
future Federal City. The famous adventurer only partially explored the
country, the principal item in the log book of his voyage being that they

found the river full of luscious fish and its shores lined with ferocious
savages. They met with opposition from Chief Powhatan and were subject
to continual attacks. Nevertheless the exploration was continued up the
Potomac as far as Little Falls, about 5 miles above the city of Washington.
At the time of this exploration there were about 30 tribes, principal and
subordinate, living along the shores of Chesapeake Bay in Maryland and
Virginia. The chief of these principal tribes were the Powhatans, the
Manahoacs, and the Monacans. The Powhatans lived along the shores of the
Chesapeake as far north as the Patuxent in Maryland, and the other two
lived in the territory contiguous to the York and Potomac Rivers. The
Manahoacs and the Monacans, who were continuously at war with the
Powhatans in Virginia, inhabited the present District of Columbia. The
Manahoacs were almost exterminated by war, pestilence, and spirituous
liquors, and about 1712 migrated to the west, joining the Iroquois and the
Tuscaroras. Among the smaller tribes were the Nacotchants and the Toags,
who were friendly to Capt. John Smith. The Toags lived near Mount
Vernon, as is shown by the name Tauxement on Capt. John Smith’s map.
The Moyaones lived directly opposite Mount Vernon, in Maryland, at the
mouth of the Piscataway. The Nacotchants lived just below the Eastern
Branch, within the District of Columbia.
There is a tradition of the early settlers of Maryland that the valley at the
foot of Capitol Hill, drained by Tiber Creek, was a popular fishing ground
of the Indians, and that they gathered not far from there, at Greenleaf’s
Point, for their councils. The Indians of Maryland and Virginia closely
resembled each other. Those of Maryland were descendants of the same
race as the Powhatans and spoke dialects of the great Algonquin language.
Powhatan claimed jurisdiction over the Patuxent, but it is doubtful whether
he ever enforced the claim.
The Indians lived along the banks of the rivers in this part of the country,
and thus many Indian names, suggested by the suffixes “annock” and “any,”
have come down to us, as the Susquehanna, Rappahannock, Allegheny, and
Chickahominy. The name Chesapeake is said to have come from the
Algonquin language, and Potomac comes from the Indian name
Patawomeck. The Powhatans were won over to the English by the marriage
of Pocahontas to John Rolfe, but the marriage, though notable in history,
offered no advantages to the settlers. The original inhabitants were finally
driven out by the relentless Iroquois. Among the early fighters against the

Indians was Col. John Washington, who came to America in 1657 and
settled at Bridges Creek, Va., later called Wakefield. He led 1,000 men
against the Susquehannas. The Maryland tribes were gradually consolidated
with the Piscataways, and about 1700 they moved to a new settlement on
the lower Susquehanna, near Bainbridge, Pa. Here, in 1765, they numbered
about 150 persons and were under the jurisdiction of the Iroquois.
Thereafter they moved to the Ohio Valley and joined the Delawares.
To-day the name Anacostia, derived from the name of the small Indian
tribe of Nacotchants, reminds us of the occupation of the District of
Columbia by Indians. As has been said, they lived just below the Eastern
Branch, in a suburb of Washington known as Anacostia. The great
Anacostia Park, in the immediate vicinity, is named after them. They were a
tribe of peaceful Indians, about 80 in number, and were kind and well
disposed to Capt. John Smith and his explorers. The name of Anacostia was
also given to an island near the shores of Virginia, at Georgetown. Later it
took the name Analostian and also Anacostian Island. When George Mason,
prominent delegate to the Virginia Legislature, purchased it in 1777, it came
to be known as Masons Island. Later it was called Analostan Island. Stone
implements and fragments of pottery and traces of Indian villages have
been found in these locations, which give evidence of habitations of the
Indians in the District of Columbia in those days. It was a region favored by
the Indians for its game of all kinds, as well as fish. The soil was rich and
fertile and crops were plentiful. Then, too, the climate was agreeable; that
is, it did not have the extreme cold of the North, nor did the inhabitants
suffer from the continued heat of a tropical sun. The latitude of Washington
is 38° 52′ 37″ N. and the longitude 76° 55′ 30.54″ W.
Weather reports of a hundred years ago give 97° for the average of
maximum in summer and 24° above zero for the winter. This mild climate
has had its consequent effect on the flora of the District of Columbia. A
report of the Botanical Society of Washington, made in 1825, gives us the
names of 860 distinct species and varieties of plants in the District of
Columbia. To-day grow here the oak, walnut, hickory, elm, maple, and
other hardy trees; pine trees in all their varieties, and magnolia, also the
rhododendron, laurel, box bushes, privet hedges, holly; and roses bloom in
Washington almost the entire year. In spring the beautiful Japanese cherry
trees add charm to the city.

WASHINGTON, 1792

Chapter III
DEVELOPMENT OF THE NATIONAL CAPITAL
THE PLAN OF THE CITY

SITE OF THE FEDERAL CITY
The first mention of the upper Potomac and adjacent regions to
Indianhead, about 35 miles south of Washington, is made by Capt. John
Smith, who explored this region from the Jamestown settlement in Virginia
in 1608. In 1634 Henry Fleet, who was taken captive by Indians, visited the
falls of the Potomac. In 1635 a tract of land (400 acres) called Rome was
laid out for Francis Pope, gentleman. The Capitol is said to be on this land.
In 1790 the region in which the city of Washington has been built was in the
form of 17 large farm tracts, as is shown on the following page. They were
covered with woods and streams; the arable portions were tilled and
produced wheat, maize, and tobacco. Two hamlets, Carrollsburg (where the
War College now stands), and Hamburg (about where the Naval Hospital is
located), which was then southeast of the thriving port of Georgetown, were
within the limits of the early survey.
On April 30, 1783, 19 days after the proclamation of peace between the
American Colonies and England, the subject of a permanent capital for the
General Government of the States was brought up in Congress. The act of
July 16, 1790, heretofore cited, provided for the selection of a permanent
site on the upper Potomac River for the National Capital—
according to such plans as the President shall approve and prior to the first Monday in December,
1800, and suitable buildings for the accommodation of Congress, and of the President, and for the
public offices of the Government of the United States.

On January 22, 1791, President Washington appointed three
commissioners—Daniel Carroll and Thomas Johnson, of Maryland, and
David Stuart, of Virginia.

By proclamation of January 24, 1791, President Washington directed that
the three commissioners appointed pursuant to the act approved July 16,
1790, “proceed forthwith to run the said lines of experiment and, the same
being run, to survey and by proper metes and bounds to define and limit the
part within the same,” which were substantially in accord with the lines
subsequently adopted, moving the southern boundary point of the 10 miles
square farther south, so as to include a convenient part of the Eastern
Branch and also the town of Alexandria.

Transcriptions
WASHINGTON IN EMBRYO

When President Washington arrived in the future National Capital he
found the great task before him was to bring into harmony the rival interests
of the Eastern Branch, or Carrollsburg, and of Georgetown. The property
holders of Carrollsburg appeared to be anxious that the new public

buildings be located in their town. David Burnes, who owned much of the
land that now lies between the White House and the Capitol, was keen to
have, on condition that he give up part of his property, the public buildings
located there. Thus from the beginning of the history of the city there has
been rivalry between various sections of the city while the Government was
planning for its development.
The controversy between the landholders led Thomas Jefferson to make a
rough outline plan for a city one-fourth less in size than that which George
Washington had in mind, to be built in the vicinity of Georgetown. This
sketch showed the Capitol building at the site of the town called Hamburg,
about where the Naval Hospital is now located; from there eastward public
walks or a Mall was planned, with the location of the President’s House at
about the present Nineteenth Street, south of Pennsylvania Avenue.
Jefferson also proposed a rectangular system of streets, in contrast with the
open spaces and radiating avenues planned by L’Enfant, who also reversed
the position of the Capitol by placing that to the east of the President’s
House on Jenkin’s Hill.
TERMS OF ORIGINAL AGREEMENT

The terms of the sale of land to the Government were agreed to on March
30, 1791, under which the original owners agreed to convey to the United
States Government, free of cost, such portions of their farms as were
needed for streets, parks, and other public reservations; and to sell such land
as was needed for Government buildings and public improvements at £25
per acre (about $67). The remaining land was to be laid out in building lots
and apportioned equally between the Federal Government and the original
owners. Rufus R. Wilson, in Washington, the Capital City, says:
In this way, without advancing a dollar and at a total cost of $36,000, the Government acquired a
tract of 600 acres in the heart of the city. The 10,136 building lots assigned to it ultimately proved to
be worth $850,000, and now represent a value of $70,000,000. Shrewd financier as he was, it is
doubtful if Washington ever made another so good a bargain as that with Burnes and his neighbors.

The following is a copy of the agreement:
THE AGREEMENT OF PRESIDENT WASHINGTON WITH THE ORIGINAL PROPRIETORS
We, the subscribers, in consideration of the great benefits we expect to derive from having the
Federal City laid off upon our Lands, do hereby agree and bind ourselves, heirs, executors, and
administrators, to convey, in Trust, to the President of the United States, or Commissioners, or such
person or persons as he shall appoint, by good and sufficient deeds, in Fee simple, the whole of our

respective Lands which he may think proper to include within the lines of the Federal City, for the
purposes and on the conditions following:
The President shall have the sole power of directing the Federal City to be laid off in what manner
he pleases. He may retain any number of Squares he may think proper for public Improvements, or
other public Uses, and the lots only which shall be laid off shall be a joint property between the
Trustees on behalf of the public, and each present proprietor, and the same shall be fairly and equally
divided between the public and the Individuals, as soon as may be, after the City shall be laid off.
For the streets the proprietors shall receive no compensation; but for the squares or Lands in any
form, which shall be taken for public buildings, or any kind of public improvements, or uses, the
proprietors, whose lands shall be so taken, shall receive at the rate of twenty-five pounds per acre, to
be paid by the public.
The whole wood on the Lands shall be the property of the proprietors.
But should any be desired by the president to be reserved or left standing, the same shall be paid
for by the public at a just and reasonable valuation, exclusive of the twenty-five pounds per acre to be
paid for the land, on which the same shall remain.
Each proprietor shall retain the full possession and use of his land, until the same shall be sold and
occupied by the purchasers of the Lots laid out thereupon, and in all cases where the public
arrangements as to streets, lotts, &c., will admit of it, each proprietor shall possess his buildings and
other improvements, and graveyards, paying to the public only one-half the present estimated value
of the Lands, on which the same shall be, or twelve pounds ten shillings per acre. But in cases where
the arrangements of the streets, lotts, squares, &c., will not admit of this, and it shall become
necessary to remove such buildings, Improvements, &c., the proprietors of the same shall be paid the
reasonable value thereof, by the public.
Nothing herein contained shall affect the Lotts which any of the parties to this Agreement may
hold in the Towns of Carrollsburgh or Hamburgh.
In witness whereof we have hereunto set our hands and Seals, this thirtieth day of March, 1791.
Signed
Robert Peter (Seal)
Signed & sealed in presence of us—Mr. Thos. Beall,
David Burnes (Seal)
making an exception of the Lands he sold Abraham -
Young not yet conveyed. Jas. M. Lingan (Seal)
Uriah Forrest (Seal)

Witness to all the subscribers including William Benj. Stoddert (Seal)
-
Young Notley Young (Seal)

William Bayly Dan. Carroll of Dn. (Seal)
William Robertson - Overton Carr (Seal)
John Suter Thos. Beall of Geo. (Seal)

Samuel Davidson witness to Abraham Young’s Charles Beatty (Seal)
-
signing Anthony Holmead (Seal)

Wm. Young (Seal)
Benj. Stoddert witness to Edward Peirce’s signing. -
Edward Peirce (Seal)

Joseph E. Rowles for Jno. Waring. Abraham Young (Seal)

Wm. Deakins Junr. for Wm. Prout & William King James Peirce (Seal)
-
as attorney in fact. William Prout (Seal)

Robert Peter, as attorney in fact for
Eliphas Douglass. (Seal)
Benj. Stoddert for Jno. Waring by
written authority from Mr. Waring. (Seal)
William King (Seal)

Transcriptions
MAP OF BOUNDARY STONES OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

THREE OF THE BOUNDARY STONES

The land which was being considered for the city proper consisted of
about 6,000 acres. In laying out the streets 3,606 acres were taken, and
about 540 acres were bought by the United States as sites for the public
buildings and grounds. The lots laid out numbered 20,272. Of these the
United States took half and the property owners were given back the
remainder. The United States sold its share of the lots and from the proceeds
paid for the 540 acres on which it was to put the public buildings.
The United States also took a fee-simple title to the streets and avenues.

BOUNDARY STONES OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
A survey of an outline of the District of Columbia was made by Andrew
Ellicott. From the initial point at Jones Point, on Hunting Creek, at the
Potomac (just south of Alexandria), a line was run due northwest 10 miles;
thence (into Maryland) due northeast 10 miles to a northern boundary point
(now called Sixteenth Street Heights); thence due southeast 10 miles;
thence due southwest 10 miles, or back to Jones Point.

BOUNDARY STONE NEAR SIXTEENTH STREET, NORTHWEST

This survey was approved by Congress with the amendment that all
public buildings should be erected on the Maryland side of the Potomac
River.
On March 29, 1791, President Washington arrived on a visit to the
Potomac and stayed at Suter’s Tavern in Georgetown. The next day,
accompanied by the three commissioners and Maj. Pierre Charles L’Enfant
and Andrew Ellicott, he rode over the ground. Washington met the owners
of the land the same night, and the general terms were then agreed upon and
signed by the 19 “original proprietors.” The area of 100 square miles
embraced about 64 square miles of Maryland soil (ceded previously in
1788) and about 36 square miles of Virginia soil (ceded in 1789).
Thereupon the three city commissioners were ordered to have the
boundary lines permanently marked by monuments placed 1 mile apart.
One of these boundary stones can be seen to-day near the north corner of
the District of Columbia. Each stone was quite large, and this particular one
is well preserved.

PRELIMINARY STUDIES
When the city of Washington was planned under the direct and minute
supervision of President Washington and Secretary of State Jefferson, the
relations that should exist between the Capitol and the President’s House
were closely studied. On August 7, 1791, L’Enfant sent a sketch to
President Washington, with a note, “the plan altered agreeable to your
suggestion.” Indeed, the whole city was planned with a view to the
reciprocal relations that should be maintained among public buildings.
Vistas and axes; sites for monuments and museums; parks and pleasure
gardens; fountains and canals—in a word, all that goes to make a city a
magnificent and consistent work of art were regarded as essential. Thus,
aside from the pleasure and the positive benefits to health that the people
derive from public parks in a capital city like Washington, there is a distinct
use of public spaces as the indispensable means of giving dignity to
Government buildings and of making suitable connections between the
great departments.
The original plans were prepared after due study of great models. The
stately art of landscape architecture had been brought oversea by royal
governors and wealthy planters, and both Washington and Jefferson were
familiar with the practice of that art.
On September 8, 1791, it was decided by Thomas Jefferson, Secretary of
State, and James Madison, in conference with the Commissioners of the
District of Columbia—
to name the streets of the Federal City alphabetically one way and numerically the other from the
Capitol and that the name of the City and Territory shall be the City of Washington and the Territory
of Columbia.

The city had also been divided into four sections—namely, northeast,
northwest, southeast, southwest—with the Capitol as the center and North
and South Capitol Streets dividing the east and west sections and East
Capitol Street and the Mall the north and south sections.

Transcriptions
BUILDING REGULATIONS ISSUED BY PRESIDENT WASHINGTON

SKETCH OF THE L’ENFANT PLAN

Chapter IV
MAJ. PIERRE CHARLES L’ENFANT
Maj. Pierre Charles L’Enfant was born in Paris August 2, 1754, the son of
an academician, who was “Painter in ordinary to the King in his
Manufacture of the Gobelins,” with a turn for landscape and especially for
battles, as is shown by the collections at Versailles and Tours. Trained as a
French military engineer, young L’Enfant at the age of 23 obtained a
commission as a volunteer lieutenant in the French colonial troops, serving
at his own expense.

MAJ. PIERRE CHARLES L’ENFANT

L’Enfant preceded Lafayette to America by a month. Arriving in 1777, he
entered the Continental Army at his own expense. In February 1778 he was
made a captain of engineers and as such proved his valor in battles about
Charleston, where he was wounded and was included in the capitulation
and exchanged. He was made a major in 1783.
He was “artist extraordinary” to the Army, drawing likenesses (including
one of Washington at Valley Forge), decorating ballrooms, and building
banquet halls. Then by turn he became a drillmaster, like Von Steuben.
When peace was declared he made a brief visit to France to see his father

and, incidentally, to establish the Society of the Cincinnati in France and
procure the gold eagles he had designed as insignia of the organization.
Then he returned to remodel the New York City Hall for the reception of the
first Congress of the United States, a building of such beauty never before
having been seen by the assembled representatives of the people. L’Enfant
was an artist, and this Washington knew when he selected him to design the
Federal City. He was imbued with the artistic development of Paris, with its
fine central composition from the Tuileries to the Arch of Triumph, the
beauty of the Champs Elysees, the Place de la Concorde and adjacent great
buildings as the Louvre; and with Versailles, built by Louis XIV, with its
fountains, terraces, gardens, and parks, which still thrill thousands of
visitors each year. He understood the art of city planning.
L’Enfant was long maturing in his mind the plan he so quickly put on
paper. In September, 1789, while yet the idea of creating a capital city was
still in the air, he wrote to President Washington asking to be employed to
design “the Capital of this vast Empire.” The nations of Europe wondered at
the probable future of the new Republic. Visualizing the future, L’Enfant
wrote:
No nation ever before had the opportunity offered them of deliberately deciding upon the spot
where their capital city should be fixed, or of considering every necessary consideration in the choice
of situation; and although the means now within the power of the country are not such as to pursue
the design to any great extent, it will be obvious that the plan should be drawn on such a scale as to
leave room for that aggrandizement and embellishment which the increase of the wealth of the
Nation will permit it to pursue to any period, however remote.

Major L’Enfant, a man of position and education and an engineer of
ability, was also familiar with those great works of the master Le Nôtre,
which are still the admiration of the traveler and the constant pleasure of the
French people. Moreover, from his well-stocked library Jefferson sent to
L’Enfant plans “on a large and accurate scale” of Paris, Amsterdam,
Frankfort, Carlsruhe, Strasburg, Orleans, Turin, Milan, and other European
cities, at the same time felicitating himself that the President had “left the
planning of the town in such good hands.”
Thereupon the name of L’Enfant became, and has since remained,
inseparably associated with the plan and development of the Nation’s
Capital. He was gifted but eccentric, a characteristic that got him into many
and serious difficulties.
President Washington had high regard for him and wrote of him as
follows:

Since my first knowledge of the gentleman’s abilities in the line of his profession, I have viewed
him not only as a scientific man, but one who added considerable taste to professional knowledge,
and that, for such employment as he is now engaged in—for projecting public works and carrying
them into effect—he was better qualified than anyone who had come within my knowledge in this
country, or indeed in any other, the probability of obtaining whom could be counted upon. I had no
doubt at the same time that this was the light in which he considered himself; and of course he would
be tenacious of his plans as to conceive they would be marred if they underwent any change or
alteration. * * * Should his services be lost, I know not how to replace them.

Chapter V
THE L’ENFANT PLAN
The L’Enfant plan, as before stated, was prepared for the Federal City
under the direction of President Washington and Thomas Jefferson in 1791
by Maj. Pierre Charles L’Enfant, and applied to the 10 miles square set
apart as Federal territory and called the District of Columbia. This was the
first and most comprehensive plan ever designed for any city. It was a
masterpiece of civic design. As originally drawn it extended only to Florida
Avenue NW. and was designed for a city of 800,000, the size of Paris at the
time. It was submitted to Congress by President Washington on December
13, 1791.
The original plan shows explanatory notes and references by Major
L’Enfant, among which he calls attention to the position of the main
buildings and squares, the leading avenues, and the plan of intersection of
the streets and their width. The avenues were to be 160 feet in width. No
city designed merely for commercial purposes would have avenues of such
width; hence the whole plan indicates that it was especially designed for the
seat of government of the Nation.
There are two great focal points in the L’Enfant plan—the Capitol and
the White House—each with its intersecting avenues, that add beauty and
charm to the city and at the same time make distant parts of the city easy of
access.
The methods and features of L’Enfant’s plan, which included the reports
and correspondence between L’Enfant and President Washington, in 1930
were given intensive study by William T. Partridge, consulting architect of
the National Capital Park and Planning Commission. Mr. Partridge’s
findings and his review of the features of the plan, which are still possible
of attainment, constitute a notable contribution to the research in this field,
and we quote at length:

A study of L’Enfant’s plan, as well as a careful reading of his descriptions, shows the effort made
to model his design to the existing topography. No mention can be found of Versailles or London as
an inspiration. He reiterates again and again in his letters that this plan of his was “original” and
“unique.” In a letter to Jefferson requesting some Old World city maps he deprecates any copying
and asks for this information only as a means for comparison or to aid in refining and strengthening
his judgment.
In order to investigate how far the existing conditions of the site for the Federal City dictated the
plan of present Washington, a topographical map of the terrain, as existing at that period, has been
carefully prepared from old maps and descriptions and an attempt made with an open mind to follow
L’Enfant’s procedure. Much was assumed, only to be corroborated by later study of the original
manuscripts and reports. All printed transcriptions of L’Enfant’s reports have been altered by their
editors in the effort to interpret L’Enfant’s strange English, a fact leading to misinterpretation on the
part of trained architectural commentators dependent solely on these printed transcriptions.

THE L’ENFANT PLAN

Transcriptions

TRANSCRIPTION OF NOTES INSCRIBED ON L’ENFANT PLAN

At the convention of the American Institute of Architects held in Washington in 1929, the history
and development of the National Capital was the principal topic of discussion. The merits of the plan
of L’Enfant were duly acknowledged by all, though emphasis was laid upon the progress of those
modern projects sponsored and carried through largely by the efforts of the institute or its individual
members. The work of the McMillan Commission and the admirable recommendations of that
trained and experienced body, that the “central area” be restored with some resemblance to
L’Enfant’s original plan were generally acknowledged. There was no comparison, however,
attempted between the proposed plan of L’Enfant and the much-altered modern plan, nor was there
discussion in detail of the “public walk” of the original design. The real merit of the original L’Enfant
plan was sensed only by one speaker at the convention mentioned, Mr. Medary, when he spoke of the
early structures maintaining their places as dominating elements in the original design and confirmed
the judgment of L’Enfant “in fitting the plan of the proposed city to the topography of the site.”
There has come down to us only a single manuscript plan which students have accepted as the
original design and on which they have based all their comments. This drawing depicts only an
intermediate stage of the plan. The first plan was much altered by L’Enfant himself at the request of
President Washington, but by a careful study of internal evidence of the later drawing the designer’s
masterly original may be restored. Existing documents tell us that not only were considerable
changes made in the plan by order of President Washington, but alterations in the layout were also
made by L’Enfant’s successors, all of which disturbed considerably its skillful symmetrical fitting to

the irregular topography. If this submitted restoration proves correct, there is no ground left for
further accusation of his indebtedness to both Versailles and the London plan for minor details. It is
the writer’s conclusion that L’Enfant did exactly what he claimed—devised an original plan, entirely
unique. He arrived at his parti only after a careful study on the spot of the best sites for the principal
buildings, allocated in the order of their importance, and located with consideration of both
prominence and outlook. He tied these sites together by means of a rectangular system of streets and
again connected them by means of diagonal avenues. The principal avenues followed closely the
existing roads. Additional avenues were extended to the “outroads” or city entrances and were laid
out primarily for the purpose of shortening communication—an engineering consideration. L’Enfant
mentions that the diagonal avenues would afford a “reciprocity of sight” and “a variety of pleasant
ride and being combined to insure a rapide Intercourse with all the part of the City to which they will
serve as does the main vains in the animal body to diffuse life through smaller vessels in quickening
the active motion to the heart.”
The similarity of the angles of the two principal avenues (Pennsylvania east, from Eastern Branch
Ferry to the Capitol, and Maryland east, from the Bladensburg Road entrance to the Capitol) which
followed closely for some distance the existing roads, doubtless suggested the radial pair-avenue
idea. This was entirely accidental and the outgrowth of existing conditions. The system of a
rectangular-street plan with radial avenues is not only borne out by the mention he makes himself in
his descriptions but was followed by Ellicott in his redrafting of the plan for the engraver.
Our artistic, hasty-tempered genius refused to give Ellicott any documents or any information.
Ellicott states in his letters on the subject that, although he was refused the original plan, he was
familiar with L’Enfant’s system and had many notes of the surveys he had made of the site himself,
so it is possible that the plan was recreated by Ellicott.
Space and time do not permit an excursion into the squabble over this engraved plan. Changes
were made in reduction to the proper size of the plate. These changes led to violent protests on the
part of L’Enfant, although in later years his memorial states that the changes were not so very
damaging. To an architectural mind the alterations in question destroyed the unity and symmetry of
the whole, and L’Enfant’s later softened protest can be explained by his desire for payment by
Congress. He could not afford at that time to imperil his chances.
In the attempt to find the method by means of which L’Enfant arrived at the system underlying his
plan for the city, we are handicapped at the very start by lack of sufficient data for identification of
the various plans mentioned in the old records. There was made in Washington, as the work
progressed, a large map with numbered squares. Many references are made to this “large plan” in the
old correspondence, but it must not be confused with the layout of the original design under
discussion. A letter from the commissioners states it was in L’Enfant’s hands some time after his
dismissal.
As far as we now know, there is but one original drawing in existence, which, after 100 years of
neglect and careless handling, is now sacredly preserved in the Library of Congress. The
elaborateness and care shown in the carefully lettered notes and profuse marginal references marks
this a presentation copy. This plan included “the alterations ordered by Washington and sent to
Philadelphia on August 19, 1791, for transmission to Congress.”

THE ELLICOTT PLAN—THE L’ENFANT PLAN ENLARGED
The executed plan of the Federal City as redrawn by Andrew Ellicott
departs but little from the modified L’Enfant plan. The changes are perhaps
an improvement on the layout as modified by President Washington.

Discussion recently has arisen in reference to the credit Ellicott should be
given for the executed plan of Washington. In 1802 a congressional
committee found—
that the plan of the city was originally designed by Major L’Enfant, but that in many respects it was
rejected by the President, and a plan drawn up by Mr. Ellicott, purporting to have been made from
actual survey, was engraved and published by order of General Washington in the year 1792.

The chief alteration shown in Ellicott’s engraved plan is the straightening
of what is now Massachusetts Avenue. The suppression of the eastern
portion leading to the upper bridgehead made it end at what is now known
as Lincoln Square, the drawbridge over Eastern Branch being reached by
what is now Kentucky Avenue.
By moving the marine hospital site north some distance and ignoring the
Rock Creek Ford at the other end, Ellicott was enabled to run
Massachusetts Avenue in nearly a direct line; the western end reached the
road to Frederick, as it did in L’Enfant’s plan.
The settlement of this section of the city was at that date problematical,
and no serious attention was given to the change in plan. The area was
marshy and was a popular place for hunting snipe. This fact explains the
meandering of Florida Avenue to the northwestern boundary line of the old
city.

THE ELLICOTT PLAN

Transcriptions
TRANSCRIPTION OF NOTES INSCRIBED ON ELLICOTT PLAN

In an overlay of the two plans of L’Enfant and Ellicott, prepared with
great accuracy by the hydrographic section of the Navy, only the main east-
west and north-south axes of the Capitol and White House coincide. An
examination of this drawing shows that the art of surveying had not at that
period reached present-day accuracy.

THE DERMOTT OR TIN CASE MAP OF THE CITY OF WASHINGTON, 1797-98

Several suppressed sections of the L’Enfant plan were restored in the
engraved plan. Maryland Avenue was carried through to the “Grand
Avenue,” and South Carolina Avenue extended to New Jersey Avenue and
the “Town House” site.
The plan of James R. Dermott, the officially approved plan, had many
more city squares, and consequently more lots for sale. It is known as the
Tin Case Map, because about 50 years later it was thus found preserved.
The cry of grasping owners and voracious speculators was for more lots;
and L’Enfant’s letter of warning to President Washington dated August 19,

1791, against this evil proved more than justified. This city plan also
indicated the names of the avenues.
What is known as the King Map was made by Robert King, a surveyor in
the office of the Commissioners of the District of Columbia, and published
in 1818.

THE KING MAP

The map is of interest in that we note in it the word Judiciary in what is
known as Judiciary Square. We learn from L’Enfant’s Memorial addressed
to Congress on December 7, 1800, that L’Enfant intended the third
coordinate branch of the Government, the Judiciary, be located there. To-
day the Square is largely occupied by court buildings.

VIEW OF EARLY WASHINGTON

Chapter VI
EARLY WASHINGTON
While Major L’Enfant drew the plan of the Federal City, it was Andrew
Ellicott who afterward carried it out. The building of the city attracted many
speculators, who invested heavily. Robert Morris, James Greenleaf, Thomas
Law, John Nicholson, and Samuel Blodgett were among those who lost
thereby.
When Washington became the seat of government in 1800 there were 109
brick and 263 frame houses, sheltering a total population of about 3,000.
The early years of the city’s development were difficult and too much praise
cannot be given the men who carried the burden. The departments of the
government that existed then were State, Treasury, War, Navy, the Office of
the Attorney General, and the Postal Service. They employed a total of 137
clerks.
We have brief accounts of the appearance of Washington written by
travelers who visited the United States during the period from 1790 to 1800.
There is an interesting description by Duc de La Rochefoucauld-Liancourt,
who wrote an account of his “Voyage dans les États-Unis d’Amerique fait
en 1795-97.” The accounts of several inhabitants in Washington of the
period is well summed up by Albert J. Beveridge in his Life of John
Marshall (vol. III, pp. 1-4):
A strange sight met the eye of the traveler who, aboard one of the little river sailboats of the time,
reached the stretches of the sleepy Potomac separating Alexandria and Georgetown. A wide swamp
extended inland from a modest hill on the east to a still lower elevation of land about a mile to the
west. Between the river and morass a long flat tract bore clumps of great trees, mostly tulip poplars,
giving, when seen from a distance, the appearance of a fine park.
Upon the hill stood a partly constructed white stone building, mammoth in plan. The slight
elevation north of the wide slough was the site of an apparently finished edifice of the same material,
noble in its dimensions and with beautiful, simple lines, but “surrounded with a rough rail fence 5 or
6 feet high unfit for a decent barnyard.” From the river nothing could be seen beyond the groves near
the banks of the stream except the two great buildings and the splendid trees which thickened into a
seemingly dense forest upon the higher ground to the northward.

On landing and making one’s way through the underbrush to the foot of the eastern hill, and up the
gullies that seamed its sides thick with trees and tangled wild grapevines, one finally reached the
immense unfinished structure that attracted attention from the river. Upon its walls laborers were
languidly at work.
Clustered around it were fifteen or sixteen wooden houses. Seven or eight of these were boarding-
houses, each having as many as ten or a dozen rooms all told. The others were little affairs of rough
lumber, some of them hardly better than shanties. One was a tailor shop; in another a shoemaker
plied his trade; a third contained a printer with his hand press and types, while a washerwoman
occupied another; and in the others were a grocery shop, a pamphlets-and-stationery shop, a little
dry-goods shop, and an oyster shop. No other human habitation of any kind appeared for three-
quarters of a mile.

Courtesy of National Photo Co.
THE SIX BUILDINGS

A broad and perfectly straight clearing had been made across the swamp between the eastern hill
and the big white house more than a mile away to the westward. In the middle of this long opening
ran a roadway, full of stumps, broken by deep mud holes in the rainy season, and almost equally deep
with dust when the days were dry. On either border was a path or “walk” made firm at places by
pieces of stone; though even this “extended but a little way.” Alder bushes grew in the unused spaces
of this thoroughfare [the present notable Pennsylvania Avenue], and in the depressions stagnant water
stood in malarial pools, breeding myriads of mosquitoes. A sluggish stream meandered across this
avenue and broadened into the marsh.
A few small houses, some of brick and some of wood, stood on the edge of this long, broad street.
Near the large stone building at its western end were four or five structures of red brick looking much

like ungainly warehouses. Farther westward on the Potomac hills was a small but pretentious town
with its many capacious brick and stone residences, some of them excellent in their architecture and
erected solidly by skilled workmen.
Other openings in the forest had been cut at various places in the wide area east of the main
highway that connected the two principal structures already described. Along these forest avenues
were scattered houses of various materials * * *. Such was the City of Washington, with Georgetown
nearby, when Thomas Jefferson became President and John Marshall Chief Justice of the United
States—the Capitol, Pennsylvania Avenue, the “Executive Mansion” or “President’s Palace,” the
department buildings near it, the residences, shops, hostelries, and streets.

The south lines of the 10-mile square—the Federal district in which the
new Capital lay—were to run from the intersection of the Potomac River
and the Eastern Branch, but, as has been related, by the act of March 3,
1791, these boundary lines were moved south to include Alexandria and
part of Virginia within the Federal territory. The land lying within the
bounds of the proposed city was given by the proprietors to trustees
appointed by the Government under an agreement by which the Nation
received the land necessary for streets without charge, purchasing the areas
for parks and building sites at the rate of £25 per acre. The remaining land
was divided equally with the original proprietors. The first settlements were
made on grants given chiefly to retired naval officers who named their
holdings after their camps—Mexico, Jamaica, and Port Royal. There were
two settlements on the site—Carrollsburg, named after its founder, and
Hamburg, an early real-estate development near and south of Georgetown.
A stream of considerable size known originally as Goose Creek ran through
the city. It later became known as Tiber Creek, because a resident named
Pope, whose estate he facetiously called Rome, contended that if there was
a Pope in Rome, his residence should be situated on the Tiber.
As is noticed by reference to the plans, a canal extended from the point
about where the Lincoln Memorial is located, along B Street, now
Constitution Avenue, east to the Capitol; thence along James Creek, known
to-day as Canal Street. In those days Pennsylvania Avenue was a dusty
road, lined with poplar trees, and often so flooded that it was not an
uncommon sight to see boats floating on it. For a long time an isolated
group of buildings known as the Six Buildings at Twenty-first Street and
Pennsylvania Avenue stood halfway between the Capitol and Georgetown.

EARLY WASHINGTON, SHOWING THE JEFFERSON POPLARS

THE ELLICOTT MAP

Washington as the infant city appeared in 1800 is best described by John
Cotton Smith, Member of Congress from Connecticut, in a letter written by
him at the time, as follows:
Our approach to the city was accompanied with sensations not easily described. One wing of the
Capitol only had been erected, which with the President’s House, 1 mile distant from it, both
constructed with white sandstone, were shining objects in dismal contrast with the scene around
them. Instead of recognizing the avenues and streets, portrayed on the plan of the city, not one was
visible, unless we except a road, with two buildings on each side of it, called the New Jersey Avenue.
The Pennsylvania Avenue, leading, as laid down on paper, from the Capitol to the Presidential
Mansion, was nearly the whole distance a deep morass covered with alder bushes, which were cut

through to the President’s House; and near Georgetown a block of houses had been erected which
bore the name of the “six buildings” * * *. The desolate aspect of the place was not a little
augmented by a number of unfinished edifices at Greenleaf’s Point.
There appeared to be but two really comfortable habitations, in all respects, within the bounds of
the city, one of which belonged to Dudley Carroll and the other to Notley Young. The roads in every
direction were muddy and unimproved. A sidewalk was attempted, in one instance, by a covering
formed of the chips hewed for the Capitol. It extended but a little way and was of little value; for in
dry weather the sharp fragments cut our shoes, and in wet weather covered them with white mortar.
In short, it was a new settlement.

Newspapers in New York, Philadelphia, and New England and satirists
everywhere cracked many amusing jokes at the expense of the embryonic
city. The Capitol was called “the palace in the wilderness” and
Pennsylvania Avenue “the great Serbonian Bog.” Georgetown was declared
“a city of houses without streets” and Washington “a city of streets without
houses.”
The Abbe Correa de Serra, the witty minister from Portugal, bestowed
upon Washington the famous title of “the city of magnificent distances,”
referring to the great spaces between the scattered houses; while Thomas
Moore, just then coming into prominence as a poet, visited the city in 1804,
and contributed to the general fund of humor by the composition of this
satire:
In fancy now beneath the twilight gloom,
Come, let me lead thee o’er this second Rome,
Where tribunes rule, where dusky Davi bow,
And what was Goose Creek once is Tiber now.
This fam’d metropolis, where fancy sees
Squares in morasses, obelisks in trees;
Which second sighted seers e’en now adorn
With shrines unbuilt and heroes yet unborn.

During the administrations of Adams and Jefferson the city improved
considerably. Jefferson secured money from Congress for public buildings.
In 1803 he appointed Benjamin Latrobe as the Architect of the Capitol, and
by him the construction of the Capitol was carried on so energetically that
he gave form to the old portion of the Capitol that Thornton had simply
planned.
Thomas Jefferson also secured money from Congress for the
improvement of Pennsylvania Avenue, which was then a dusty highway in
the summer and swampy place in winter; planted poplar trees and did what
he could to redeem that thoroughfare from its lamentable condition. He
applied his artistic taste and skill to the work of beautifying the city.

Chapter VII
WASHINGTON, 1810-1815
An interesting account of Washington during this period is given by
David Baillie Warden in his book entitled “A Description of the District of
Columbia,” published in Paris in 1816, and dedicated to Mrs. George
Washington Parke Custis. He states:
It is scarcely possible to imagine a situation more beautiful, healthy and convenient than of
Washington. The gentle undulated surface throws the water into such various directions, as affords
the most agreeable assemblage. The rising hills, on each side of the Potomac, are truly picturesque;
and as the river admits the largest frigates, their sails, gliding through the majestic trees which adorn
its banks, complete the scenery.
The city extends from northwest to southeast about four miles and a half, and from northeast to
southwest about two miles and a half. The public buildings occupy the most elevated and convenient
situations, to which the waters of the Tiber Creek may be easily conducted, as well as to every other
part of the city, not already watered by springs.
The streets run from north to south, and from east to west, crossing each other at right angles, with
the exception of fifteen, that point to the State of which each bears the name. The capitol commands
the streets called the Maryland, Delaware, and Pennsylvania avenues; the President’s House, those of
Vermont, New York, and Connecticut; and all these different intersections form eleven hundred and
fifty squares. The Pennsylvania Street, or avenue, which stretches in a direct line from the President’s
house to the capitol, is a mile in length, and a hundred and sixty feet in breadth. That of the narrowest
streets is from ninety to a hundred feet, which will give a fine appearance to the city; but in a region
where the summer sun is so intensely hot, and the winter winds so severely cold, narrow streets,
affording shade and shelter, would be of great utility.
The plan of the city of which we have prefixed an engraving (There is a plan by Major L’Enfant,
engraved at the expence of the Government, on the scale of a hundred poles to an inch), is universally
admired. The most eligible places have been selected for public squares and public buildings. The
capitol is situated on a rising ground, which is elevated about eighty feet above the tide-water of the
Potomac. This edifice will present a front of six hundred and fifty feet, with a colonade of two
hundred and sixty feet, and sixteen Corinthian columns thirty-one feet and a half in height. The
elevation of the dome is a hundred and fifty feet * * *.
The President’s house consists of two stories, and is a hundred and seventy feet in length, and
eighty-five feet in breadth. It resembles Leinster-House in Dublin. * * * The view from the windows
fronting the river is extremely beautiful.
The Public Offices, the Treasury, Department of State, and of War, are situated in a line with, and
at the distance of four hundred and fifty feet from the President’s House. These buildings, of two
stories, have a hundred and twenty feet in front, sixty in breadth, and sixteen feet in height, and are
ornamented with a white stone basement, which rises six or seven feet above the surface. It was

originally proposed to form a communication between these offices and the house of the president, a
plan which was afterwards abandoned.
The Jail consists of two stories, and is a hundred by twenty-one feet.
The Infirmary is a neat building.
There are three commodious Market-places built at the expence of the corporation.
The public buildings at the Navy Yard are the barracks, a work-shop, and three large brick
buildings for the reception of naval stores. The Barracks, constructed of brick, are six hundred feet in
length, fifty in breadth, and twenty in height. At the head of the Barrack-yard is the Colonel’s house,
which is neat and commodious. The Workshop, planned by Latrobe, is nine hundred feet in length.
The Patent Office, constructed according to the plan of J. Hoban, esquire (who gained the prize for
that of the President’s house) consists of three stories, and is a hundred and twenty feet long, and
sixty feet wide. It is ornamented with a pediment, and six Ionic pilasters. From the eminence (This
eminence has the shape of a tortoise-shell) on which it stands, the richly-wooded hills rise on every
side, and form a scenery of unequaled beauty. It was erected by Mr. Blodgett to serve as a public
hotel * * *. In 1810 this edifice was purchased by the government.—Dr. Thornton, director.
In the summer of 1814 this metropolis was taken possession of by an English naval and land force,
which set fire to the Capitol, President’s house, Public Offices, and Navy Yard. The loss sustained
was $1,215,111.
Two of the luxuries of life, pine-apples and ice, are found at Washington at a cheap rate. The
former, imported from the West Indies, are sold at twenty-five cents each. The latter article is
purchased, throughout the summer, at half a dollar per bushel. * * *
It is deeply to be regretted, that the government or corporation did not employ some means for the
preservation of the trees which grew on places destined for the public walks. How agreeable would
have been their shade along the Pennsylvania Avenue where the dust so often annoys, and the
summer sun, reflected from the sandy soil, is so oppressive. The Lombardy poplar, which now
supplies their place, serves more for ornament than shelter.
Water may be distributed to any part of Washington from several fine springs, and also from the
Tiber Creek, the source of which is 236 feet above the level of the tide in the same stream. * * *
The canal, which runs through the centre of the city, commencing at the mouth of Tiber Creek, and
connecting the Potomac with its eastern branch, is nearly completed. Mr. Law (Brother to Lord
Ellenborough) the chief promoter of this undertaking, proposes to establish packet-boats to run
between the Tiber Creek and the Navy-Yard—a conveyance which may be rendered more
economical and comfortable than the hackney-coach. This canal is to be navigable for boats drawing
three feet of water.
The population of the territory of Columbia, in 1810, amounted to 24,023. That of the city was
8,208; of Georgetown, 4,948; of Alexandria, 7,227.

On August 24, 1814, the British arrived in Washington at about 6 o’clock
in the evening. That night they burned the Capitol, the President’s House,
the Treasury, State and Navy Department Buildings, and a number of
private houses on Capitol Hill. The flames could be seen from the Francis
Scott Key mansion at Georgetown. Several wagonloads of valuable
documents had been taken a few days previously from the State Department
to Leesburg, Va., 35 miles northwest of Washington, to a place of safety.
The British also intended to burn the Patent Office, but Commissioner
Thornton met them boldly, saying: “Are you Englishmen or Goths and
vandals? This is the Patent Office, the depository of the ingenuity of the

American Nation, in which the whole civilized world is interested. Would
you destroy it? If so, fire away and let the charge pass through my body.”
The British allowed it to remain and withdrew.
Mrs. Dolly Madison, having secured such property from the White House
as could be carried, including the Gilbert Stuart portrait of General
Washington, which she cut from the frame, went through Georgetown and
that night slept in a camp of soldiers with a guard about her tent. Later the
President, who had taken refuge in a tavern near McLean, in Virginia,
joined Mrs. Madison. The southwest end of the bridge over which they had
crossed the Potomac—it was then a pile bridge 1 mile long—was burned,
and they were thereupon required to make their return to Washington by
boat. The residence of the President was then established at the Octagon
House at Eighteenth Street and New York Avenue. In 1815 the residence of
the President was removed to the “Seven Buildings,” at the northwest
corner of Pennsylvania Avenue and Nineteenth Street, one of the early
homes of the Department of State. Here it remained until the Executive
Mansion was restored, March, 1817.
After the withdrawal of the British the Blodgett Hotel building, acquired
for the use of the Patent Office, was for a time occupied by Congress for its
sessions. Later Congress moved into a building at First and A Streets NE.,
known later as the Old Capitol Building and used during the Civil War as a
military prison.

WASHINGTON, FROM THE PRESIDENT’S HOUSE, 1830

CHRIST CHURCH BURIAL GROUND, LATER KNOWN AS “CONGRESSIONAL
CEMETERY”
SHOWING CENOTAPHS ERECTED TO THE MEMORY OF MEMBERS OF CONGRESS
IN EARLY DAYS

Chapter VIII
WASHINGTON, 1816-1839
The administration of President Monroe, who served two terms (1817-
1825) is known as the “era of good feeling,” but so far as developing the
plan of Washington little was done. In 1820 the population of Washington
was 13,247.
During these years the Capitol was rebuilt and was reoccupied by
Congress. In 1820 the corner stone of the city hall on Judiciary Square was
laid. In 1824 General Lafayette made his memorable visit to Washington.
In 1825 trees were planted on two squares of the filled lowlands south of
Pennsylvania Avenue. That year, also, the eastern portico of the Capitol was
completed; Pennsylvania Avenue was graded from Seventeenth to Twenty-
second Streets; the grounds of the White House, as the Executive Mansion
came to be known after the War of 1812, and the grounds of the city hall
were also graded. At that time there were about 13 miles of brick paving,
average width 13 feet.
Among churches that were built during this period was Foundry
Methodist Church, founded in 1816, at Fourteenth and G Streets NW. The
site was given by Henry Foxall, who operated a foundry about a mile above
Georgetown, near the site of the canal, in fulfillment of a vow that if his
foundry were spared during the attack on Washington he would make this
gift.
On January 27, 1824, the Legislature of Virginia granted a charter to the
newly organized Chesapeake & Ohio Canal Co., which was to supersede
the old Potomac Co., of which George Washington had been first president,
and which had developed commerce with the West. At Little Falls, on the
north side of the river, a canal 2¹⁄₂ miles long, with 4 masonry locks having
a total elevation of 37 feet, had been constructed. At Great Falls, on the
south side, a canal 1,200 yards long, with 5 locks having a total difference

of level of 76 feet 9 inches, was constructed. The two lower locks were cut
in solid rock.
On July 4, 1828, President John Quincy Adams turned the first spadeful
of earth for the new canal, which was completed to the first feeder at
Seneca on July 4, 1831. From this place to Point of Rocks work was
delayed by a legal contest with the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Co., which
extended its first 45 miles along the same course as the canal. That railroad
company, organized in 1828 at Baltimore, was the beginning of one of the
great railroad systems of the United States that were to revolutionize
commerce and industry. To-day the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal remains the
property of the United States Government, and is to be made into a great
park.

THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES ABOUT 1820
FROM PAINTING MADE BY SAMUEL F. B. MORSE, SHORTLY AFTER REBUILDING OF
THE CAPITOL AFTER THE FIRE OF 1814 ORIGINAL IN THE CORCORAN GALLERY OF
ART

Courtesy of National Photo Co.
SITE AND MATERIAL FOR DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY BUILDING, 1839

Georgetown had become a great trading center. From 1815 to 1835
products to the value of $4,077,708 were exported from Georgetown to
foreign markets, and from 1826 to 1835 nearly $5,000,000 worth of
products to other American cities, including a million barrels of flour and
5,400 hogsheads of tobacco.

GATEHOUSE, BUILT IN 1835, ALONG THE OLD CHESAPEAKE & OHIO CANAL

In the spring of 1828, shortly before what was called the corner stone of
the main line was laid, Congress enacted a law granting entrance of a
railroad line into the District. Some six years passed before the Washington
branch reached the District line. The first service began on Monday, July
20, 1835, with two trains each way. A great celebration, in which 1,000
passengers and 2 bands on 4 trains took part, marked the entrance of the
railroad service to the National Capital. The steam cars passed through the
city on their daily trips to the depot at the northwest corner of Pennsylvania
Avenue and Second Street. October 1, 1835, it was reported that the average
number of travelers per day was 200.
During this period the construction of the present Treasury Department,
Patent Office, and old Post Office Department Buildings was authorized.
They conformed to the Capitol and the White House in their fine style of
classical architecture, and emphasized the fact that Washington is the
National Capital.
Unfortunately, it was during this period that great mistakes were made—
such as giving over part of the Mall to garden purposes and in letting
Government areas, so much desired now, go for private purposes; also in

the location of certain public buildings, as erecting the Treasury Department
in the center of Pennsylvania Avenue.

Chapter IX
WASHINGTON, 1840-1859
In 1840 Washington had a population of 23,364. The city was still in a
very much undeveloped state, though the fact that it was the National
Capital was not lost sight of. In 1846 the construction of the Smithsonian
Institution Building was begun, and on July 4, 1848, the corner stone of the
Washington Monument was laid. On July 4, 1851, the corner stone for the
enlargement of the Capitol according to plans as we see it to-day, was laid.

THE CAPITOL, 1840

However, so far as city development was concerned, little was done
during this period. The L’Enfant plan seemed either forgotten or entirely too
large for the National Capital. In the city of Washington not a street was

lighted up to 1860 excepting Pennsylvania Avenue. Pigs roamed the
principal thoroughfares. Pavements, save for a few patches here and there,
were altogether lacking. An open sewer carried off common refuse, and the
police and fire departments might have sufficed for a small village rather
than for a nation’s capital.

WASHINGTON, 1852

In 1846 the part of the District of Columbia on the west bank of the
Potomac, including Alexandria, was re-ceded to Virginia. This was done
pursuant to an act of Congress of July 9 of that year, and with the assent of
the people of the county and town of Alexandria, at an election on the first
and second days of September, 1846, by a vote of 763 for retrocession and
222 against it. On September 7, 1846, President Polk issued a proclamation
giving notice that the portion derived from the State of Virginia, about 36
square miles, was re-ceded to that State. The action of Congress and the
President was based upon petitions of the people of the town and county of
Alexandria. The chief reasons were two: First, that the United States did not
need Alexandria County for the purpose of the seat of government; the

public buildings were all erected on the north side of the river, as required
by law—none on the south side—and it was declared that so far as it could
be foreseen the United States would never need that part of the District of
Columbia for the purpose of the seat of government. Secondly, the
petitioners said that the people of Alexandria had failed to derive or share in
the benefits which had been enjoyed by the residents of the Maryland
portion of the District of Columbia in the disbursements for public
improvements, etc., while on the other hand they were deprived of those
political rights incident to citizenship in a State.
Since then the United States has acquired something over 2 square miles
of this territory for use as a military post, a national cemetery, a Signal
Corps station, and the Department of Agriculture Experiment Farm.
The constitutionality of the retrocession has often been questioned. But
Congress had expressed itself clearly on the subject, and the majority of the
voters had their way in the matter. In a test case before the Supreme Court
of the United States in 1875 (Phillips v. Payne), the court, while not directly
ruling on the question, held that an individual is estopped from raising the
question. According to an opinion rendered by an attorney general about
1900, it would now take the consent of the State of Virginia to reinclude the
Virginia portion as part of the District of Columbia.
In the development of the National Capital the portion in Virginia is
properly included in the metropolitan area of Washington. The National
Capital Park and Planning Commission is, by authority of Congress,
cooperating with similar commissions of the States of Maryland and
Virginia. The great object is to secure for the remote regions of the National
Capital area the same harmonious development as there is in the heart of the
city. Both the States of Maryland and Virginia are cooperating to the fullest
extent in this matter.
On December 16, 1852, the first issue of the Washington Evening Star,
which has grown into one of the great national dailies, appeared.

DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY BUILDING, 1855

Chapter X
WASHINGTON 1860-1870
Washington in 1860 was still a comparatively small and undeveloped
city, with a population of 61,122. But the people were soon aroused to
intense excitement because of the strife between the States. When the Civil
War began, the eyes of the Nation were turned on Washington. The city
increased in population to over 100,000 in a few months time and was the
center of great war-time activities. On April 18, 1861, 500 Pennsylvania
troops, the first to answer President Lincoln’s call for volunteers, entered
the city, and the day following they were joined by the Sixth Massachusetts
Regiment. Soon thousands of additional men were here from all the States
in the North. Washington became an armed camp. Schools, churches, and
public halls were turned into hospitals to care for the sick and wounded. A
chain of forts and batteries was erected about the city to protect it, and by
October 1862 there were 252,000 soldiers encamped around Washington on
both sides of the river. There were 70 hospitals, caring for 30,000 sick and
wounded men.

OLD CAPITOL PRISON

THE CAPITOL, SHOWING UNCOMPLETED DOME, 1860

WASHINGTON, FROM ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, 1865

SECOND INAUGURAL OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN, 1865

On the morning of July 11, 1864, great fear spread over the city as Gen.
Jubal A. Early reached a point about 6 miles to the north of the city where
the Walter Reed General Hospital now stands. General Grant sent the Sixth
and part of the Nineteenth Corps to Washington, and their arrival on the
afternoon of that day saved the city. On the following day a skirmish of
troops and sharp engagement took place, which President Lincoln
witnessed as a spectator at Fort Stevens, exposing himself for a time to the
fire. That evening General Early, finding himself opposed by a greater force
than he was prepared to meet, withdrew, recrossing the Potomac at White
Fords, Va.
During the four years of the war thousands of troops passed through
Washington on their way to the front, thrilled by the thought of being in the
Nation’s Capital. Even though the Civil War was a great handicap to the
carrying out of improvements in the city, still several notable improvements
were made, among these being the work of enlarging the Capitol and
completing the Dome as we see it to-day. In that period also the first street-

car line was opened, the Long Bridge was rebuilt, and work on the
Washington Aqueduct developed so that from that time water has been
brought from the Potomac at Great Falls to the city.
In 1861 the number of employees of the Government was 3,466, and in
1865 they numbered 7,184.
On October 2, 1862, the first horse-drawn street cars commenced
operation, running from the Navy Yard to Georgetown; they continued in
use for 40 years.
On April 14, 1865, occurred the great tragedy when President Lincoln
was assassinated at Ford’s Theater by the actor John Wilkes Booth. The
funeral procession was a great solemn occasion, for Abraham Lincoln, on
whom the Nation had depended during four years of war to guide it safely
through the bitter conflict, had given his life for the cause that the Union
might be preserved. On May 23 and 24 took place the Grand Review on
Pennsylvania Avenue of 200,000 men, requiring six hours for General
Meade’s army on the first day and seven hours for General Sherman’s army
on the second day to pass before President Johnson and General Grant. In a
few days those who made up these armies passed from military life and
resumed their places among their fellow citizens.
Buildings that had been used as hospitals were again given over to
peaceful pursuits, and the forts that surrounded the city were dismantled.
Lumber from temporary buildings that were torn down was used to begin
the construction of houses in a new subdivision called Mount Pleasant. But
the great era for civic improvements was not to take place for another five
years, until the administration of President Grant.

Photograph by courtesy of the Oldest Inhabitants Association
GRAND REVIEW OF UNION ARMY, MAY, 1865

OLD HAYMARKET SQUARE, LOUISIANA AVENUE BETWEEN NINTH AND TENTH
STREETS

THE CAPITOL, 1870

Chapter XI
IMPROVEMENTS MADE DURING PRESIDENT
GRANT’S ADMINISTRATION
The year 1870 marked the beginning of a new and effective movement
for the development of the National Capital. Washington was then a city of
109,199.
Great efforts to relocate the National Capital in some other city,
preferably farther to the west, were made by some who were familiar with
conditions in Washington. St. Louis offered to spend several millions of
dollars for the erection of public buildings. Congress settled this agitation
by appropriating $500,000 as an initial sum for the construction of the
State, War, and Navy Building.
By an act of Congress approved February 21, 1871, a Territorial form of
government, consisting of a governor, a board of public works, and a
legislative assembly, was created. Alexander R. Shepherd, better known as
“Boss” Shepherd, a native of Washington, was appointed a member of the
board of public works and, later, governor of the new Territory.

VIEW SHOWING HORSE CARS

WASHINGTON, 1890

Great projects were placed under way for the development of the city.
One hundred and eighty of the 300 miles of half-made streets and avenues

were improved, and nearly all the thickly settled streets of the city were
paved with wood, concrete, or macadam; 128 miles of sidewalks were built
and 3,000 gas lamps were installed. A general and costly system of sewers
was begun. Old Tiber Creek was filled in, and the greatest nuisance of
Washington thereby put out of sight. Scores of new parks were graded,
fenced, and planted with trees and beautified by fountains. A special park
commission was appointed for this work. It planted 60,000 trees, and a
movement was thus begun which has given to Washington one of its most
characteristic features. To-day there are 114,000 trees along street curbs
because of the custom that has prevailed to plant trees along curbs when
new streets are opened for traffic. Many of the small triangles for which
Washington is noted were transformed from rubbish heaps into beautiful
reservations and planted with trees. There were soon more paved streets
here than in any other city of the country, and President Grant, in his
message to Congress, said, “Washington is rapidly becoming a city worthy
of the Nation’s Capital.”

GATEPOST DESIGNED BY BULFINCH, NEAR THE CAPITOL

However, the public took issue with Governor Shepherd, whose drastic
measures paved the way for modern Washington. Bonds were issued to

meet the expenses incurred by these improvements, taxes piled up to the
point of confiscation, and Shepherd was banished from the city. Yet without
the support of President Grant it would have been impossible for Governor
Shepherd to have brought about those civic improvements for which he is
remembered.
The Territorial form of government lasted three years, or until June 20,
1874, when Congress provided that a new form of municipal government
with three commissioners appointed by the President, with the consent of
the Senate, should be established in the District of Columbia. This, known
as the temporary form of government, lasted until July 1, 1878, when the
present form was established.

VIEW OF THE MALL ABOUT 1890

Chapter XII
THE INFLUENCE OF THE CENTENNIAL
CELEBRATION AND OF THE WORLD’S
COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION ON ART IN THE
UNITED STATES
The Centennial Exhibition of 1876 at Philadelphia marked a century of
progress. It aroused the country to its opportunities, after a period of
lethargy and unrest that followed the Civil War. A decade had elapsed since
the end of that terrible conflict, and a new day dawned. President Grant
gave the people confidence that he would guide the affairs of the Nation
safely as their Chief Executive. Industries were established, commerce and
trade developed, and prosperity followed. The Philadelphia Centennial of
1876 brought a sense of the power of the United States in material
resources, coupled with an admission of poverty in the things of the spirit,
and a determination to remedy shortcomings in this respect. The people
then turned their attention to the finer things of life and became interested in
erecting monuments and establishing art galleries. Thus, the Corcoran Art
Gallery, Washington, D. C., the Metropolitan Museum in New York, and the
Boston Museum of Fine Arts were chartered about the time of the
centennial celebration.
Again, in 1893, the World’s Columbian Exposition, Chicago, had a great
effect on art in the United States. It stirred the whole world by the
production of beautiful and impressive groups of buildings, so arranged and
coordinated as to create the sense of unity in the whole composition. The
White City along the shores of Lake Michigan still lives in the minds of
many people to-day. The use of landscape effects, of canals and basins, of
statuary and paintings, all contributed to impress the public and to lift
people to new standards and ideals of achievement. It marked the beginning

of a new era of civic development. In Chicago, for the first time, men saw
the advantage of teamwork to produce a result finer than anything before
dreamed of. A number of the great artists in the United States to-day served
their apprenticeship during the preparation of the World’s Columbian
Exposition, Chicago. Several of the artists served on the decorations of the
Congressional Library, which was completed in 1897. A considerable
number of the beautiful creations in architecture and sculpture in
Washington during the past 35 years by great artists reflect the experience
and inspiration received during that period.

WORLD’S COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION, CHICAGO—COURT OF HONOR, LOOKING EAST

WORLD’S COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION, CHICAGO—COURT OF HONOR, LOOKING
WEST

A most remarkable result of the aesthetic achievements of the World’s
Columbian Exposition was the influence it had on the architecture of
several national expositions which were held at the close of the nineteenth
and the beginning of the twentieth centuries. The first of these expositions
was the Trans-Mississippi Exposition, which was held at Omaha, Nebr.,
1897-1898. Several classical buildings were erected for it, as were erected
also for the Pan-American Exposition, held at Buffalo, N. Y., in 1901, to
emphasize the progress of Americans of the western continents during the
nineteenth century. Then followed the Louisiana Purchase Exposition,
which ranks as the third great World’s Fair held in this country in 1904, in
celebration of the one hundredth anniversary of the transfer of the Louisiana
Territory by France to the United States, during the administration of
President Jefferson. It is significant that as Thomas Jefferson had introduced
the classical style of architecture into this country, so at this Exposition
most of the 15 largest buildings resembled in character the classical
buildings of the Chicago World’s Fair. The next exposition in which

architecture had an important part was the Alaska-Yukon Pacific
Exposition, held at Seattle, Wash., in 1909. Again the classical style of
architecture was emphasized, and, as at the Chicago Exposition, the
buildings had an ivory-white appearance. It was stated at the time:
The influences of an Exposition are of course many, but one of the most palpable influences of our
American expositions has been their power to stimulate a powerful interest in architecture and
building.
The beneficent influence of the Chicago World’s Fair on our architecture is of inestimable value,
not only for the architects but for the entire country. Many Americans owe their interest in buildings
and architecture to a visit to Chicago in 1893, just as many cities and towns recall in their municipal
and government structures the revival of classic splendor seen in the stucco palaces of the World’s
Fair.

The next exposition of importance was the Panama-Pacific Exposition at
San Francisco, Calif., held in 1915. In 1906 almost the entire central part of
the city had been destroyed by a frightful earthquake and fire. In less than a
decade the city was rebuilt, and by 1915 there had also been planned and
constructed the great Exposition. Its principal buildings were built in the
classical style of architecture.

Chapter XIII
HIGHWAY PLAN OF THE DISTRICT OF
COLUMBIA
The street-planning process has experienced several stages of
development.
1. The narrow streets of Georgetown are typical of the first stage.
2. The wide avenues and streets of the area included in the L’Enfant plan
are appropriately referred to as outstanding proof of the value of proper
planning. The merit of this generous street plan was never more widely
appreciated than at present, when other cities are spending millions of
dollars to have their streets widened to meet traffic requirements.
3. The dark days of the National Capital, as far as its circulation system is
concerned, were those during which, outside the city planned by L’Enfant,
streets were dedicated without reference to any comprehensive plan. This
period was from about 1866 to 1893. The lack of authority to enforce a plan
allowed land-owners, insensible to the superior qualities of the L’Enfant
scheme, to do as they pleased. Prior to 1893 no city plan existed beyond the
original city limits. Streets could be created entirely at the will of the
subdivider by the simple recording of a plat, for there was no authority to
control or coordinate subdivisions. Sixteenth Street was blocked at Florida
Avenue, just as Seventeenth Street is today. Vermont, Connecticut, New
Jersey, New Hampshire, North Carolina, and Tennessee Avenues were
ignored. Widths of important streets were reduced, and a method of land
subdivision came into vogue wholly out of keeping with a capital city.
4. The reaction brought the so-called highway plan outside of the original
city limits of Washington and Georgetown. It was in effect an extension of
the plan of the original city to apply to all parts of the District of Columbia,
with such changes as were influenced by the topography. All subdivisions
subsequent to 1893 conform, by requirement of law, to this official plan.

This highway plan, first made effective in 1898, was a belated but
praiseworthy effort to extend the L’Enfant plan with its scheme of streets
and avenues beyond the old city. Considering the period in which it was
prepared, and the state of city-planning science at the time, it was a notable
achievement. The work was done by a board on street extensions, with a
membership entirely ex officio, known as the Highway Commission,
established by the act of Congress of 1893.

Courtesy Army Air Corps
WASHINGTON, LOOKING NORTH FROM THE WHITE HOUSE

Courtesy Army Air Corps
WASHINGTON, LOOKING SOUTH FROM SIXTEENTH STREET AND COLUMBIA ROAD

5. Since then the Surveyor’s Office of the District of Columbia and the
National Capital Park and Planning Commission, which superseded the
Highway Commission of 1893, have made an intensive study of the
highway problems of the District of Columbia, including street railroad
problems. This has required a differentiation of street functions, and an
application of the best methods of modern land subdivision to the remaining
undeveloped areas; also an attempt to restate the L’Enfant ideal in the terms
of a motor age. The results achieved appear in the changes in the highway
plan already approved by the Commission or being recommended to the
Commissioners of the District of Columbia from time to time. Many
changes in the highway plan have thus been made, each case having
required careful study of effects on topography, trees, drainage, lot depths
and sizes, etc. The acts of Congress of 1914 and 1925 authorized additional
changes in the Highway Plan. The act approved December 15, 1932
(Public, No. 307, 72d Cong.), authorizes the Commissioners of the District
of Columbia “to readjust and close streets, roads, highways, or alleys in the

District of Columbia rendered useless or unnecessary.” The desirability of
discontinuing streets which have never been opened and which exist only
on a map and only part of which are in public ownership, when a better and
cheaper way of giving the same traffic connection can be found, seems so
manifest as to require no further justification.

GATEHOUSE BY BULFINCH WHICH FORMERLY STOOD NEAR THE CAPITOL

With a view to creating direct arteries in which the vital traffic flow of
the community may freely move, a major thoroughfare scheme, extending
into the metropolitan area of Washington, has also been studied. The
District Commissioners have an interesting map illustrating the Highway
Plan. The Highway Department of the District of Columbia has charge of
upkeep and maintenance of highways in the District of Columbia. Out of
1,020 miles of streets in the District of Columbia 855 miles are paved.

Chapter XIV
THE McMILLAN PARK COMMISSION—THE
PLAN OF 1901
In 1900 a great celebration commemorating the one-hundredth
anniversary of the removal of the seat of government to the District of
Columbia was held in Washington. The keynote of the celebration was the
improvement of the District of Columbia in a manner and to the extent
commensurate with the dignity and the resources of the American Nation.
The population was 218,196.

OLD BALTIMORE & OHIO RAILROAD STATION

While the centennial exercises were in progress the American Institute of
Architects, in session in Washington, discussed the subject of the
development of parks and the placing of public buildings; the tentative
ideas of a number of the leading architects, sculptors, and landscape
architects of the country were heard; and as a result the Institute appointed a
committee on legislation. Consultations between that committee and the
Senate Committee on the District of Columbia were followed by the order
of the Senate for the preparation and submission of a general plan for the
development of the entire park system of the District of Columbia.

MODEL OF WASHINGTON SHOWING CONDITIONS IN 1901

MODEL OF THE FUTURE WASHINGTON, PLAN OF 1901

WASHINGTON, FROM ARLINGTON, PLAN OF 1901

Thus, Hon. James McMillan, of Michigan, chairman of the Senate
Committee on the District of Columbia, submitted the following resolution,

which was adopted by the United States Senate on March 8, 1901:
Resolved, That the Committee on the District of Columbia be, and it is hereby, directed to consider
the subject and report to the Senate plans for the development and improvement of the entire park
system of the District of Columbia. For the purpose of preparing such plans the committee may sit
during the recess of Congress and may secure the services of such experts as may be necessary for a
proper consideration of the subject. The expenses of such investigation shall be paid from the
contingent fund of the Senate.

OLD PENNSYLVANIA RAILROAD STATION

On March 19, 1901, the subcommittee of the District Committee having
the matter in charge met the representatives of the American Institute of
Architects and agreed to their proposition that Daniel H. Burnham,
architect, and Frederick Law Olmsted, jr., landscape architect, be selected
as experts, with power to add to their number. These gentlemen accepted,
and subsequently invited Charles F. McKim, architect, and Augustus Saint-
Gaudens, sculptor, to act with them in the preparation of plans. The services

of men who had won the very highest places in their several professions had
thus been secured.

THE MALL, SHOWING RAILROAD TRACKS CROSSING IT

THE MALL INUNDATED

The nature and scope of the work having been outlined to the
commission, they entered upon their task, but not without hesitation and
misgivings. The problem was both difficult and complex. Much had to be
done; much, also, had to be undone. Also the aid and advice of the
commission was sought immediately in relation to buildings and memorials
under consideration, and thus the importance and usefulness of the
commission were enhanced.
The commission, in order to make a closer study of the practice of
landscape architecture as applied to parks and public buildings, made a
brief trip to Europe, visiting Rome, Venice, Vienna, Budapest, Paris,
London, and their suburbs. Attention was directed principally to
ascertaining what arrangement of park areas best adapts them to the uses of
the people and what are the elements that give pleasure from generation to
generation, and even from century to century. The many and striking results
of this study were given in the Park Commission Report, including plans
and illustrations. The Committee on the District of Columbia submitted the

report to the Senate on January 15, 1902. It was adopted and ordered to be
printed as Senate Report No. 166, Fifty-seventh Congress, first session.

McMILLAN PARK COMMISSION
The members of the McMillan Park Commission were:
Daniel H. Burnham, architect, of Chicago. He became head of the firm
of Burnham & Root, one of the first great architectural firms of the country,
and later of D. H. Burnham & Co. Designer of many buildings, among them
the Railway Exchange and Marshall Field’s retail store in Chicago, and the
Wanamaker stores in New York and Philadelphia; in 1893 he became chief
architect and director of works of the World’s Columbian Exposition. Mr.
Burnham was instrumental in securing the adoption of a scheme of
construction which placed that exhibition in the very front rank of
international exhibitions, and by the display of rare executive ability he
brought about and maintained the effective cooperation of the architects and
artists, who then and there gave to American art both a new direction and a
tremendous impetus. In 1901 he became chairman of the McMillan Park
Commission for beautifying the National Capital; in 1908 he built the
Union Station at Washington; in 1910 he became a member of the National
Commission of Fine Arts and its first chairman. He also laid out plans for
Chicago, Cleveland, and Manila. He died in 1912 while on a trip abroad.
Charles F. McKim, architect, of New York City, studied architecture at
Harvard University and at the École des Beaux Arts in Paris. He organized
the firm of McKim, Mead & White, architects, of New York City, who for
half a century have led the architectural profession in the design of classical
buildings, such as the Boston Public Library, Harvard University buildings,
the Columbia University Library, the Morgan Library, the Rhode Island
Capitol, the Pennsylvania Railroad Station in New York City, the restoration
of the White House, and are the architects of the Arlington Memorial
Bridge. Mr. McKim, as a member of the McMillan Park Commission,
designed the Mall plan, and also made a sketch for the Lincoln Memorial.
Mr. McKim was president of the American Institute of Architects in 1902
and 1903, and was instrumental in the purchase of the Octagon House as
the headquarters of the American Institute of Architects. In 1903 he was
awarded the royal gold medal given by King Edward VII for the promotion
of architecture. Mr. McKim was a champion of good architecture and

keenly interested in the development of the National Capital. He deplored
the appearance of the State, War, and Navy Building, and said he would
find pleasure during leisure hours in raking off the columns—a work that is
contemplated in the remodeling of the building as the State Department
Building. He died in 1909.

Transcription

Augustus Saint-Gaudens, sculptor, born in Dublin, Ireland, on March 1,
1848, came to the United States in infancy and learned the trade of a cameo
cutter. He studied drawing at the Cooper Institute in 1861, and in 1865 and
1866 was a student of the National Academy of Design. From 1867 to 1870
he studied at the École des Beaux Arts in Paris. Mr. Saint-Gaudens was the
greatest American sculptor, and, indeed, one of the greatest of all time. His
great works of art are numerous and inspiring. Among them are The
Puritan; the statue of Abraham Lincoln, Chicago; the Farragut, the Peter
Cooper, and the Sherman Victory monuments in New York; the Shaw

Memorial in Boston; the Amor Caritas at the Luxembourg Gallery in Paris;
and the celebrated Adams Memorial in Rock Creek Cemetery, Washington.
He also designed a $20 gold piece. As a member of the McMillan Park
Commission he wrote that part of the report pertaining to Arlington
National Cemetery and advised in the matter of location of the Grant
Memorial at the head of the Mall. He died in 1907.
Frederick Law Olmsted, landscape architect, from the time that he
became a member of the McMillan Park Commission of 1901 has given
uninterrupted service in the development of the National Capital. He was
one of the original members of the National Commission of Fine Arts,
appointed in 1910, and served as landscape architect member until 1918.
From 1924 he served as landscape architect member of the National Capital
Park and Planning Commission. Mr. Olmsted was president of the
American Society of Landscape Architects and from its organization in
1907 a member of the National Conference on City Planning.
His father laid out Central Park, New York City, about 1858 (2,300 men
were employed on it in September of that year), and in 1872 he prepared the
landscape plan for the United States Capitol Grounds as they have existed
since then. Mr. Olmsted and his firm have in more recent years laid out the
Metropolitan Park System of Boston, the Vanderbilt Estate in North
Carolina, the Baltimore Park System, and Redondo Beach, Los Angeles
County, Calif. The smaller park areas which Mr. Olmsted has designed are
too numerous to mention.
Charles Moore has devoted fully 50 years to the development of the
National Capital, and is a former chairman of the National Commission of
Fine Arts. Mr. Moore was for many years clerk to the Senate Committee on
the District of Columbia, rendering most valuable service to the committee,
of which Senator McMillan was chairman, as well as to the National
Capital. The reports on the elimination of grade crossings in the District of
Columbia and on the charitable institutions of the District of Columbia, as
well as the Park Commission Report of 1901, are memorable documents of
that period which were largely prepared by him. His influence has always
been strong with Members of Congress in favor of the development of the
District of Columbia upon a noble scale. His appointment as one of the
original members of the National Commission of Fine Arts was a fitting
recognition not only of past services but of his preeminent qualifications to
pass upon subjects relating to the beautification of the National Capital. He

was chairman from 1915 to 1937. Mr. Moore also helped prepare the plan
of Chicago. He is the author of a number of books, among them being
Under Three Flags, the Life of Daniel H. Burnham, the Life of Charles F.
McKim, the Family Life of George Washington, Washington Past and
Present; and has contributed also innumerable articles to magazines in the
course of the years.

PLANS OF THE McMILLAN PARK COMMISSION
The plans prepared by the McMillan Park Commission and submitted,
with its report, to the Senate, constituted the first and most notable proposal
for grouping of public buildings ever put forward in the United States. The
outlying sections of the District of Columbia were studied in relation to a
system of parks, both large and small areas being indicated; the most
convenient and the most picturesque connections between the various parks
were mapped; the individual treatment which each important park should
undergo was recommended; an extension of the park system to Great Falls
and to Mount Vernon was discussed. Primarily, however, the development
of the Mall received detailed and elaborate treatment, and the location of
new public buildings, whether legislative, executive, or municipal in
character, was arranged according to a rational system of grouping; and
those memorials which mark distinct epochs in our national history were
brought into harmonious relation with the general scheme of development.
As a result of this study, the desirability of making every considerable
undertaking within the District of Columbia a part of a general plan was
made evident, so that each undertaking should contribute its part to
enhancing the value of the whole; and no undertaking would be allowed to
invade, to mutilate, or to mar the symmetry, simplicity, and dignity of the
one great composition designed to comprehend the entire area.
In working out the plans the park commission found it necessary to have
prepared two models, one showing the existing disturbed conditions in the
section from the Library of Congress westward to the Potomac, and the
other showing the arrangement proposed. These models, constructed with
the utmost attention to the details of topography by George C. Curtis, were
accurate maps of the section they so graphically depicted, and served as
guides in carrying the plans to completion. To present in graphic fashion
particular features of the plans, the accurate architectural drawings were

rendered in color by leading artists, and by means of these pictures a clear
and distinct idea of the completed work was obtained.
One of the greatest obstacles to a restoration of the Mall as provided for
in the L’Enfant plan was the fact that since 1872 the Mall had been
occupied by railroad tracks, the board of aldermen and the board of
common council having on March 20, 1871, granted the Mall site to the
Baltimore Potomac Railroad Co., later the Pennsylvania Railroad Co.,
which action was confirmed by act of Congress May 21, 1872. The Mall
was then no better than a common pasture. The railroad had taken the place
of the canal, which it paralleled, and held the right to use the property by a
title good in law and in equity; also by virtue of an act of Congress adopted
in 1890 the railroad space had been enlarged, in consideration of the
surrender of street trackage and the proposed elevation of the tracks within
the city of Washington.
It so happened that the chairman of the commission, Mr. Burnham, was
the architect of the new Pennsylvania Railroad Station at Pittsburgh, and he
had also drawn for the Pennsylvania Railroad Co. the preliminary plans for
the Baltimore & Potomac Railroad Station in Washington. After
consultation, Mr. Burnham proposed to the president of the Pennsylvania
Railroad Co. that the station be built on the south side of the Mall and the
adjoining lands; and, while the matter received serious consideration, no
action was taken. It was during the stay of the commission in London that
President Cassatt announced to Mr. Burnham his willingness to consider the
question, not of moving the Baltimore & Potomac Railroad Station to the
south side of the Mall but of withdrawing altogether from that region and
uniting with the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Co. in the erection of a union
station on the site established by legislation for the new depot of that road,
provided suitable legislation be secured to make compensation for the
increased expense such a change would involve, and provided, also, that the
approaches to the new site be made worthy of the building the railroads
proposed to erect.
Subsequent examination convinced the commission that from an esthetic
standpoint there were insuperable objections to the depot site provided by
law; the chief objection being that were the station to front on C Street a
train shed 800 feet long would be thrown across Massachusetts Avenue, one
of the great thoroughfares of the city. Not only would the vista be blocked
by a commercial building, but also the street would be carried underneath

this enormous structure in a tunnel so long as to cause the avenue to be
avoided by traffic. The commission thereupon proposed a site fronting on
Massachusetts Avenue, and that was the one adopted for the Union Station.
The plans called for a station 8 feet and 8 inches longer than the Capitol, the
building to be of white marble, the façade Roman in style of architecture,
and the construction and arrangements so planned as to make this station
superior to any structure ever erected for railway purposes. Facing the
Capitol, and yet not too near that building, the new station was designed to
front upon a plaza 600 feet in width and 1,200 feet in length, where bodies
of troops or large organizations could be formed during inaugural times or
on other like occasions. Thus located and so constructed, the Union Station
makes a great and impressive gateway to Washington.
In considering the views of the commission, and in reaching his decision,
the president of the Pennsylvania Railroad Co. looked at the matter from the
standpoint of an American citizen, saying in substance that he appreciated
the fact that if Congress intended to make of the Mall what the founders of
the city intended it to be, no railroad should be allowed to cross it, and that
he was willing to vacate the space provided the matter could be arranged
without sacrificing the interests of the stockholders of the Pennsylvania
Railroad Co. This conditional consent on the part of the railroad, which was
later agreed to by Congress, removed the one great obstacle to the
preparation of adequate plans for the improvement of the city. Lesser
obstacles, such as the lack of surveys of the oldest parks in the District and
the difficulties of getting together the widely scattered data, were
surmounted. On the other hand, the work was much lightened by the
excellent topographical maps of the District outside of the city prepared by
the Coast and Geodetic Survey.

TREATMENT FOR AREA WEST OF THE CAPITOL, PLAN OF 1901

THE CAPITOL GROUP
Naturally the plan of 1901 began at the Capitol. It was recommended that
the chief legislative building of the Nation be surrounded by structures
dependent on or supplementary to legislative work. The Library of
Congress had been completed in 1897. The enjoyment and satisfaction
taken in the Library by the thousands of persons from all parts of the
country who visit it daily is an indication of the manner in which the
American people regard the upbuilding of their Capital. Since the Library
Building was designed we have learned lessons of subordination in
grouping (as shown in the Senate and House Office Buildings and in the
Union Station), and also of restraint in decoration; but the Library contains
individual work of the leading painters and sculptors of its era.

UNION SQUARE, PLAN OF 1901

The idea of office buildings for the Members of the Senate and the House
of Representatives was in mind when the plan was being made, and
therefore the areas these buildings would naturally occupy were marked.
The three buildings were designed and constructed in such manner as to
make them an integral part of the Capitol group. Simple, elegant, and
dignified, the Senate and House of Representatives Office Buildings carry
on the great tradition established by Washington and Jefferson in the
selection of the Thornton design for the original building, and persistently
maintained by President Fillmore in the extension of the Capitol by Thomas
U. Walter.
By common consent the remaining space facing the Capitol on the east
was assigned to a building for the Supreme Court of the United States,
which since the removal of the seat of government to the District of
Columbia in 1800 occupied the same building with the Congress.
On the south below the House of Representatives Office Buildings the
frontage is occupied by nondescript buildings, all undignified and unsightly.

The obvious use of this land is building sites and house gardens to balance
Union Station Plaza on the north. This also is a project for the future.
THE HEAD OF THE MALL

The area directly west of the Capitol grounds was marked on the
L’Enfant map as an open plaza, affording an approach to that building
similar to the one on the east. Owing to the slow development of
Washington the west front underwent various vicissitudes. The Baltimore &
Ohio Railroad Co. tracks once were located about on a line with the Peace
and Garfield Monuments. The Botanic Garden area was reclaimed from an
alder swamp, and the James Creek Canal wound its way through it. A
quarter of a century ago the House passed a bill for the removal of the
Botanic Garden fence, with the view of giving the public access to that park
in the same manner that other parks are open.
The plan of 1901 aimed to restore this area to its intended uses as a broad
thoroughfare so enriched with parterres as to form an organic connection
between the Capitol Grounds and the Mall. Anticipating the improvement
of this square, named Union Square, as outlined in the plan, Congress
located therein the memorial to General Grant, the base of which was
designed to be used as a reviewing stand, and later a site in the same area
was designated for the monument to General Meade. The Grant Memorial
was completed a number of years ago, the Meade Monument is also in
place, and the Botanic Garden has been relocated south of Maryland
Avenue, near the Capitol. The new plan for Union Square as carried out,
was made by Frederick Law Olmsted in 1935.
DEVELOPMENT OF THE MALL

That section of the Mall between Third and Four-and-a-half Streets has
been laid out and planted with elms in accordance with the plan of 1901,
and Congress has provided for putting in the roadways. The temporary
buildings in the Mall were so located that upon removal the roadways will
be in accordance with the Mall plan, and as fast as the buildings are razed
the planting of trees can be made. The space between Four-and-a-half and
Sixth Streets was so improved and restored during the fiscal year beginning
July 1, 1921.
Congress has authorized the occupation of the north side of the Mall
between Third and Seventh Streets (former site of the Pennsylvania Station)

by the National Gallery of Art, designed by John Russell Pope. Plans for the
building approved by the Commission of Fine Arts are classical in style of
architecture.
Auditoriums, both large and small, designed for the uses of conventions,
inaugural exercises, and meetings of patriotic societies are among the prime
necessities of Washington. Such gathering places would meet governmental
and semipublic needs and be advantageous to the growth of American
feeling.

MALL AND MONUMENT GARDENS, PLAN OF 1901

The space between Third and Seventh Streets, on the south side of the
Mall is being considered for the Smithsonian Gallery of Art, authorized by
Congress, to house the collections of works of art that have been given to
the Nation. The planting and roadways continuous with those already in
place on the Mall can then be put in.
The new National Museum Building was the first structure to be located
and erected according to the plan of 1901, having been aligned in
conformity to the new Mall axis. On the south side of the Mall the new
Freer Gallery also conforms to the revised axis. This gallery is a constituent
portion of the National Gallery of Art. It represents one of the largest gifts

ever made by an individual to the Government. Although comparatively
small in extent, both the building itself and the collections now being
arranged within it represent the very highest standards of art. Moreover, the
Freer Gallery is a type of the small, adequately housed, and well-endowed
gallery which doubtless will be established from time to time by private
individuals and given to the Nation to be administered by the Smithsonian
Institution for the instruction and gratification of the people.
The section of the Mall between Twelfth and Fourteenth Streets is
occupied by the Department of Agriculture. The location of the two wings
of the building designed to accommodate the administrative offices of the
department precipitated a contest, on the result of which depended the fate
of the plan of 1901. It was due to the firm stand taken by President
Roosevelt and Secretary of War Taft that the location was made in
accordance with the plan. That crisis having been met satisfactorily, the
future of the Mall scheme was assured, and since then the plan for park
connection between the Capitol and the White House has become an
established fact.
While L’Enfant had planned a driveway through the center of the Mall,
the Mall Plan of 1901 consists of an expanse of undulating green park, a
mile in length and 300 feet wide, extending from the Capitol to the
Monument. This central green space is bordered by park roads, flanked by
four rows of American elms, under the shade of which are walks and resting
places. Back of these rows of trees are other roads furnishing access to
public buildings like the National Museum, the Department of Agriculture
Building, the Freer Gallery, and the National Gallery of Art, which have
been located according to the plan.
RESTORING THE MALL AXIS

According to the L’Enfant plan the Monument to George Washington
was to be located at the point where a line drawn due west from the center
of the Capitol would intersect a line drawn due south from the center of the
White House. On these axial relations the Mall composition depended for
its effect. The builders of the Washington Monument, despairing of securing
adequate foundations in the lowlands at the intersection of the main and the
cross axes, located the Monument without regard to points fixed in the plan.
Feeling the absolute necessity of restoring these relationships, the Park
Commission boldly determined to create a new main axis by drawing a line

from the Capitol Dome through the Washington Monument and prolonging
it to the shore of the Potomac, where they proposed, on the then
unimproved lands dredged from the river to form Potomac Park, a site for a
new memorial. Here they placed the long-contemplated memorial to
Abraham Lincoln. This they did with full comprehension of the fact that by
common consent Lincoln is the one man in the history of this Nation
worthy to stand with Washington in the great central composition.

PLAN OF THE MALL

The original intersection had been marked by Thomas Jefferson by a
small monument known as the Jefferson Pier. In the McMillan Park
Commission plan of 1901 this pier is indicated by a circular pool. That
commission, as has been said, restored the cross axis of the Mall, and from
the Mall plan of 1901 by actual measurement the Washington Monument is
371.6 feet east of the north and south axis of the White House, and 123.17
feet south of the Capitol axis.
EXTENDING THE MALL AXIS TO THE LINCOLN MEMORIAL

While this location of the Lincoln Memorial commended itself to men
like Theodore Roosevelt, John Hay, Elihu Root, and William H. Taft, it was
opposed by many others, who had regard to the immediate future and who
did not consider either the historical significance of the situation or the
prospective development of Potomac Park, then far from the more populous

parts of the city and thus seemingly isolated and remote. The struggle over
this location, and indeed over any memorial of an ideal character, was long
and bitter. Nor was it ended during the lifetime of Mr. McKim and Mr.
Saint-Gaudens. Happily, however, the result was determined in accordance
with the commission plan, and to-day no other site seems possible. This was
a distinct victory for the plan, virtually insuring the realization of the large
scheme as laid out in 1901.
The Park Commission wrote as follows:
From the Monument garden westward a canal 3,600 feet long and 200 feet wide, with central arms
and bordered by stretches of green walled with trees, leads to a concourse raised to the height of the
Monument platform. Seen from the Monument this canal, similar in character to the canals at
Versailles and Fontainebleau in France and Hampton Court in England, introduces into the formal
landscape an element of repose and great beauty. At the head of the canal a great rond-point, placed
on the main axis of the Capitol and the Monument, becomes a gate of approach to the park system of
the District of Columbia. Centering upon it as a great point of reunion are the drives leading
southeast to Potomac Park and northwest by the Riverside Drive to the Rock Creek system of parks.
From this elevation of 40 feet the Memorial Bridge leads across the Potomac directly to the base of
the hill crowned by the mansion house of Arlington.

SITE OF THE LINCOLN MEMORIAL, 1901

Crowning the rond-point, as the Arc de Triomphe crowns the Place de l’Etoile at Paris, should
stand a memorial erected to the memory of that one man in our history as a nation who is worthy to
stand with George Washington—Abraham Lincoln. Whatever may be the exact form selected for the
memorial to Lincoln, in form it should possess the quality of universality, and also it should have a
character essentially distinct from that of any other monument either now existing in the District or
hereafter to be erected. The type which the commission has in mind is a great portico of Doric
columns rising from an unbroken stylobate.

The foregoing recommendations were among the fundamentals of the
plan of 1901. Ten years were required to embody them in legislation. To-
day the Lincoln Memorial and the Arlington Memorial Bridge are
completed along the general lines suggested.

THE LINCOLN MEMORIAL, MEMORIAL BRIDGE, AND RIVERSIDE DRIVE, PLAN OF
1901

There are many other features of the McMillan plan that the report of
1901 describes to which attention is called in the subsequent pages of this
volume; thus there is the Rock Creek Parkway, the Anacostia Park
development, the Fort Drive, the parkway along the Palisades of the
Potomac to Great Falls, and the Mount Vernon Highway. The plans for
these projects required authorization by Congress and time to make
necessary land purchases; but at the present time there is indication that
they will be completed in the near future. The day has come when the
Greater Washington, or the metropolitan area of Washington, is being
brought into the scheme of development of the National Capital.
The plan of 1901 reasserted the authority of the original plan of L’Enfant,
extended to meet the needs of the Nation after a century of growth in power,
wealth, and dignity, and also marked the path for future development.

THE FUTURE WASHINGTON

Chapter XV
NATIONAL COMMISSION OF FINE ARTS
Immediately after abolishing the Council of Fine Arts President Taft
undertook to interest Congress in the establishment of a permanent
Commission of Fine Arts. A bill was accordingly presented in the United
States Senate by Hon. Elihu Root. In the House of Representatives the bill
was sponsored by Hon. Samuel W. McCall. Various amendments were
made to the measure in both the Senate and House of Representatives and it
was finally adopted by the act approved May 17, 1910, as follows:
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in
Congress assembled, That a permanent Commission of Fine Arts is hereby created to be composed of
seven well-qualified judges of the fine arts, who shall be appointed by the President, and shall serve
for a period of four years each, and until their successors are appointed and qualified. The President
shall have authority to fill all vacancies. It shall be the duty of such Commission to advise upon the
location of statues, fountains, and monuments in the public squares, streets, and parks in the District
of Columbia, and upon the selection of models for statues, fountains, and monuments, erected under
the authority of the United States and upon the selection of artists for the execution of the same. It
shall be the duty of the officers charged by law to determine such questions in each case to call for
such advice. The foregoing provisions of this act shall not apply to the Capitol Building of the United
States and the building of the Library of Congress. The Commission shall also advise generally upon
questions of art when required to do so by the President, or by any committee of either House of
Congress. Said Commission shall have a secretary and such other assistance as the Commission may
authorize, and the members of the Commission shall each be paid actual expenses in going to and
returning from Washington to attend the meetings of said Commission and while attending the same.
Sec. 2. That to meet the expenses made necessary by this act an expenditure of not exceeding
$10,000 a year is hereby authorized.

The duties of the Commission of Fine Arts have been enlarged since then
from time to time by Executive orders. Congress has also stipulated in
many recent enactments that the plans for certain designated buildings,
monuments, etc., must be approved by the Commission before they can be
accepted by the Government. The act of May 16, 1930, gives the
Commission control over certain portions of the District of Columbia in the

matter of private buildings, under what is known as the Shipstead-Luce Act.
Reports are published periodically.
The duties of the Commission, therefore, now embrace not only advising
upon the location of statues, fountains, and monuments in the public
squares, streets, and parks in the District of Columbia, etc., but in fact all
questions involving matters of art with which the Federal Government is
concerned.

CAPITOL GROUNDS AND UNION STATION PLAZA, 1917

THE MALL, 1930

The Commission has been in existence 29 years, during which time many
great artists of this country have served as its members. The membership
comprises three architects, a sculptor, a painter, a landscape architect, and a
lay member. Congress permits the Commission to hold meetings, including
committee meetings, both in and outside of the District of Columbia, thus
enabling it to give attention to works of art in any part of the country in
which the Government is interested. A meeting of the Commission is
usually held in Washington each month, where the public-buildings
program and other great projects under way for the development of the
National Capital are requiring its particular attention.
In the work of the Commission of Fine Arts we see the splendid results
achieved through the collaboration of architects, sculptors, painters, and
landscape architects. The Commission exists primarily to serve the
Congress and its committees, the President, and the heads of the
Government Departments. There are exceptional cases when the
Commission of Fine Arts is called upon to advise with reference to fine arts
projects submitted by individuals. The Commission aims to maintain

standards of taste. The members themselves are prominent in their
respective professions and are “well-qualified judges of the fine arts.”
Prior to the establishment of the Commission of Fine Arts it was the
practice of Congress when legislation was enacted providing for a public
building, a monument, or other work of art to authorize the appointment of
a committee to advise it concerning the specific fine arts project. Such a
committee was as a rule composed of laymen, unqualified to give advice on
matters of art. Thereupon money was appropriated to meet the expenses of
a jury of award, in addition to those of the committee; and when the project
was completed, the committee disbanded, leaving Congress without a
recognized body to whom matters pertaining to the fine arts could be
referred, and requiring a repetition of the appointment of a new committee
for procuring some new work of art desired by Congress. It was just such a
situation as this that existed in 1910 when Senator Root was a member of
the Committee on the Library. In a letter addressed to the Chairman of the
Commission of Fine Arts at the twenty-fifth anniversary of its establishment
in May 1935, Senator Root stated:
Sometime about the early spring of 1910 some Senator had introduced in the Senate a resolution
providing for the purchase by the Government of a number of paintings that nobody wanted to buy
and under the rule that resolution was referred to the Committee on the Library. The responsibility for
protecting the Government against a waste of money was thus thrown upon the Committee.
A little discussion developed the fact that all the members of the Committee had an uncomfortable
feeling that the pictures were probably worthless and no such purchase ought to be made but that no
member of the Committee felt any such confidence in his own knowledge and judgment about such
things as to feel like making a report to the Senate based on his opinion, and maintaining that opinion
on the floor. We all felt that the Committee ought to have some way of getting an expert opinion to
guide it in making its report.
In the discussion we recalled Theodore Roosevelt’s appointment of a Fine Arts Council, which fell
to the ground because it had no legal standing, and we recalled also the advantage received from the
report of park development of the informal commission selected by the McMillan Committee, and
we finally determined to ask Congress to provide for the appointment of a fine arts commission
which would meet the need that our Committee was then experiencing and a similar need which was
liable to occur in a multitude of cases under which Government officers had to pass on questions of
art without being really competent to perform such a duty. * * * I drafted a very brief statute * * *
and a little informal explanation of the need which the Committee felt for expert assistance in the
performing of its duties carried the bill through.
And so, without creation of any power of legal compulsion, there was brought to the service of the
Government the authority of competent opinion upon questions of art arising in the course of
administration, and widespread and habitual deference to such an opinion has saved the Government
and the community from God knows how many atrocities.

From the time of its establishment, the Commission has been consulted
about every detail of the progress of the Plan of Washington, and also about

many works of art for which the Government makes appropriations. This
includes also works of art which our Government, as a result of
congressional enactment, presents to the governments and the peoples of
other countries to express our friendship and good will, or erects for the use
of our diplomatic corps abroad, or to perpetuate the memory of our soldiers’
deeds of daring and courage. Good examples are the statue of Leif Ericsson
to Iceland, the statue of Henry Clay to Venezuela, the American Embassy
Building in Japan, and the World War Memorials in Europe.
In creating the National Capital Park and Planning Commission by act of
April 30, 1926, Congress provided that purchases of lands made thereunder
shall have the advice of the Commission of Fine Arts. During the years all
proposed purchases have been approved. The two Commissions have acted
harmoniously in the work of developing the District of Columbia according
to carefully devised plans for parks, playgrounds, and highways.
The first project that came before the Commission of Fine Arts, in 1910,
was the Lincoln Memorial. The memorial during a period of 12 years had
the continual attention of this Commission, and since its dedication on May
30, 1922, it has been recognized as one of the great memorials of the world.
In the past 15 years the row of beautiful white marble buildings near the
Lincoln Memorial have been built, as also the new Department buildings on
Constitution Avenue. These are a part of the great public buildings program
that is in progress in the National Capital.

Transcription

THE CENTRAL COMPOSITION OF THE NATIONAL CAPITAL

Chapter XVI
ZONING OF THE CAPITAL
Our first President, by proclamation of October 17, 1791 (illustrated on
page 21), established a height restriction of 40 feet on buildings in the new
Capital. Although not a regulation by zones, it might have been the
beginning of a zoning policy if the growth of the Capital had been foreseen.
However, the restriction was suspended under President Monroe in 1822,
and it was not until 1910 that a comprehensive height regulation became
effective. The act of 1910 established height limits, depending upon the
width of adjacent streets.
The first zoning ordinance for an American city was adopted by New
York City in 1916. The World War held the problem of zoning our cities in
abeyance. Washington was zoned by the act of 1920. Since then fully 1,500
towns and cities throughout the United States, ranging from 5,000 to
6,000,000 (New York City) in population, have adopted zoning ordinances.
Zoning not only controls the use and development of land but also
regulates the height and bulk of buildings, the open spaces which must be
provided for light and ventilation, and the density and distribution of
population. It is a legislative function under the police power. The usual
procedure in establishing zoning control in our cities has been to pass an
ordinance under the authority of the State Zoning Enabling Act, dividing
the city into use, height, and area districts, throughout each of which the
governing regulations are the same. Separate districts are provided for
residence, business, and industry. Thus business and industry are excluded
from the residence districts. There may or may not be separate districts
provided for light and heavy industry, or for local business and general
business. The residence district is usually subdivided according to types of
dwellings into areas for single-family dwellings, two-family dwellings,
multiple-family dwellings, or apartment houses. Multiple-family dwellings
are usually excluded from the single-family areas. This practice has

received the hearty approval of home owners. Undeveloped land in
suburban sections is usually placed in the residence district and restricted to
single-family use. If conditions warrant, and there is no opposition from the
owners, it may later be rezoned for more profitable multiple-family or
business use.

ARCHITECTURAL STANDARDS ABSENT
The zoning ordinance has not attempted to regulate buildings, except as
to height and size, nor set any standard of architectural fitness to the
surroundings. If it had attempted any such thing, it could never have
become a law. Only in recent years have citizens begun to think that
attractiveness may add a cash value to houses, or that insistence on beauty
is becoming in a democracy.
The Shipstead-Luce Act, adopted May 16, 1930, gives the Commission
of Fine Arts a limited control over private buildings in the District of
Columbia and provides that private buildings facing important Government
buildings and parks, in areas specified in the act, must harmonize in
appearance with the latter. Although not affecting the Zoning Act, it is, like
the height law of 1910, part of the zoning restrictions.
The provisions of the Zoning Act of 1938 do not apply to Federal public
buildings.
However, the location, height, bulk, number of stories, and size of Federal public buildings and the
provision for open space in and around the same, will be subject to the approval of the National
Capital Park and Planning Commission.

Approximately one-half of the area of the Capital is under Government
control and one-half is open to private development. That private
development should proceed in harmony with the plans of the local and
Federal Governments was acceptable as an ideal, and a determined effort
was made in 1918 to introduce zoning into Washington. In that year and the
year following congressional committees, the District Commissioners, and
others formulated plans, and a zoning bill became a law effective August
30, 1920. After a period of 18 years, during which several important
changes in the law had suggested themselves, Congress adopted a new
Zoning Act, which was approved by the President on June 20, 1938 (Public,
No. 684, 75th Congress).

The act provides that the regulations heretofore adopted by the Zoning
Commission under the authority of the act of March 1, 1920, including
official maps, shall be deemed to have been made and adopted and in force
under this present act. The act empowers the Zoning Commission “to
regulate the location, height, bulk, number of stories, and size of buildings
and other structures, the percentage of lot which may be occupied, the sizes
of yards, courts, and other open spaces, the density of population, and the
uses of buildings, structures, and land for trade, industry, residence,
recreation, public activities, or other purposes * * *.”
Many people do not understand the importance and necessity of a zoning
law in a city; they think it deprives them of private rights. Yet without a
good zoning law living conditions in cities of the present day become
chaotic. Section 2 of the act of June 20, 1938, sets forth the purpose of the
zoning regulations and also points out the benefits to be derived from
zoning, as follows:
Such regulations shall be made in accordance with a comprehensive plan and designed to lessen
congestion in the street, to secure safety from fire, panic, and other dangers, to promote health and
the general welfare, to provide adequate light and air, to prevent the undue concentration of
population and the overcrowding of land, and to promote such distribution of population and of the
uses of land as would tend to create conditions favorable to health, safety, transportation, prosperity,
protection of property, civic activity, and recreational, educational, and cultural opportunities, and as
would tend to further economy and efficiency in the supply of public services. Such regulations shall
be made with reasonable consideration, among other things, of the character of the respective
districts and their suitability for the uses provided in the regulations, and with a view to encouraging
stability of districts and of land values therein.

The Zoning Commission may from time to time amend the regulations
and the maps, but before doing so a public hearing must be held, and at
least 30 days’ notice of the time and place of the hearing must be published
at least once in a daily newspaper in the District of Columbia, giving full
information concerning the proposed amendment. A favorable vote of not
less than a full majority of the members is necessary for the adoption of an
amendment.
The Zoning Commission consists of five members, namely, the three
Commissioners of the District of Columbia, the Director of the National
Park Service, and the Architect of the Capitol.
The act of 1938 provides for a Zoning Advisory Council, to which
suggested amendments to the regulations are submitted for consideration
and recommendation. The act also provides for a Board of Zoning
Adjustment, which shall have the power to hear and decide appeals where it

is alleged a hardship will be imposed by carrying out and enforcing any
regulation adopted under the Zoning Act, and to hear and decide on
complaints regarding zoning, as also requests for special exceptions or map
interpretations. In exercising its powers, “the Board of Adjustments may, in
conformity with the provisions of this act, reverse or affirm, wholly or
partly, or may modify the order, requirement, decision, determination, or
refusal appealed from or may make such order as may be necessary to carry
out its decision or authorization, and to that end shall have all the powers of
the officer or body from whom the appeal is taken.” The concurring vote of
not less than a full majority of the members of the Board is necessary for
any decision or order.

HEIGHT OF BUILDINGS RESTRICTED BY THE CAPITOL
DOME
The preeminence of the Dome of the Capitol has dominated the height of
both public and private buildings. The 110-foot-height limit is found in a
small section of the center of the downtown business district. On streets 110
feet wide in the 110-foot-height district, 130 feet is allowed under set-back
provisions, and this maximum height cannot be exceeded by buildings
(except spires, penthouses, or other excrescences) erected under the zoning
regulations. Before 1929 but few buildings exceeded this height. The act of
1910 limited the height of buildings to front or abut Union Station Plaza to
80 feet.

Transcriptions
REGIONAL PLAN OF WASHINGTON AND ENVIRONS

Chapter XVII
THE NATIONAL CAPITAL PARK AND
PLANNING COMMISSION
A new period in the development of the city may be said to date from
1901 with the filing of the report of the McMillan Park Commission, for
since that time there has been a constant increase in the interest taken by the
public. The outstanding dates recording the progress of this increased
interest are 1910, 1912, 1920, and 1924. The Fine Arts Commission was
established in 1910. A new beginning of control of private property was
made in 1910 after many years’ lapse of the original restrictions imposed by
President Washington. This new beginning consisted in control of the height
of buildings, the passage of a height law, and was followed in 1920 by a
comprehensive zoning law.
In 1924 the lack of provision of public parks and the failure to carry out
the proposals of the plan of 1901, in so far as park areas were concerned,
led to the formation of the National Capital Park Commission, with
authority to purchase lands for park purposes. The organization of the
Commission was the result of combined efforts of many nation-wide
organizations.
The new Commission soon found that an intelligent choice of park lands
could not be made without knowledge of the interrelation of parks,
highways, zoning, public buildings, and other elements of city and regional
planning. The authority of the Commission was therefore increased in 1926,
and its membership enlarged. The new National Capital Park and Planning
Commission was charged—
with the duty of preparing, developing, and maintaining a comprehensive, consistent, and
coordinated plan for the National Capital and environs (an area of some 1,539 square miles, lying
roughly within 20 miles of the White House, and involving the cooperation of 2 States, 4 counties, 2
cities, and numerous incorporated places), which plan shall include recommendations to the proper
executive authorities as to traffic and transportation; plats and subdivisions; highways, parks, and

parkways; school and library sites; playgrounds, drainage, sewerage, and water supply; housing,
building, and zoning regulations; public and private buildings; bridges and water fronts; commerce
and industry; and other proper elements of city and regional planning.

The largest single factor in determining the extent and character of the
development of the National Capital will be the extent, character, and
wisdom of the permanent investments by the public in public areas and
improvements. This Commission has, therefore, considered as of primary
importance the proper location and extent of public lands, whether used for
streets, parks, public buildings, or other public services; and the timely
acquisition and development of these areas for their particular purposes.

VIEW FROM THE DOME OF THE CAPITOL, LOOKING EAST

VIEW OF THE DOME OF THE CAPITOL, LOOKING SOUTH

Since the areas needed for public use can not be chosen without regard to
the use and extent of private developments, it follows that some control
over the use of private property—as by zoning—is an essential part of city
or regional planning.
When city planning is mentioned most people think first of streets. In this
field the commission has been active in three ways—first, in an effort to
make the streets fit the land and to follow along the hills and valleys instead
of across them; second, in establishing a major thoroughfare system guiding
the development of the main highways within the District of Columbia and
extending the principles of the original L’Enfant plan to the limits of the
District; and third, in securing public support of a regional highway system
which will provide more adequately for traffic both into the city and
between suburban areas.
With the first of these aims in view many changes in the highway plan of
the District have been made in cooperation with the District officials. These
changes were advantageous to preserve natural topography, to fit the streets
to property lines, to save trees, to provide drainage, or for like reasons.
Several important street openings and widenings have been undertaken in
accordance with the commission’s major thoroughfare plan, such as New

York Avenue beyond the limits of the L’Enfant plan, the opening of a new
Louisiana Avenue from the Union Station to Pennsylvania Avenue at Union
Square, straightening of Michigan Avenue, and extension of Sixteenth
Street to the District line. The plan which follows the recommendations of
the commission has been recognized by the District officials in the adoption
of a 5-year highway program.
Several new regional highway projects are now complete or going
forward in accordance with the regional plan. The Mount Vernon Memorial
Highway and the Lee Boulevard establish new standards in highway design.
The extension of Rhode Island and Massachusetts Avenues fits the plan.
The Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission has adopted
practically all of the suggestions made by the Commission for the Maryland
area as part of the Maryland master plan.
Where parks are concerned the Commission has a special responsibility.
The plans for parks both in the District of Columbia and out of it have
received the indorsement of Congress in the Capper-Cramton Act.
For the District the Commission is now acquiring parks of three types:
(1) A parkway (the Fort Drive) around the city, 28 miles long and
connecting the sites of the Civil War forts on the second row of hills; (2) a
system of recreation centers and playgrounds distributed throughout the
area in association with the schools and so far as possible providing a play
area within a quarter of a mile of every child; (3) preservation of stream
valleys and correction of the boundaries of Rock Creek Park.
The principal physical feature of the region is the Potomac River, so it is
natural that the corresponding feature of the park system is along the river
banks. Below Washington, where the broad lakelike scenery exists,
parkways are under construction or contemplated on the Virginia side to
Mount Vernon and on the Maryland shore to Fort Washington. Above
Washington a park is projected to preserve the natural scenery of the
Palisades, rapids, woodlands, and Great Falls of the Potomac, together with
the Patowmack Canal, built by George Washington, and the Chesapeake &
Ohio Canal on the Maryland side of the river.
The Commission has taken an active part in the effort to have the public
buildings of Washington grouped and arranged not only for the convenience
and beauty of the result but also that they may fit into the future plans for
streets, highways, and parks, and thus promote the orderly development of
the city and region. When the first important step in the public-buildings

program was taken in 1926 the Commission urged the purchase of all of the
land necessary for a plan of the group as a whole instead of undertaking
individual building projects as separate units in the scheme. The problems
of parking and transit facilities in relation to the public-buildings groups
have caused the Commission great concern, and efforts have been made to
secure the cooperation of the architects in charge of the building program in
order to solve these problems. In all of its activities concerning the public-
buildings program the Commission has been guided by the principles
announced by the plan of 1901, under which Federal buildings will be
concentrated along the axis of the Mall and about the White House. The
Commission has given favorable consideration to an enlargement of this
program by which semipublic buildings and possibly State buildings might
be located along East Capitol Street in order to help the balance between the
northwest and the eastern portions of the city of Washington.
In the same way the Commission advises the appropriate authorities on
matters of zoning and control of use of private property. Zoning has now
been adopted not only in the District but also in the Maryland suburban area
and in Arlington County and Fairfax County, Va. Also Alexandria has
prepared a zoning plan. It is hoped that in the not distant future other
portions of the Maryland and Virginia areas may be added to this list. In
matters relating to zoning in the District, the Commission has contributed
statistical data and expert opinion, and was particularly active in the
segregation of single-family houses from 2-family and community groups.
In brief, it is the function of the Commission to revive, review, and revise
the efforts of past generations toward a “great and effective city for the seat
of our Government” and to keep that ideal constantly before the public, to
the end that each separate undertaking by the countless public and private
agencies concerned may be coordinated and related to produce a result in
which future generations may take pride.

Transcriptions
FORT DRIVE CONNECTING THE CIVIL WAR FORTS ENCIRCLING WASHINGTON

EAST CAPITOL STREET—EXTENDING THE MALL AXIS
EASTWARD
Some one has said “the beauty of Washington is its trees.” No one who
has seen the thousands of trees in Washington and in the country adjacent to
the city can deny this. There is no national capital in the world that has
more beautiful trees than Washington. Those seen on East Capitol Street are
typical of the large massive trees throughout the city. Thousands of them
were planted during the Presidency of General Grant, and it has been the
policy of the District of Columbia government to plant trees along streets
opened for residential sections.

EAST CAPITOL STREET

The climate of Washington, which is semitropical, permits the growth of
trees found both in the North and the South. Thus there are oak, walnut,
maple, and cedar trees amidst magnolias, Japanese cherry trees, and the
mountain laurel, to mention only a few. Congress has authorized the
establishment of a national arboretum in the National Capital, which will
comprise at least 500 acres and will be a most interesting place for the
planting of many varieties of trees and the study of them. A plan to widen
East Capitol Street and build a stadium on the axis of the street in Anacostia
Park is being made by the National Capital Park and Planning Commission.

THE FORT DRIVE
The citizens’ movement to connect by a boulevard a considerable part of
the Civil War defenses of Washington was incorporated in the plan of 1901.
These old defenses, occupying strategic positions, are capable of being
converted into small parks of high excellence and availability, and a
connecting boulevard will have an added historic interest. Of these so-
called forts a number are already in possession of the Government. Among
those that have been purchased is Fort Stevens, near the Army Medical
Center, where during General Early’s raid, on July 12, 1864, President

Lincoln was under fire until ordered to the rear by the officer in command.
The Fort Drive is being developed by the National Capital Park and
Planning Commission. There will be a continuous parkway of suitable
width connecting the sites of the following old forts: Fort Greble, Fort
Carroll, Battery Ricketts, Fort Stanton, Fort Wagner, Fort Baker, Fort Davis
(United States owned), Fort Dupont (United States owned), Fort Shaplin, A
Battery, Fort Mahan, Fort Bunker Hill, Fort Totten, Fort Slocum, Fort
Stevens (United States owned), Fort De Russye, Fort Bayard, Battery
Kemble, Battery Vermont (United States owned), and Battery Parrott. There
is another Civil War fortification in the Arlington National Cemetery, called
Fort McPherson, which is being preserved for its historic character. From it
a commanding view of the cemetery and of the river is obtained.

PLAN FOR IMPROVEMENT OF THE WATER FRONT

WASHINGTON CHANNEL AND THE WATER FRONT
The water front of Washington is to be similar to the magnificent water
fronts of large cities of Europe. The plan provides for a quay, with space for
commercial piers, warehouses, steamboat offices, commercial houses,
boathouses, and recreational piers. There will be a beautiful boulevard drive

along “Water Street” which will connect with Anacostia Park, also adequate
street-railway accommodations. Washington has 18 miles of water front,
and this will be a most interesting part of it.
It is proposed to replace all existing structures on the water front at
“Water Street,” with the exception of the Municipal Fish Wharf, with
modern buildings. Head houses and transit sheds are to be of brick and tile,
with slate roofs and of a modified colonial architecture. A total of six
wharves is projected for immediate construction and a portion of the
frontage available is to be reserved for future additions. Yacht basins and
small-boat anchorage are included in the plan. The plan has been prepared
by the United States Engineer Office, with the idea that Washington is not
primarily an industrial city, nor will it ever be, so that railroad connections
with the piers and slips were omitted. Such industrial developments as
might require ship-to-rail transfers can be accommodated in other locations.
Buzzards Point is to be developed for maritime commercial uses.
Under the improvement program “Water Street” is to be made a 160-foot
boulevard, with separate lanes for traffic, street cars, and trucks, and
marginal and central landscaping. The old 4-line street-car lanes on a
portion of the street have been removed. To permit of direct connection
with East Potomac Park and the Highway Bridge, a bridge is to be built just
below the railroad crossing at the head of the Washington Channel. Water
Street is now Maine Avenue.

Transcriptions
GEORGE WASHINGTON MEMORIAL PARKWAY

The cost of the entire project is estimated at $3,691,600. The report was
submitted by the Secretary of War to the Speaker of the House of
Representatives on November 26, 1929, and then was referred to the
Committee on Rivers and Harbors. The project is now under development.

FISH MARKET ALONG THE WATER FRONT

GEORGE WASHINGTON MEMORIAL PARKWAY
The George Washington Memorial Parkway, designed by the National
Capital Park and Planning Commission, was authorized by the Capper-
Cramton Act, approved May 29, 1930, and carrying with it an authorization
of $33,500,000 for the development of a comprehensive park, parkway, and
playground area in the District of Columbia and the surrounding regions of
Maryland and Virginia. This parkway is designed “to include the public
control of both banks of the river between Mount Vernon and Great Falls on
the Virginia side and between Fort Washington and Great Falls on the
Maryland side, with the exception of areas at Alexandria and in Washington
which are reserved for commercial development.”
This is a project in which both residents of the District of Columbia and
of the States of Maryland and Virginia may take equal pride—namely, to
preserve Great Falls and the banks of the Potomac, so that the Potomac
River, as it flows through the National Capital, may flow through a
continuous park from Great Falls to Mount Vernon. Washington is to be
envied in having so near to it such beautiful scenery as the Palisades of the
Potomac and Great Falls, which are said to be “the finest specimens of
nature in this part of the country.” Already, along the Palisades of the

Potomac, quarries have been established and beautiful timber is being
converted into lumber and firewood. These invasions will in time destroy
natural beauties that can not be restored.

GREAT FALLS OF THE POTOMAC

THE MOUNT VERNON HIGHWAY ROUTE
THE MOUNT VERNON HIGHWAY TRAVERSES HISTORIC TERRITORY

The route traverses a territory full of historic associations and
reminiscent of the days of Washington. About halfway between Washington
and Alexandria it passes close to the site of Abingdon, the home of John
Parke Custis, Mrs. Washington’s son. Here Nellie Custis, Washington’s
adopted daughter, was born. A beautiful view of the river and a panorama of
Washington and the north shore is seen from this point. Also here the
Potomac is being dredged, making new land for Washington National
Airport, to be the finest in the United States. Work will be completed in
1941.

MOUNT VERNON MEMORIAL HIGHWAY, NORTH OF LITTLE HUNTING CREEK

Passing on to Alexandria the route enters the city by Washington Street
and passes directly by Christ Church, where the Washington pew may still
be seen.
Alexandria was Washington’s own town. It was his market place, his post
office, and his voting place. It was the meeting place of the lodge of Masons
to which he belonged, and the lodge hall is now the repository of a great
many articles and paintings associated with him. The trowel, square, and
plumb bob used in laying the corner stone of the Capitol may be seen here,
as also the Bible used in the Masonic lodge of which Washington was a
member. Among many other things of historical interest is a portrait of
George Washington painted by W. Williams for the lodge.
There is scarcely a foot of ground in Alexandria that Washington did not
tread. The old quarters of the volunteer fire company to which he belonged
still stand. In Gadsby’s Inn, now the City Hotel, he recruited the first

company of provincial troops authorized by Governor Dinwiddie, and with
which he fought the Battle of Great Meadows.

MOUNT VERNON MEMORIAL HIGHWAY

In the ballroom of Gadsby’s Inn in 1798 was held the first celebration of
Washington’s birthday. From the steps of the same building he gave his last
military command to the Alexandria Light Infantry Blues; and here, also, in
November, 1799, less than 30 days before his death, he cast his last vote.
At the Carlyle House, still standing, he received his appointment as an
officer in the British Army on General Braddock’s staff; and in this house
also, at the Convention of the Five Governors assembled to confer with
General Braddock, the first suggestion of colonial taxation was made—a
step which ultimately led to the revolt of the Colonies.
A short side trip from Washington Street down King Street takes the
traveler to the George Washington National Masonic Memorial, which has

been erected at the western outskirts of the town on Shooters Hill. It is 333
feet high, and was designed by Harvey W. Corbett, architect.
Returning to Washington Street and proceeding southward the traveler
passes the Confederate Monument, and soon reaches the southern limits of
the town and passing within a stone’s throw of the first corner stone of the
District of Columbia, still standing on Jones Point.
Leaving Alexandria the route crosses Hunting Creek to Fort Hunt, thence
to the entrance gates of Mount Vernon.
FEATURES OF THE HIGHWAY DESCRIBED

The making of surveys, preparation of plans, and supervision of
construction have all been done by the Bureau of Public Roads of the
United States Department of Agriculture, and Gilmore D. Clarke,
Consulting Landscape Architect.

MOUNT VERNON MEMORIAL HIGHWAY—BRIDGE OVER BOUNDARY CHANNEL

The location selected for the highway required the construction of fills
across approximately 2³⁄₄ miles of open water, which was accomplished by
pumping gravel and sand from the Potomac River.
The highway throughout its entire length, with the exception of the
section through Alexandria, has been designed to provide for a free flow of
traffic over a surface with a minimum width of 40 feet, and where there is
any volume of cross traffic it passes either under or over the highway.
Except through the city of Alexandria, the highway follows closely the
shore of the Potomac River for the greater portion of the distance. This
situation affords beautiful vistas of Washington and the Potomac River,

which, in combination with the landscaping and development of the project
itself, make this highway a fitting tribute to the memory of George
Washington.

CHRIST CHURCH, ALEXANDRIA, VA.

Below Alexandria the highway has been widened at points of outstanding
beauty, so that motorists can stop for a few minutes to enjoy the view.
The bridges in general are of reinforced-concrete arches, faced with
native stone laid in random bond. Special attention has been given to
harmonizing their lines with the general plan of development.

MOUNT VERNON MEMORIAL HIGHWAY—UNDERPASS AT HIGHWAY BRIDGE

The intersection of the memorial highway with U. S. Highway No. 1 near
the beginning of the project has been so designed that a large volume of
traffic can flow from one highway to the other without crossing the center
line of either route.
A large parking area at Mount Vernon that will accommodate the
thousands of visitors to this national shrine has been provided, and a
concession building of colonial design has been erected to provide for their
comfort.

MOUNT VERNON MEMORIAL HIGHWAY—BRIDGE OVER HUNTING CREEK

MOUNT VERNON

Mount Vernon, the home of George Washington the greater part of his
life, is situated along the historic Potomac, 14.7 miles south of the city of
Washington, which he was instrumental in founding, though referring to it
as the Federal City.

GEORGE WASHINGTON
FROM THE HOUDON BUST, MODELED FROM LIFE AT MOUNT VERNON IN 1785

The history of Mount Vernon goes back to the time of Capt. John Smith,
who explored the regions of the Potomac River in 1608. Some 40 years

later Scotch and Irish emigrants settled along the banks of the Potomac,
both on the Virginia and Maryland sides. In 1674 a tract of 5,000 acres, 15
miles south of Washington on the Virginia side of the river, was granted by
Lord Culpeper to John Washington and Nicholas Spencer. Half of this tract
was inherited by the half-brother of George Washington, Lawrence
Washington. Mount Vernon was built in 1743 by Lawrence Washington,
who named it after Admiral Vernon, under whom he served. It occupies a
most picturesque spot on high ground overlooking the river, which it faces.
The mansion is well built. Its foundations are of stone and brick. The
framework is of oak and the sheathing of pine wood. Also much copper was
used in its construction. On the main floor is a central hall, a music room, a
family dining room, a sitting room, and parlor; also a library and a banquet
room, which were added by George Washington. On the second floor is the
room in which Washington died; also, among several others, the Lafayette
room. There are six bedrooms on the third floor. The house is 96 feet long
and 30 feet wide, with a portico 25 feet high; the height of the building to
the cupola is about 50 feet. Beautiful gardens are near by.
In 1752 Lawrence Washington died. Augustine Washington had provided
that in the case of Lawrence’s death without heirs Mount Vernon should
pass to George, and this provision Lawrence incorporated in his own will.
To his widow he left a life interest in the property, with a reversion to his
infant daughter, Sarah, who, as it happened, survived her father only a few
weeks. Thus there was only the widow’s life interest to be considered. Anne
Fairfax Washington lived until 1761, and at her death George Washington
became the proprietor of Mount Vernon. The mansion was then enlarged for
its new mistress, Martha Dandridge Custis, whom he had married in 1759.
During Washington’s years of public life he longed for the day when he
could be at home at Mount Vernon with his beloved Martha and the family.
It was undoubtedly one of the very best-managed estates in the Colonies,
and Washington himself was regarded one of the richest men. The main
entrance to Mount Vernon was from the west, which gateway was flanked
by two porters’ lodges. The large portico on the east side of the mansion
was used for outdoor gatherings and entertainment of visitors. Among the
many guests entertained at Mount Vernon was the distinguished young
French patriot, General Lafayette. On the main floor in a glass case hangs a
key to the Bastille, sent by Lafayette to Washington in 1790, with the

message: “That the principles of America opened the Bastille is not to be
doubted, therefore the key comes to the right place.”
Washington was called from Mount Vernon to serve his country on three
most noteworthy occasions, and each time after an interval of several years:
In 1775, when he was made Commander in Chief of the Continental Army;
in 1787, when he became president of the convention in Philadelphia that
framed the Federal Constitution; and in 1789, when he became first
President of the United States of America.

Courtesy of Army Air Corps.
MOUNT VERNON

MOUNT VERNON

Washington died at Mount Vernon on December 14, 1799. Martha
Washington lived there during the remainder of her lifetime. On her death
in 1802 the property was inherited by her nephew, Bushrod Washington, an
Associate Justice of the Supreme Court. Thereafter the estate suffered for
need of repairs. In 1858 the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association of the Union
was organized. The association purchased the property for $200,000 and to-
day own and control Mount Vernon, including about 400 acres of the old
estate.

TOMB OF WASHINGTON

Mount Vernon each day is the place of pilgrimage of hundreds of
American and foreign visitors, who go there by motor or steamboat to visit
the mansion and see the many historical articles of interest that once
belonged to George Washington and his family and are now there on
exhibition, but more particularly do they go to Mount Vernon to pay
homage at the Washington tomb, which is near the mansion. Here also
Lafayette came on his second visit to the United States during 1824-25,
after an interval of almost 40 years.
The number of visitors at Mount Vernon for the year ended December 31,
1938, was 633,514.

WAKEFIELD, THE BIRTHPLACE OF GEORGE
WASHINGTON
After more than a century and a half of neglect, a group of patriotic
persons have within recent years taken steps to restore Wakefield, the
birthplace of George Washington, situated about 50 miles south of Mount

Vernon, along the Potomac, amidst beautiful landscapes between Popes
Creek and Bridges Creek. The Government erected a monument at the site
in 1895 to mark the birthplace and provided a watchman to care for the
grounds. Until within the past few years the little Government reservation
of 11 acres, acquired in 1882, was inaccessible because the Government
dock was washed away and the road leading into Wakefield from the main
highway was almost impassable. The State of Virginia recently completed a
sand and gravel road to the place. The new road, about 2 miles in length,
intersects the George Washington Highway from Fredericksburg, between
Oak Grove and Potomac Mills. The Wakefield National Memorial
Association (Inc.) has been organized to purchase the lands at Wakefield
and thus save them from threatened encroachments of hunting and fishing
clubs, which are now securing valuable sites along the Potomac River. Thus
the association is doing for Wakefield what the Mount Vernon Ladies’
Association of the Union accomplished for the preservation of Mount
Vernon.

WAKEFIELD, AT POPES CREEK, WESTMORELAND COUNTY, VA.

Congress early in 1930 appropriated $50,000 toward erecting a colonial
house, typical of the Virginia houses at the time of George Washington.
Bricks for the house were made from the clay at Wakefield. The
construction work was carried out under the supervision of the National

Park Service of the Department of the Interior, which has jurisdiction over
the maintenance of Wakefield since the project of restoration was
completed. John D. Rockefeller, jr., gave $115,000 for the purchase of 267
acres, and the association purchased approximately 100 additional acres.
The association raised about $200,000.

MAP SHOWING WASHINGTON AND WAKEFIELD

WAKEFIELD—WASHINGTON FAMILY BURYING GROUND

The money, aside from the amounts spent to buy land, was expended in
erecting a house that is as nearly a replica of the original birth house as
could be planned on the basis of available data, in restoring the gardens, and
in protecting the ancient graveyard where lie the remains of 31 members of
the Washington family, including his great-grandfather, grandfather, father,
and brother, and to build a resthouse at the site. The original house was built
between 1717 and 1720, and was burned Christmas, 1780. From pieces of
china found in the ruins the celebrated Lenox china, showing the
Washington coat of arms, has been reproduced and made available to the
public by the Wakefield National Memorial Association. In the work of
restoration the association was led by its president, the late Mrs. Harry Lee
Rust, of Washington, D. C., who was a native of Westmoreland County, Va.,
and spent her childhood days in the vicinity of the Washington estate. She
was a most indefatigable worker toward the realization of this project.
Wakefield was dedicated on February 11, 1932, the birthday of George
Washington (old style), which month marked the beginning of the George
Washington bicentennial celebration. Wakefield is known to-day as the
George Washington Birthplace National Monument.

THE LINCOLN MEMORIAL AND APPROACHES

THE LINCOLN MEMORIAL

Chapter XVIII
THE LINCOLN MEMORIAL
THE ARLINGTON MEMORIAL BRIDGE

THE LINCOLN MEMORIAL
At the west end of the Mall is the Lincoln Memorial. The site was fixed
by the McMillan Park Commission in 1901, which extended the Mall area
of the original L’Enfant plan west three-fourths of a mile to the Potomac
River. The site and surrounding area is known as Potomac Park. The
reclaimed land, about 640 acres, comprises West Potomac Park and East
Potomac Park (the island park).
Congress provided for the construction of the memorial to Abraham
Lincoln by an act approved February 9, 1911, following the centennial year
of the birth of Lincoln. The corner stone was laid February 12, 1915. The
memorial is built of Colorado marble and cost $2,940,000. It was dedicated
May 30, 1922. Lincoln died in 1865, so that it was 57 years later that this
memorial to him in the National Capital was built. Henry Bacon, who died
February 16, 1924, was the architect.
Very nearly 300,000 persons visited the Lincoln Memorial in the year
1923, and more than 1,000,000 in 1930. At present the daily average of
visitors is 3,000. It is a shrine in which those who love God and country can
find inspiration and repose.
The following is part of a technical description by the architect:
From the beginning of my study I believed that this memorial to Abraham Lincoln should be
composed of four features—a statue of the man, a memorial of his Gettysburg speech, a memorial of
his second inaugural address, and a symbol of the Union of the United States, which he stated it was
his paramount object to save—and which he did save. Each feature should be related to the other by
means of its design and position, and each should be so arranged that it becomes an integral part of
the whole, in order to attain a unity and simplicity in the appearance of the monument.
Surrounding the walls inclosing these memorials of the man is planned a colonnade forming a
symbol of the Union, each column representing a State—36 in all—for each State existing at the time

of Lincoln’s death, and on the walls appearing above the colonnade, and supported at intervals by
eagles, are 48 memorial festoons, one for each State existing at the present time.
The colonnade is 188 feet long and 118 feet wide, the columns being 44 feet high and 7 feet 8
inches in diameter at their base. The outside of the Memorial Hall is 84 feet wide and 156 feet long;
the total height of the structure above the finished grade at the base of the terrace is 99 feet. The steps
are 132 feet wide, leading to the entrance, which is flanked by tripods, each 11 feet high.
The central hall, where the statue stands, is 60 feet wide, 70 feet long, and 60 feet high. The
interior columns are of the Ionic order and are 50 feet high.

STATUE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN AS SEEN THROUGH THE COLUMNS

THE STATUE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
The statue of Abraham Lincoln, in the center of the Lincoln Memorial, is
by Daniel Chester French.
It represents Abraham Lincoln as the great war President, with mental
and physical strength and confidence in his ability to bring the Nation
safely through the great conflict.
President Lincoln is seated in a great armchair 12¹⁄₂ feet high, over the
back of which a flag has been draped. The figure of Lincoln is 19 feet high
from the top of his head to the sole of his boot. The head measures 3 feet in

height. The boot is 3¹⁄₂ feet long, and from the boot to the kneecap the
distance is 8 feet. The pedestal, which is 18 feet 2 inches wide and 19 feet
deep, rests on a marble platform 34¹⁄₂ feet wide and 28 feet deep. The statue
weighs 150 tons; with its pedestal and base it rises to a height of 30 feet;
and without the pedestal it is 21 feet in height.
The statue is of Georgia marble, was cut by Piccirilli Bros., marble-
cutters, of New York City, and four years were required for its completion.
The pedestal and base are of Tennessee marble.
Over the head of Lincoln is the inscription—
IN THIS TEMPLE
AS IN THE HEARTS OF THE PEOPLE
FOR WHOM HE SAVED THE UNION
THE MEMORY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
IS ENSHRINED FOREVER

The interior is lighted through translucent panels of marble and by the
great front opening. Recently a special system of lighting was installed.
DECORATIONS

The two decorations by Jules Guerin representing Emancipation and
Reunion are painted on canvas. Each canvas weighs 600 pounds and is 60
feet long and 18 feet wide. The figures, of which there are 46 in the two
panels, are 8¹⁄₂ feet high and were painted by the artist without assistance.
Almost as many models as figures were used. The head of Mr. Bacon, the
architect, appears in the decoration on the north wall, being the fourth
figure in the group at the left of the angel.
The decorations are absolutely weatherproof, the paint being mixed with
white wax and kerosene. The wax hardens but does not allow the paint to
crack. Chemically it is similar to the wax, still pliable, which was found in
the tombs of the Kings of Egypt. The decorations are affixed to the wall
with a mixture of white lead and Venetian varnish.

THE LINCOLN MEMORIAL REFLECTING BASIN

THE LINCOLN MEMORIAL AND SURROUNDING AREA
The Lincoln Memorial, while it terminates the Mall composition, has a
position similar to the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, in that from it radiate
drives and parkways in all directions—the Rock Creek Parkway to the
north; westward across the Memorial Bridge to the Arlington National
Cemetery, connecting also with the Mount Vernon Highway, the Lee
Highway, and the George Washington Memorial Parkway; southward to
East Potomac Park; and eastward along the Mall to the Capitol. The whole
area is a remarkable achievement in city planning and shows what can be
done with reclaimed land, for 20 to 25 years ago all the land surrounding
the Lincoln Memorial was swampy.
The Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Basin is 2,000 feet long and 160 feet
wide. It has an average depth of about 3¹⁄₂ feet and reflects the entire
Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial. It is lined with trees and
walks that will ultimately extend to the Capitol. The beauty of the future
Mall treatment between the Capitol and the Washington Monument is

indicated by the development between the Washington Monument and the
Lincoln Memorial.
The water gate is a part of the great Lincoln Memorial composition. It
consists of granite steps 206 feet wide at the top and 230 feet wide at the
bottom.
Constitution Avenue will be the great “Memorial Boulevard” from the
Capitol to the Lincoln Memorial, and thence to Arlington National
Cemetery.
Immediately to the south of the reflecting basin on the north and south
axis is the marble band stand erected as the District of Columbia World War
Memorial.

THE ARLINGTON MEMORIAL BRIDGE
The Arlington Memorial Bridge was built under the supervision of the
Arlington Memorial Bridge Commission, of which the President is
chairman. The Commission of Fine Arts was consulted and advised as to
the plans.
The project of building the Arlington Memorial Bridge has been before
Congress since 1884. Previous to that time Daniel Webster, in an address on
July 4, 1851, at the laying of the corner stone for enlarging the United
States Capitol, referred to it as follows:
Before us is the broad and beautiful river, separating two of the original thirteen States, which a
late President, a man of determined purpose and inflexible will, but patriotic heart, desired to span
with arches of ever-enduring granite, symbolical of the firmly established union of the North and the
South. That President was General Jackson.

ARLINGTON MEMORIAL BRIDGE, ARCHITECTS’ DESIGN

The need of a bridge direct to Arlington National Cemetery was most
urgently felt on Armistice Day, November 11, 1921, when the remains of
the Unknown Soldier were entombed. Led by President Harding and
officials of this Government and of many foreign countries, thousands of
people who made the trip to Arlington did so under most difficult
circumstances, because of the crowded traffic conditions. The Commission
of Fine Arts was in session at the time, and at once recommended to
Congress the preparation of plans for an Arlington Memorial Bridge, with
an initial appropriation of $25,000. Congress responded quickly and made
the appropriation available for expenditure by the Arlington Memorial
Bridge Commission, by act approved June 12, 1922. On April 22, 1924, the
commission submitted to Congress a comprehensive report on the subject
and a set of approved plans that contemplated an expenditure of
$14,750,000 for the project. Congress adopted the report and plans and has
made the necessary funds available for the construction work as fast as the
project developed. The architects of the bridge are McKim, Mead & White,
of New York City, who are noted for the many great and beautiful classical
structures they have built throughout the United States, as the Boston Public

Library, the library at Columbia University, the Pennsylvania Railroad
Station in New York City, and the McKinley Memorial at Niles, Ohio. This
firm also had charge of the building of additions to the White House during
the administration of President Roosevelt.

EAGLE SURMOUNTING PYLONS BISON HEAD

The bridge extends from the Lincoln Memorial to Columbia Island, has a
length of 2,138 feet, and is 90 feet wide, the width of Fifth Avenue in New
York City. The bridge has been built as low as possible, consistent with
good proportions, in order not to interfere with the view of the Lincoln
Memorial from Columbia Island. There are 6 lanes on the bridge, each 10
feet wide, and 2 sidewalks, each 15 feet wide. The balustrade is 4 feet high.
Suitable lighting is also provided.

Courtesy of Horydczak
ARLINGTON MEMORIAL BRIDGE

The bridge has 9 segmental arches of 166-foot span at the ends of the
bridge and spreading gradually to 184 feet at the center. The terminal arches
rise to a point 28 feet above average water height, increasing gradually to
35 feet in the central arch. The piers are 32 feet wide and are firmly
embedded in rock 35 feet below water. The superstructure is built of North
Carolina granite.

EAGLE AND FASCES

At the entrance to the bridge at the Lincoln Memorial there will be two
large sculptural groups, each 16 feet high. The pylons at the Columbia
Island end of the bridge, which are 35 feet high, are surmounted by eagles 8
feet high, each cut out of a solid block of granite, according to the design of
C. Paul Jennewein, sculptor.
At the sides of the bridge appear large sculptured disks, each 12 feet in
diameter, and at the keystone of the arches there are buffalo heads 6 feet in
height. These were also designed by Mr. Jennewein.
The two sculptural groups at the entrance to the bridge will be symbolic
of War. They were designed by Leo Friedlander, sculptor. At the entrance to
the Rock Creek Parkway there will be two sculptural groups symbolic of
Peace and the arts of Peace, designed by James E. Fraser, sculptor. There
will be appropriate inscriptions carved on the bridge.

COLUMBIA ISLAND PLAZA AND MEMORIAL AVENUE TO ARLINGTON NATIONAL
CEMETERY

THE ARLINGTON MEMORIAL BRIDGE DEVELOPMENT, LOOKING TOWARDS THE
LINCOLN MEMORIAL

At the center of the bridge is a drawspan, each leaf of which has a length
of 92 feet, the height of an 8-story building. One minute is required for
opening and closing the drawspan, which is operated by electricity. Each
leaf weighs 6,000 tons. It is in itself an interesting achievement in bridge
engineering.
From Columbia Island westward there is the boundary channel bridge.
From there to the Arlington National Cemetery is a memorial parkway 240
feet wide, 2,200 feet in length, lighted, lined with planting, and providing
space at intervals for memorials.
At Arlington National Cemetery there is a large memorial entrance, from
which walks and driveways lead to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at the
Memorial Amphitheater and to Arlington House.

PLAN FOR DEVELOPMENT OF GREATER ARLINGTON

Not only was the Arlington Memorial Bridge built in a period of 7 years,
but one of the finest compositions in city planning has been carried out in
connection with it. In addition to the treatment on Columbia Island Plaza
and the approach to Arlington National Cemetery, there is also the great
plaza at the approach to the bridge at the Lincoln Memorial, a sea wall for
the Riverside Drive leading to it, and the water gate—steps of granite 215
feet wide—nearby.
The bridge was dedicated and opened for travel in 1932.

Chapter XIX
THE PARKS OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
The park system of the National Capital is under the jurisdiction of the
National Park Service, Department of the Interior.
Since 1871 in many ways, particularly municipal affairs, the National
Capital has been in the lead among American cities. Having begun with a
logical and well-thought-out plan for the original city, the new Federal City
was provided with an ample system of public reservations and parks.
However, in the early days of the city there was so much unoccupied land
that it was hard to believe there would ever be any necessity for parks and
open spaces developed and maintained at public expense. For three-quarters
of a century Washington was so spread out within the borders of the original
plan that the street rights-of-way and public grounds reserved by the
L’Enfant plan seemed to be entirely out of scale with the needs of the city
and were looked upon by some as a burden rather than as a benefit. It was
not until the increase in population, which has continued steadily since the
Civil War, and the congestion of the streets in recent years with automobiles
and a great volume of traffic, that the building lots have been occupied with
structures and the full width of the streets needed for traffic, so that the
public reservations have become the only refuge for the play of children
and the recreation of older people.
It is, therefore, easy to understand the lack of appreciation of the city
park system during the first half of the nineteenth century. A few far-sighted
individuals only realized the necessity for preserving these reservations
until they would be needed as breathing spaces in a thickly settled city, and
they had to wage a persistent and hard-fought campaign through the years
against those who constantly wanted to sell off the public reservations for
building development of some kind or other, or to have the Government
itself use them for buildings. In the two or three cases in which the latter
was done we now have reason to regret it; in a few cases in which the

reservations were sold the Government is now having to buy them back at
considerable cost. It was not a matter of little importance which led
President Thomas Jefferson to exclaim: “How I wish that I possessed the
power of a despot.” The company at the table stared at a declaration so
opposed to his disposition and principles. “Yes,” continued he, in reply to
their inquiring looks, “I wish I was a despot, that I might save the noble, the
beautiful trees that are daily falling sacrifices to the cupidity of their
owners, or the necessity of the poor.” “And have you not authority to save
those on the public grounds?” asked one of the company. “No,” answered
Mr. Jefferson, “only an armed guard could save them. The unnecessary
felling of a tree, perhaps the growth of centuries, seems to me a crime little
short of murder; it pains me to an unspeakable degree.”

NEW HAMPSHIRE AVENUE, NORTHWEST

The same desire to cut down trees in order to make room for more
concrete and masonry persists to this day and can only be controlled by
constant vigilance. The importance of open spaces and city parks,

developed into beauty spots by the art of the landscape architect, should be
evident to all.
As a matter of fact, perhaps the most unusual and original feature of the
L’Enfant plan was the idea of building the city about two coordinate axes of
parks—one a park system nearly a third of a mile wide, leading from the
Capitol westward to the Potomac River, and the other the same width,
leading from the White House south to the river, with the Washington
Monument at their intersection. This was an innovation and a departure
from the usual development of a city about a commercial street—a main
street or a market street. Provision was made in the plan for such a great
commercial street on the diagonal of the triangle, the avenue joining the
Capitol with the White House, and named Pennsylvania Avenue, for the
State in which the Federal Government had up to then spent the greater part
of its life.
Much of the Mall leading westward from the Capitol was unfortunately
taken up by the estuary of Tiber Creek, which overflowed at high tide. It
was the intention of Major L’Enfant and his urgent recommendation that
this creek be confined to a canal which he proposed to construct along the
northern part of the proposed park. This canal would not only afford water
transportation for heavy and bulky materials to and from the business part
of the city but at the same time would be a water feature of the proposed
park. Unfortunately, while the canal was built, Tiber Creek was not entirely
confined to it, and its estuary was allowed to continue to overflow the Mall
area and thus delay its development.
When the Washington Monument was located, instead of being placed at
the exact intersection of the two park axes, it was placed on a natural hill
near by which was safely above tide level. The idea of an avenue from the
Capitol to the Washington Monument seems to have been abandoned for
many years, and when the Smithsonian Institution was built in the Mall the
plan made by A. J. Downing was adopted for the entire Mall, superseding
that of L’Enfant. These were the days when the so-called naturalistic park
development was in vogue, and everything had to be consciously
picturesque. No road or path could be straight, and no regularity in planting
or plan was tolerated. The L’Enfant plan was again disregarded in laying
out the Department of Agriculture grounds in 1867. With the avenue of the
Mall out of the picture, there was no reason apparent to those in authority
for refusing permission to the Pennsylvania Railroad Co. to run its tracks

across the Mall and build its passenger station in the Mall itself, at Sixth
Street.
It was this station, however, which brought about the restudy of the plan
of Washington and the return to the Mall development in accordance with
L’Enfant’s principles, for Col. Theodore A. Bingham, then in charge of
Public Buildings and Grounds, on hearing that legislation was about to be
passed authorizing the railroad to build a viaduct across the Mall to this
station, and realizing that this expensive structure would probably make the
carrying out of L’Enfant’s plan impossible, got the plan out of the files and
started a campaign to prevent the legislation from passing and to
rehabilitate the authority of the L’Enfant plan. He was fortunate in finding
those among his superiors who appreciated the situation, and in securing the
very wise and effective help of Senator McMillan and of the American
Institute of Architects.
Indeed, the interest in the National Capital, excited in this way and more
or less focused upon it by the centenary of its occupation as the seat of the
Federal Government, resulted in the McMillan Park Commission of 1901
and its very valuable recommendations for the development and
beautification of the National Capital. In recent years the development of
the Mall in accordance with the plan of 1901 has been authorized by
Congress and is being carried on step by step as it becomes possible in
connection with the public-buildings program.
The smaller reservations and parks suffered neglect equally, as was to be
expected. In making his plan L’Enfant had located public reservations at
various important street and avenue intersections. Where more than two
streets crossed at one point, a circle or square to take up and distribute the
traffic among the various streets was almost necessary, or at least would be
necessary to-day, and it is fortunate that what L’Enfant did for appearance
should now be proving to have real utilitarian value. His own ideas about
the purpose and function of these squares are expressed in his report, as
follows:
The center of each Square will admit of Statues, Columns, Obelisks, or any other ornament such as
the different States may choose to erect: to perpetuate not only the memory of such individuals
whose counsels or Military achievements were conspicuous in giving liberty and independence to
this Country; but also those whose usefulness hath rendered them worthy of general imitation, to
invite the youth of succeeding generations to tread in the paths of those sages, or heroes whom their
country has thought proper to celebrate.
The situation of these Squares is such that they are the most advantageously and reciprocally seen
from each other and as equally distributed over the whole City district, and connected by spacious

avenues round the grand Federal Improvements and as contiguous to them, and at the same time as
equally distant from each other, as circumstances would admit. The Settlements round those Squares
must soon become connected.
This mode of taking possession of and improving the whole district at first must leave to posterity
a grand idea of the patriotic interest which prompted it.

While Lafayette Park, in front of and north of the White House, was
graded as early as 1826, it was not planted and really developed as a park
for some time after that. In 1853 the Clark Mills statue of Jackson was
placed in it as its central feature.
Similarly, the equestrian statue of Washington brought about the
improvement of Washington Circle at the westerly end of Pennsylvania
Avenue. Garfield Park, now one of the most beautiful parks in the city, was
graded and to some extent improved in 1838, in connection with its use as a
nursery for trees to ornament the public grounds and Pennsylvania Avenue.
A botanic garden, which had been talked about from the very first, and
was finally brought to a head by the necessity for providing for the botanic
collection of the Smithsonian Institution, was gradually established at the
east end of the Mall between First and Third Streets. It did not become a
really important feature of public benefit to the city until 1852, when it was
placed in the hands of William R. Smith, who had had experience in Kew
Gardens in England and made sufficient progress for the Botanic Garden to
be described in 1859 “as a pleasant place to visit, with gravel walks,
bordered with box, rare plants, and trees.”
How little these parks were needed then to give the requisite touch of
nature in urban surroundings and to what extent the National Capital still
retained its character of a few scattered settlements in the midst of farm
land is shown by the fact that the one or two which had been improved had
to be fenced in to protect their young trees and shrubs against the cattle,
goats, and sheep that roamed the streets. As late as 1870 the danger to
pedestrians from the domestic animals allowed at large was the subject of
protest in formal speeches in Congress. During the Civil War many of the
public reservations were used for camps, hospitals, and drill grounds, which
use naturally did not help their appearance.
While the parks and reservations not used by the Federal Government
remained relatively unimproved and in the condition of unsightly village
commons, the grounds around the public buildings of the Federal
Government were given a little more attention and were gradually
improved. The north grounds of the White House were fixed up in

Jefferson’s administration and rearranged from time to time subsequently,
but so little importance was attached to appearances that the south grounds
of the White House remained unimproved through the first half of the
century. It was not until after the Civil War that real importance was
attached to the beautification of the grounds and the systematic planting of
trees in the streets. The public buildings and grounds were turned over to
the Chief of Engineers in 1867, and since that time have received a great
deal more attention than ever before. In 1898 the municipal parks were
transferred from the city government to the Chief of Engineers and have
been systematically improved since.
With the street trees and the improved city parks scattered about the
central part of the city, Washington has acquired a characteristic appearance
of its own and offers the charm and amenities which other American cities
were not wise enough to provide for themselves.
As the city grew outside of the original plan, a few projects for large and
extensive parks were adopted. The beautiful Rock Creek Valley was
purchased for a park and for the Zoological Garden under the act approved
September 27, 1890; and provision was made by the act approved August 2,
1882, for the filling in of the Potomac tidal flats. This latter project has
developed nearly 1,000 acres of reclaimed park land extensively used for
recreation of all kinds. It also extended the axis of the Mall about three-
fourths of a mile beyond what was originally planned, thus affording a
suitable terminal in the site for the Lincoln Memorial.
In 1893 the evils of new, rapidly growing subdivisions outside the limits
of the L’Enfant plan—laid out without any regard to the latter—were
sufficiently recognized to bring about the passage of legislation for making
a highway or street plan of the entire District of Columbia. This law was
further amended in 1898 and resulted in a street layout followed ever since,
with modifications from time to time. But this, being a street plan, made no
provision for the extension of the system of city parks into the new territory,
nor for merging the newly authorized major park projects with the street
system. Hence one of the major duties with which the McMillan
Commission was charged in 1901 was the design of appropriate parks
outside of the L’Enfant plan.
The high talents and national reputation of the members of this
commission insured that their recommendations for the beautification and
development of the Capital would really be a new, grand, basic plan. After

mature study, in the light of the finest examples the world had produced,
this commission reinstated the authority of the L’Enfant plan and carried it
to its logical conclusions in new territory. This action reflected credit not
only on the genius of L’Enfant but also on the commission itself, which had
the wisdom to recognize the supreme merit of the original plan and the
good sense, and modesty, to build upon it.
However, the 1901 commission’s plan never received general legislative
sanction, and approval of some of its individual major projects was
obtained only after great effort and much urging by the executive
authorities and some far-sighted Members of the Congress. First, the
railroads arranged for a Union Station (1903), and the Pennsylvania
Railroad Co. removed its tracks and station from the Mall, so that to-day the
traveler by rail enters the city through a great monumental portal and finds
himself in sight of the Capitol. In 1913 the Rock Creek and Potomac
Parkway was authorized, to connect the Rock Creek Valley with the
Potomac Park system. In 1911 the Lincoln Memorial and the development
of the Mall between it and the Washington Monument were provided for. A
law approved in 1901 provided for construction of the General Grant
Memorial at the east end of the Mall at the base of Capitol Hill, while a
memorial to Gen. George G. Meade, located in relation to the Grant
Memorial, was subsequently (1926) accepted from the State of
Pennsylvania. In 1924 the Arlington Memorial Bridge was approved.

Transcription

PARK AREAS ACQUIRED TO JULY 1, 1938

In 1910 the National Commission of Fine Arts was set up to—
advise upon the location of statues, fountains, and monuments in the public squares, streets, and
parks in the District of Columbia, and upon the selection of models for statues, fountains, and
monuments erected under the authority of the United States and upon the selection of the artists for
the execution of the same.

This commission, which has numbered in its membership the greatest
architects and artists of the country, has helped greatly not only in raising
the standard of the public works of art but also in securing the adoption of
important parts of the 1901 plan.

With the general paving of streets, the filling of vacant lots with houses,
and the increasing automobile traffic, it became necessary to provide safe
play places for children and necessary recreation facilities for adults. In
response to this demand, a system of playgrounds was adopted and a
playgrounds department set up in 1911.
While all these projects were good and necessary, they failed to keep
pace with the needs of the rapidly growing city. Intrusted to different
executive authorities, these efforts could not be properly coordinated, and
occasionally were designed without the fullest consideration of other
projects affected by them. The proposed system of playgrounds was not
extended as intended, and even if it had been would have proved
inadequate. Lands recommended for park use in 1901 were built on with
expensive improvements and put to private or commercial uses.
The progress made in the quarter century 1901 to 1926 was so
unsatisfactory that a Park and Planning Commission was established (1924,
amended 1926)—
to develop a comprehensive, consistent, and coordinated plan for the National Capital and its
environs in the States of Maryland and Virginia, to preserve the flow of water in Rock Creek, to
prevent pollution of Rock Creek and the Potomac and Anacostia Rivers, to preserve forests and
natural scenery in and about Washington, and to provide for the comprehensive, systematic, and
continuous development of park, parkway, and playground systems of the National Capital and its
environs * * *.

Besides its city-planning work, this commission recommended a
complete system of city parks, playgrounds, and recreation centers, as well
as a system of regional parks.
The main new city park feature is a circumferential parkway joining the
old Civil War forts built to defend the city against attack, but now too near
urban development to be of any military efficacy. But the sites of the forts
themselves, besides the interest of the remains of the military works, are
excellently suited for local parks, and because of their commanding
positions afford many unique and magnificent views, while the drive
joining them, besides giving opportunity for an unusually picturesque
pleasure drive, will provide very much-needed cross connections of great
traffic value between the radial streets entering the city.
There is to be a series of neighborhood recreation centers from 10 to 20
acres in size for each residential community, with playgrounds for small
children interspersed at intervals of about half a mile. The recreation system
is to comprise fields for major sports and swimming pools and constitutes a

reasonable effort to meet the policy that “every child shall have a place to
play.”
The regional park system contemplates the acquisition of the shores of
the Potomac from Mount Vernon to and including Great Falls as a memorial
park in memory of George Washington. This will include an area of unique
historical and scenic value of such picturesque attractiveness as can not be
found in such close proximity to any other great city, and a possible natural
playground within reach of millions of the city dwellers of the Atlantic
seaboard.
The new memorial highway to Mount Vernon is an important element of
this project, which was completed in 1932. In the north end of the project,
near Great Falls, are the remains of the Old Potomack Canal, of which
George Washington himself supervised the construction, while on the
Maryland shore is the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, formally initiated by
President John Quincy Adams in 1828, and a most perfect example of the
type of canal which brought about the development of our country in the
first half of the nineteenth century. Its quiet waters and overgrown towpath
and banks have unusual charm and afford a most charming and interesting
contrast with the torrential river below in its rugged canyon.
As a natural terminal on the Maryland bank of the river, nearly opposite
Mount Vernon, is picturesque old Fort Washington designed by Major
L’Enfant after the War of 1812, and one of the best-preserved forts of this
type in the South Atlantic States. From its parapet one can enjoy one of the
best views of the Capital City L’Enfant so gloriously and successfully
planned.
The regional park system also proposes the extension of Rock Creek Park
into Maryland and various other similar connections with projects in the
District of Columbia. Perhaps the most important is the opportunity for a
parkway, like the Bronx Parkway, between Washington and Baltimore,
following up the Anacostia Valley, Northwest Branch, and Indian Creek.
The recommendations of the National Capital Park and Planning
Commission as to parks were given legislative sanction by the act approved
May 29, 1930, and are being carried out as fast as funds are made available.
The opportunities here for a nearly ideal park and playground system are so
unusual that the entire country must be interested in seeing their early
completion. Other cities can have monumental buildings, but no other large
city can still have at reasonable cost the park and recreational facilities

essential to the amenities of life and the raising of a new generation under
conditions assuring, for poor and rich alike, a sound mind in a sound body.

LAFAYETTE PARK, SHOWING STATUE OF GEN. ANDREW JACKSON

LAFAYETTE PARK
The L’Enfant plan shows the ground now known as Lafayette Park, or
Lafayette Square, comprising about 7 acres, to have been a part of the
President’s Park, extending on the north side from H Street southward to the
Monument Grounds, between Fifteenth and Seventeenth Streets. Similarly,
the subsequent Ellicott plan and the Dermott plan make provision for such a
spacious park to surround the President’s House. These plans show no street
dividing Lafayette Park from the White House Grounds.
When L’Enfant prepared his plan this was a neglected area, a common
without trees. A race course was laid out, in 1797, on the west side of the
grounds, extending westward to Twentieth Street. Huts for workmen who
helped build the President’s House were erected on the grounds, and when
these were removed a market was established there. This was later relocated

farther to the center of the town, on Pennsylvania Avenue, between Seventh
and Ninth Streets. Thomas Jefferson first undertook really to improve the
grounds and marked the east and west limits as they are to-day, called
Madison Place and Jackson Place, respectively.
Until 1816 the only important building that had been erected adjacent to
Lafayette Park was St. John’s Church. Then, in 1818, the Dolly Madison
House was built, and in 1819 the Decatur House. From then on and for
more than 50 years following Lafayette Park became the center of social
life in Washington. Nearly every house surrounding it became noted for its
historical associations. However, the park seems to have been neglected the
greater part of this period. In 1840 there was an ordinary fence around it.
Just when this park area took the name of Lafayette Park is not definitely
known. As has been said, originally this area was a part of the President’s
Park, and D. B. Warden, in his volume entitled “Description of the District
of Columbia,” published in 1816, refers to it as such by saying, in
connection with rates of fare for hackney carriages—
From the President’s Square to Greenleaf’s Point, and also to Hamburg Wharf, or to the western
limits of the city, the rate is but 25 cents, and half the distance one-half that sum.

In his voluminous history of Lafayette Square, Gist Blair states—
Its name has come from the people and arose after this visit of Lafayette to the city in 1824.

THE LINCOLN MEMORIAL

Again, speaking of the many social events held in Washington during this
visit of Lafayette, Mr. Blair says:
Socially, the season of 1824-25 was the most brilliant Washington had seen, so it is natural to
understand how everyone at this time may have started to call this square Lafayette Square.

In the office of the National Park Service, Department of the Interior,
there is a map dated 1852, on which Lafayette Park is shown to be
separated from the White House Grounds. The first printed report of the
Commissioner of Public Buildings, on file in that office, is of the year 1857.
In that report there is a reference to Lafayette Square with an account of
certain work being done there in that year.
During more than a quarter of a century past the grounds have been
properly maintained as a park. To-day there are five notable monuments in
Lafayette Park; namely, the Jackson, Lafayette, Rochambeau, Von Steuben,
and the Kosciuszko.

POTOMAC PARKS

It is of interest to note from the L’Enfant plan of 1791 the absence of land
in the area known to-day as West and East Potomac Parks. Seventy-five
years ago the area had developed into a marshy region, which became so
malarial as to affect seriously the health of residents of the city. In 1901 the
McMillan Park Commission decided to extend the axis of the Mall
westward three-fourths of a mile, and as a result one of the greatest and
most remarkable developments in city planning has been accomplished, for
at that time, in connection with the park improvement project, the location
of the Lincoln Memorial and the Arlington Memorial Bridge was
determined upon in plan, together with the Rock Creek and Potomac
Parkway development. The dredging of these swampy regions by the
United States Engineer Office resulted in the creation of West Potomac
Park, comprising 394 acres.
East Potomac Park is located along the Potomac River not far from the
Lincoln Memorial and has developed during the past few years into the
most prominent recreational park of the city. The golf course, field house,
and picnic groves are features of the park. It is one of the three great island
parks of the world and comprises 327 acres of land reclaimed from the
Potomac River, with a water front of 3⁵⁄₈ miles. The park is bounded by a
motor drive, which is lined with Japanese cherry trees. A canal to cross the
park, connecting Washington Channel with the Potomac River, is in plan.
JAPANESE CHERRY TREES

The Japanese cherry trees along the Tidal Basin and the Potomac Park
Driveway attract thousands of visitors to Washington during the cherry
blossom season, which is early in April of each year. They are the gift of the
city of Tokyo to the National Capital. Upon arrival the first consignment of
2,000 trees was found to be infected by fungous diseases and insect pests,
and thereupon they were destroyed. In the winter of 1911-12 the city of
Tokyo renewed the gift, and in March, 1912, a consignment of 3,020 trees
arrived in Washington. These were examined by experts of the Department
of Agriculture and pronounced healthy specimens.

MERIDIAN HILL PARK—UPPER GARDEN

MERIDIAN HILL PARK—LOWER GARDEN

Arrangements were made immediately for planting them. Mrs. William
Howard Taft planted the first tree and Viscountess Chinda the second early
in April. When the news was received in Japan that the trees had been
successfully planted, the following message from Mayor Ozaki, of Tokyo,
was received:
It will remain to the citizens of Tokyo a pleasing memory as well as civic pride that their small
offering will be permitted to contribute to the advancement of the beautiful Capital of the great
Republic which they all admire.

The cherry trees of Washington are almost entirely of the flowering
species, of the single and double blossom varieties; the former, planted at
the edge of the Tidal Basin, appear first. There they are near, also, to the
Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial, and with their tinted
blossoms present a charming vista. The double-flowering variety in East
Potomac Park appears about two weeks later.

MERIDIAN HILL PARK

Meridian Hill Park is located between Fifteenth and Sixteenth and W and
Euclid Streets NW. It comprises about 12 acres. The design for improving
the park has been completed and approved and a large-scale model of the
southern portion prepared for special study in carrying out the details.
In design Meridian Hill Park is similar to an Italian garden, containing an
upper and a lower garden, and as a formal garden of its kind there is no
other like it in the United States. The upper garden extends from Euclid
Street about 900 feet south on a practically level stretch of mall to the grand
terrace, which forms the cross axis of the park. Concert groves and
promenades, with niches for statues and monuments in the hemlock hedge,
are features of the upper garden. This part of the park has been for the most
part completed.
From the terrace a commanding view of the city is obtained. Immediately
to the south is a cascade, descending to a pool in the lower garden. East of
the pool there is a statue of President Buchanan, erected by authority of
Congress as the gift of Harriet Lane Johnston to the United States. In the
lower garden there is also a great exedra, forming the main point from
which to view the cascades. Along the sides of the lower garden are walks
amidst planting, leading to the upper garden. The main entrance to Meridian
Hill Park is on Sixteenth Street. A tablet here suggests the name given to the
park. It bears this inscription:
THE STONE MARKING THE WASHINGTON MERIDIAN WAS
FORMERLY LOCATED 52 FEET 9 INCHES WEST OF THIS TABLET,
WHICH WAS PRESENTED BY THE ARMY AND NAVY CHAPTER OF THE
DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, 1804-1923.

Transcriptions
MAP OF ROCK CREEK PARK

On the grand terrace is a copy of the famous Dubois statue of Jeanne
d’Arc, given by the Société des Femmes de France à New York to the
National Capital. There is also a statue of Dante in the lower garden, the gift
of Chevalier Carlo Barsotti, editor of a leading Italian newspaper of New
York City. An armillary sphere is in the great exedra of the lower garden.
While a million dollars could not buy the land occupied by Meridian Hill
Park, it is of interest to know that for the 110 acres, which extended from
what is now Florida Avenue to Columbia Road and east of Sixteenth Street,
Commodore Porter paid $13,000 in 1816.

ROCK CREEK PARK
One of the largest and most beautiful natural parks in the world is Rock
Creek Park, extending from the William Howard Taft Bridge northward to
the boundary line of the District of Columbia, and comprising 1,632 acres.
Congress authorized the creation of the park in 1890, with an appropriation
of $10,000. Adjacent to the park is the National Zoological Park.

JOAQUIN MILLER CABIN IN ROCK CREEK PARK

PLAN OF ANACOSTIA PARK

ANACOSTIA PARK
The plan for the development of this project provides for the reclamation
of what are known as the Anacostia Flats, along the Anacostia River, on the
east side of the District of Columbia, into Anacostia Park, of 1,100 acres.
The distance from the point near the War College to the District line is
about 6 miles. The park will be one of the largest and most beautiful
waterside parks in this country. The breaking of ground for the park took
place August 2, 1923.
As has been related, more than three centuries ago, or in the summer of
1608, Capt. John Smith, in an exploration of the tributaries of the
Chesapeake Bay, landed on these very banks. He found a tribe of peaceful
Indians, the Nacotchtant (Anacostans), numbering some 80 men, kind and
well disposed, who did their best to content Captain Smith and his fellow
explorers. These Indians no doubt made their home in this neighborhood on
account of the abundance of game.
One of the largest water-lily gardens, the Shaw Lily Gardens, is situated
opposite Mount Hamilton, on the east side of the Anacostia River. It is
thought these ultimately will become part of the Anacostia Park. The
Anacostia is also a popular place for fishing, and it is expected fish ponds
will be established there later.
A large stadium and playground at the end of East Capitol Street,
adjoining Anacostia Park, is proposed. The National Arboretum will be
adjacent to it from Mount Hamilton eastward.

NATIONAL ARBORETUM
The movement to establish a National Arboretum was first definitely
proposed by Hon. James Wilson, Secretary of Agriculture, in his report for
the fiscal year 1899—
One in which can be brought together for study all the trees that will grow in Washington, D. C.,
* * * furnishing complete material for the investigations of the Department of Agriculture, and so
managed as to be a perennial means of botanical education.

In 1918 the Commission of Fine Arts, at the request of the House
Committee on the Library, made a study of the problem of the location of a
proposed botanical garden and arboretum. After an elaborate study,
conducted with the help of the Department of Agriculture, the commission

recommended the purchase of Mount Hamilton and adjacent land, and
Hickey Hill, together with the lands between those heights and the
Anacostia marshes, in northeast Washington. The report of the commission
encountered opposition, but its logic has prevailed.

MAP OF NATIONAL ARBORETUM PREPARED BY THE NATIONAL COMMISSION OF
FINE ARTS

The act providing for the establishment of the National Arboretum,
approved March 4, 1927, is one of the few measures that survived the
filibuster in the Senate on the closing day of that session, because of the
untiring efforts of Senator Charles L. McNary, of Oregon, chairman of the
Senate Committee on Agriculture and Forestry. Hon. Robert Luce,
chairman of the Committee on the Library, handled the bill in the House of
Representatives. The sum of $300,000 was authorized by the act for the
National Arboretum, and this amount was subsequently appropriated. The
act provided also for the appointment by the Secretary of Agriculture of an
advisory council in relation to the plan and development of the National
Arboretum. To serve on this council the Secretary of Agriculture appointed
the following persons:

Frederic A. Delano, Washington, D. C., member of the Board of Regents,
Smithsonian Institution.
Henry S. Graves, New Haven, Conn., dean of the School of Forestry,
Yale University; fellow of the Society of American Foresters; and formerly
president of the American Forestry Association.
Harlan P. Kelsey, Salem, Mass., member and former president of the
American Association of Nurserymen.
John C. Merriam, Washington, D. C., president of the Carnegie
Institution of Washington; member of the National Academy of Sciences
and of the National Research Council.
Mrs. Frank B. Noyes, Washington, D. C., chairman of the District of
Columbia committee of the Garden Club of America.
Frederick Law Olmsted, Brookline, Mass., member and former president
of the American Society of Landscape Architects.
Mrs. Harold I. Pratt, Glen Cove, Long Island, N. Y., secretary of the
Garden Club of America.
Robert Pyle, West Grove, Pa., president of the American Horticultural
Society and a director of the Society of American Florists and Ornamental
Horticulturists.
Vernon Kellogg, permanent secretary of the National Research Council.
It is proposed to purchase about 500 acres, 400 of which, including
Mount Hamilton and adjacent portions of Anacostia Park, have already
been secured. Thirty-two distinct varieties of soils suited to the growth of
trees and plants have been found in this area.
Due to mild climatic conditions in Washington, at the gateway of the
South, where there is neither the extreme cold of the North nor the extreme
heat of the South, many varieties of trees and plants of both North and
South will grow, making it one of the most favorable localities in the United
States for the establishment of a National Arboretum. Many countries which
have established an arboretum in their capital cities have provided not only
an attractive place of public interest but also the source of millions of
dollars in revenue.

THE CAPITOL UPON ITS RESTORATION, 1827

Chapter XX
ARCHITECTURE OF EARLY DAYS

THE CAPITOL

DESIGN OF THE CAPITOL, BY THORNTON, 1800

When the seat of government was moved from Philadelphia to
Washington in the year 1800 there had been erected for the purposes of the
Government a small rectangular building, familiarly known to-day as the
Supreme Court section of the Capitol, and in this building were housed the
Senate, the House of Representatives, the Supreme Court, the courts of the
District of Columbia, and the library, now known as the Library of
Congress. South of this building was a large vacant space, practically the
extension of East Capitol Street. Through this area people from the western
and eastern parts of the city passed to and fro. Conveniently located in that
section now occupied by the central portion were two wells, which for
many years furnished water to citizens residing in that vicinity, for the
Capitol Grounds were then occupied by residences. South of this vacant

space were the foundations of another building, equal in area and intended
to compare in cubic contents with the portion already erected and occupied.
For some time after the inauguration of President Jefferson but little was
done toward the erection of the southern building, now known as the
Statuary Hall section, except that the foundation walls progressed slowly,
and within the area of these walls there was built a 1-story elliptical-shaped
building of brick construction, known to the people of that period as “The
Oven,” designed for the accommodation of the House of Representatives
and occupied until 1807, when the Hall of the House of Representatives
was completed. In 1800 there were 32 Senators and 106 Members of the
House.

THE CAPITOL, FROM PENNSYLVANIA AVENUE, 1830

CAPITOL, FROM THE WEST, SHOWING THE TRIPOLI COLUMN

Thomas Jefferson sought the assistance of the best talent of the country to
complete the Capitol, and on March 6, 1803, appointed Benjamin H.
Latrobe, whose fame as an architect had caused his services to be in such
great demand in several cities that he could not immediately take up his
residence in Washington. But he arranged to assume the duties of Architect
of the Capitol by personal visits to the city and made a thorough study of
the plans for the Capitol. The plans for the Hall of the House of
Representatives as developed by Mr. Latrobe required sculptural
decoration, and this was made the subject of an interesting letter on March
6, 1805, addressed to Philip Mazzei, an Italian physician, asking for
assistance in selecting a sculptor:
By direction of the President of the United States I take the liberty to apply to you for your
assistance in procuring for us the services of a good sculptor in the erection of the public buildings in
this city, especially the Capitol.

SENATE CHAMBER, 1830

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES CHAMBER, 1830

EARLY VIEW OF THE WHITE HOUSE

The Capitol was begun at a time when the country was entirely destitute of artists, and even of
good workmen in the branches of architecture, upon which the superiority of public over private
buildings depends. The north wing, therefore, which is carried up, although the exterior is remarkably
well finished as to the masonry, is not a good building. For two or three years after the removal of
Congress to this city the public works were entirely discontinued. In the year 1803, however, they
were resumed, and under the patronage of the President and the annual appropriations by Congress
the south wing of the Capitol has been begun and carried on. It is now so far advanced as to make it
necessary that we should have as early as possible the assistance of a good sculptor of architectural
decorations * * *.

The principal sculpture required was 24 Corinthian capitals, 2 feet 4
inches in diameter at their feet and open enriched entablatures of 147 feet
(both English measure) in length. Also five panels (tavole) enriched with
foliage and an eagle of colossal size in the frieze, the distance between the
tips of the extended wings to be 12 feet 6 inches. As to material, yellowish
sandstone of fine grain was to be used.

Transcription
PLAN, IN BLACK, SHOWING PART FIRST OCCUPIED BY CONGRESS, 1800

The later history of the Capitol will be found on page 219.

THE WHITE HOUSE
The most definite description of the White House as it existed during its
earlier days is to be found in American Scenery, published in London in
1840 and edited by Nathaniel Parker Willis, who writes as follows:
The residence of the Chief Magistrate of the United States resembles the country seat of an English
nobleman in its architecture and size; but it is to be regretted that the parallel ceases when we come

to the grounds. By itself it is a commodious and creditable building, serving its purpose without too
much state for a republican country, yet likely, as long as the country exists without primogeniture
and rank, to be sufficiently superior to all other dwelling houses to mark it as the residence of the
Nation’s chief.

VIEW SHOWING TERRACE ON SOUTH SIDE OF THE WHITE HOUSE, 1827

The President’s House stands near the center of an area of some 20 acres, occupying a very
advantageous elevation, open to the view of the Potomac and about 44 feet above high water, and
possessing from its balcony one of the loveliest prospects in our country—the junction of the two
branches of the Potomac which border the District and the swelling and varied shores beyond of the
States of Maryland and Virginia. The building is 170 feet front and 86 deep and is built of white
freestone, with Ionic pilasters, comprehending two lofty stories, with a stone balustrade. The north
front is ornamented with a portico sustained by four Ionic columns, with three columns of projection,
the outer intercolumniation affording a shelter for carriages to drive under. The garden front on the
river is varied by what is called a rusticated basement story, in the Ionic style, and by a semicircular
projecting colonnade of six columns, with two spacious and airy flights of steps leading to a
balustrade on the level of the principal story.
The interior of the President’s House is well disposed and possesses one superb reception room
and two oval drawing-rooms (one in each story) of very beautiful proportions. The other rooms are
not remarkable, and there is an inequality in the furniture of the whole house (owing to the
unwillingness and piecemeal manner with which Congress votes any moneys for its decoration)
which destroys its effect as a comfortable dwelling. The oval rooms are carpeted with Gobelin
tapestry, worked with the national emblems, and are altogether in a more consistent style than the
other parts of the house. It is to be hoped that Congress will not always consider the furniture of the
President’s House as the scapegoat of all sumptuary and aristocratic sins, and that we shall soon be
able to introduce strangers not only to a comfortable and well-appointed, but to a properly served and
nicely kept, Presidential Mansion.

The White House as it is at present is described on page 261.

OCTAGON HOUSE
Octagon House is a beautiful example of early American architecture. It
is situated at the corner of Eighteenth Street and New York Avenue NW.,
two blocks west of the White House, and was built in the year 1800 by Col.
John Tayloe from designs by the Architect of the United States Capitol, Dr.
William Thornton. It is said President Washington himself selected the site
for his friend.
The building is a fine, octagonal brick structure, Georgian in design, with
a central circular hall and a noteworthy staircase. The materials used in its
construction, including beautiful sculptured mantels, were brought from
England. Gardens surrounded it, and the old brick stables and smokehouse
still close the vista from the stair landing.
The house was the center of official and social life as the home of the
Tayloe family. It achieved particular distinction when used as the Executive
Mansion by President Madison for more than a year after the burning of the
White House by the British in 1814.
The building was later used at various times as a Government office
building. The Government Hydrographic Office, with its drafting rooms,
was located there, and the building was also used for storage. During the
139 years it appears to have suffered little from damage and deterioration.

OCTAGON HOUSE

The Octagon House became the home of the American Institute of
Architects on January 1, 1899, through the particular efforts of Charles F.
McKim, Cass Gilbert, and Frank Miles Day, former presidents of the
institute, and complete ownership of the property was acquired in the year
1902.
One of its present treasures is the table on which the treaty of Ghent was
signed by President Madison.

DOLLY MADISON HOUSE
The Dolly Madison House, at the corner of H Street and Madison Place
NW., adjacent to Lafayette Square, was built by Dolly Madison’s brother-
in-law in 1818.

DOLLY MADISON HOUSE

After the death of President Madison in 1833 Mrs. Madison returned to
Washington and resided in the house until her death in 1849. In her day it
was a little gray residence, but a place where she presided as a charming
hostess for many years. The purchase by Congress of the Madison Papers
for $30,000 made it possible for her to live there. Born in the year 1768, she
became intimately acquainted with many who took part in the
Revolutionary War, and through her long life linked her generation with that
of the present day.
Among the men and women of importance who were frequent visitors in
her home, who exerted an influence to strengthen the seat of government
and became noted characters in American history, were Mr. and Mrs. John
Quincy Adams, Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, Mrs. Alexander Hamilton,
Mrs. Stephen Decatur, Mrs. William Thornton, Mrs. Tobias Lear, and Gen.
John Peter Van Ness.
During the Civil War the house was occupied by Gen. George B.
McClellan, at that time in command of the Army of the Potomac, and about

the year 1885 the house was purchased by the Cosmos Club, which now
occupies it.

DECATUR HOUSE
The Decatur House, located at the corner of H Street and Jackson Place
NW., was designed by Benjamin Latrobe and built about 1819 by
Commodore Stephen Decatur, it is said, from Barbary pirates’ prize money.

DECATUR HOUSE

Scarcely had the house been completed and through the trophies of the
naval hero made a place of great interest when, on March 22, 1820, Decatur
was mortally wounded in a duel with Commodore James Barron which took
place at Bladensburg, Md. Decatur died in his home that night and was
buried at Kalorama, a prominent estate in those days in northwest
Washington.
Thereupon Henry Clay, who was then a Member of the House of
Representatives and subsequently Secretary of State in the Cabinet of John

Quincy Adams, occupied the Decatur House. After the Civil War the house
was bought by Gen. Edward H. Beale, a friend of General Grant. It was
inherited by Truxton Beale, who resided there many years.

OTHER HISTORICAL HOUSES
Other houses adjacent to Lafayette Square and the White House grounds
which became historically important were:
The Cameron House, adjacent to the Dolly Madison House, was built in
1828 by Benjamin Ogle Tayloe. Later it was altered somewhat to suit the
fine taste of Mrs. Cameron, wife of James Donald Cameron, who served as
a Senator from the State of Pennsylvania from 1877 to 1897. The Cameron
House to-day is occupied by the Cosmos Club, which, as has been stated,
also occupies the Dolly Madison House. The beautiful gardens surrounding
it are a source of much pleasure.
The Van Ness Mansion formerly stood on the site now occupied by the
Pan American Building, near Seventeenth Street and Constitution Avenue.

VAN NESS MANSION

The Rodgers House was occupied by Secretary of State Seward at the
time he and his son were nearly fatally stabbed on the night President
Lincoln was assassinated. In 1895 the house was torn down to make way
for an opera house, called the Lafayette Square Opera House, and later the
Belasco Theater.
John Hay, Secretary of State under Presidents McKinley and Roosevelt,
lived at Sixteenth and H Streets.
The home of George Bancroft was at No. 1623 H Street. Here he
completed his History of the United States.

LOCK OF THE OLD CHESAPEAKE AND OHIO CANAL, GEORGETOWN

The historian Henry Adams, grandson of President John Quincy Adams,
lived at 1605 H Street.
Lord Ashburton lived in the large square house next to the old Arlington
Hotel, at H Street and Vermont Avenue. Charles Sumner also lived near by.
The Corcoran House stood at the corner of H Street and Connecticut
Avenue, where now stands the Chamber of Commerce of the United States.

In that house Daniel Webster lived while Secretary of State under Presidents
William Henry Harrison and Zachary Taylor.
The original Corcoran Gallery of Art Building stands at the corner of
Pennsylvania Avenue and Seventeenth Street.
No. 22 Jackson Place, now the home of the Women’s City Club, was the
house of President Polk’s Secretary of War, William L. Marcy. The house
was occupied by President and Mrs. Roosevelt for a few months while the
White House was being restored in 1901.

GEORGETOWN
Georgetown was laid out pursuant to an act of the Province of Maryland
dated June 8, 1751, passed in response to a petition of a number of
inhabitants, who stated that “there was a convenient place for a town on the
Potomac River above the mouth of Rock Creek,” and recommended that 60
acres be there laid out for a town. The town was never incorporated as a
city, but was commonly called the city of Georgetown as a consequence of
the casual reference to it by that title in numerous acts of Congress.
The general supposition is that Georgetown was so named in honor of
George II, then the reigning sovereign of Great Britain, but it is also
contended that it was named as a compliment to George Gordon and
George Beall, the owners of the 60-acre tract, and from whom the site was
obtained. The town was subsequently surveyed and divided into 80 lots. On
December 25, 1789, the town was incorporated by an act of the General
Assembly of Maryland, with a mayor, recorder, aldermen, and common
council. The first mayor was appointed for a term of one year, to commence
January 1, 1790.
The streets in the part of Georgetown laid out under the act of June 8,
1751, were acquired by the public in practically the same manner in which
the title to the original streets of the city of Washington was derived.
Georgetown was enlarged by numerous additions, until, as calculated by
the surveyor of the District of Columbia, it embraced about 543 acres. Its
charter was revoked by the act of Congress of February 21, 1871, by which
its name was retained as a topographical designation until its consolidation
with Washington by the act of February 11, 1895, which stated it “shall be
known as and shall constitute a part of the city of Washington.” By this act
the Commissioners of the District of Columbia were authorized to change

the names of the streets and avenues of Georgetown to conform to those of
Washington as far as practicable. At the time of the consolidation the
population of Georgetown was about 15,000.

OLD AQUEDUCT BRIDGE

FRANCIS SCOTT KEY BRIDGE

Soon after its establishment Georgetown became a prominent port, and
one of the interesting places there to-day is the old customhouse. A number
of mills, the ruins of which can still be seen, were there. It is said that flour
shipped in colonial times from Georgetown to Europe was so good that
consignees did not think it necessary to open the barrels for inspection.
Tobacco and corn were the two other chief exports. Georgetown University
was established in 1789, the year George Washington was inaugurated as
the first President of the Republic. The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, 182
miles long, commenced in 1828, had its beginning in Georgetown. It cost
$13,000,000. Georgetown’s exports in 1792 amounted to $348,539. Much
coal was also shipped to Alexandria for towns on the Atlantic coast.
Georgetown also became noted for the many fine houses which were
built there, such as Tudor Place, Woodley, the Oaks, Montrose, the Bowie
Mansion, and Bellevue, later known as the Rittenhouse Mansion. In the
early days, while houses in the new Federal City were being built, many
Members of Congress preferred to travel the dusty road from the Capitol to
Georgetown because of the suitable residences there in which they could
live.
Among the mansions near Georgetown, to be mentioned here, is
Arlington Mansion (described fully on page 309), built in 1802 by George
Washington Parke Custis, the adopted son of President Washington. The

original Arlington estate comprised 6,000 acres. The design of the portico
of the house resembles that of the Temple of Theseus at Athens, which
stands to-day one of the best-preserved buildings of antiquity. Mr. Custis
lived there till his death in 1857. He entertained Lafayette at Arlington
during his visit to the United States in 1824.

FRANCIS SCOTT KEY MANSION
The Francis Scott Key Mansion, at Georgetown, stands remodeled as a
store building on old Bridge Street, now M Street, one-half block from the
Francis Scott Key Bridge. Originally it was a 3-story “colonial” brick
building, which stood there as such until about the year 1917, when the
Francis Scott Key Bridge was built to replace the old Aqueduct Bridge.
Entering the front door at the left of the building, there was a spacious
hall extending through the entire house. At the right of the hall were two
large parlors. In the basement was the dining room, kitchen, and “cold
room,” a room bricked up and used as a refrigerator and pantry. In the
second story were two large bedrooms and a large hall. The third story
contained four bedrooms. The window frames were small, 4 by 6 inches,
supported in heavy sashes, as was the custom in building such houses.
In the rear of the house was a beautiful garden, which sloped gracefully
to the river. The Chesapeake & Ohio Canal was later built through it. This
area is now occupied by factories, warehouses, and store buildings.

FRANCIS SCOTT KEY HOUSE

Mr. Key, an attorney and poet, lived here with his family many years, and
resided here at the time of the bombardment of Fort McHenry. Near by was
his law office, a little brick building.

HOUSE OF THE EARLY DAYS IN GEORGETOWN ON OLD BRIDGE (M) STREET

In 1814, while the British fleet was in Chesapeake Bay, Mr. Key
attempted to secure the release of his friend Dr. William Beane, of
Marlboro, Md., who had been captured. He was held on shipboard during
the shelling of Fort McHenry on the night of September 13. Key’s anxiety
became intense. With the first approach of dawn Mr. Key turned his eyes in
the direction of the fort and its flag, but darkness had given place to a heavy
fog. Finally, through a vista in the smoke and vapor he could dimly see the
flag of his country. Overjoyed and inspired by the sight, he composed The
Star-Spangled Banner. This is now our national anthem by an act of
Congress approved March 3, 1931, as follows:
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in
Congress assembled, That the composition consisting of words and music known as The Star-
Spangled Banner is designated the national anthem of the United States of America.

The historic flag that flew over Fort McHenry is on exhibition at the
Historical Museum of the Smithsonian Institution.

TUDOR PLACE

TUDOR PLACE, THIRTY-FIRST AND Q STREETS

Tudor Place, located at Thirty-first and Q Streets NW., is one of the fine
examples of the architecture of the early days of the Republic in
Washington. It was designed by Dr. William Thornton, Architect of the
Capitol, and built about 1805 by Thomas Peter, who was one of the original
landowners of the District of Columbia. Mr. Peter married Martha Parke
Custis, Mrs. Washington’s granddaughter. Tudor Place is still the residence
of lineal descendants of Martha Washington and contains many heirlooms
of the family. General Lafayette and other distinguished visitors were
entertained here.

ROCK CREEK CHURCH

Tudor Place to-day is well preserved, and its gardens give it added
beauty.

TUDOR PLACE, SHOWING GARDENS ON THE EAST SIDE

ROCK CREEK CHURCH (ST. PAUL’S) IN ROCK CREEK
CEMETERY
Rock Creek Church is to the north of the Soldiers’ Home. The original
building was erected by the people of the Eastern Branch and Rock Creek
in 1719 in what was then St. Paul’s Parish, and was for many years the
oldest parish church in the District of Columbia. It was rebuilt in 1775 and
remodeled in 1868. It burned on April 6, 1921, but was again rebuilt.
In 1726 the separation of this parish from St. John’s (Georgetown)
marked a religious era in the future National Capital. Of the seven men
appointed to establish the town of Georgetown, five were officers of this
parish.
In the cemetery surrounding the church is the famous Adams Memorial
by Saint-Gaudens.

CHRIST CHURCH
Although Washington had been planned as a city in 1791, it did not
become the actual seat of government until 1800. It was necessary,

therefore, for those desiring a Protestant Episcopal Church in Washington to
apply to the Maryland Assembly. This application was made and an act
passed to form a new parish to be known as Washington Parish.
On May 25, 1795, a meeting was held, and the parish of Christ Church,
Washington Parish, was incorporated and vestrymen elected. At this
meeting Rev. George Ralph was appointed the first rector.
The first services were held in an old building, originally used as a
tobacco barn, located on New Jersey Avenue near D Street SE.

OLD TOBACCO BARN

On May 6, 1806, two offers of sites for a new church were made. The
one by William Prout—the present site—was accepted, and in 1807 the
present building was erected. Three free pews were set aside—one for the
use of the President of the United States; one for Mr. Prout, the donor of the
land; and the third for the rector. The church stands on G Street, near
Seventh SE.
For many years each incoming President was notified that a pew had
been reserved for his use. During their terms of office Presidents Jefferson,

Madison, and Monroe worshiped in Christ Church. During all these years
the fame of the church has grown, from its antiquity as the mother church of
the Capital and from its spiritual work and ministrations.
A history of the parish would not be complete without some notice of its
burying ground (illustrated on page 44).

CHRIST CHURCH

On March 30, 1812, Henry Ingle deeded to Christ Church vestry a square
of ground known as square 1115, and the name of Washington Parish Burial
Ground was given it. On May 30, 1849, the vestry changed it to Washington
Cemetery. Yet in popular nomenclature it is known as Congressional
Cemetery. Title can be traced back to its early connection with the National
Legislature.
On April 15, 1816, the vestry assigned 100 sites for the interment of
deceased Members of Congress. On December 15, 1823, 300 more sites
were donated for the same purpose. Congress afterwards bought more sites
and erected small freestone cenotaphs, which form a conspicuous feature,
made sundry appropriations for improvements, and began to add its name to
the cemetery. Many Congressmen and Government officials are buried
there, including Tobias Lear, private secretary and friend of George
Washington, who died in 1816; Dr. William Thornton, who drew the
original plans of the Capitol, and died March 28, 1828; George Hadfield, an
assistant architect of the Capitol; George Clinton, of New York, and
Elbridge Gerry, of Massachusetts, Vice Presidents of the United States. The
cemetery, located at Eighteenth Street and Pennsylvania Avenue SE., is
adjacent to the Anacostia River and comprises 30 acres.

ST. JOHN’S CHURCH
St. John’s Church, sometimes called the President’s Church, while not the
oldest in the city, has a history which is unique. Probably no other church of
any denomination in the United States has had throughout its history such a
distinguished roster of communicants as has St. John’s, located at Sixteenth
and H Streets NW.
The title, the “President’s Church,” was derived in this way: In 1816,
before the church was consecrated or any pews sold, a committee from the
vestry was instructed to make the offer of a pew to President Madison. He
accepted and thereafter occupied pew No. 28 even more frequently than his
pew in Christ Church. The custom of preserving a pew for the President has
been continued, and a number have regularly worshiped there.
Situated in the heart of official Washington, for a century it has been the
place of worship of Presidents, Cabinet officers, distinguished soldiers and
diplomats, and leaders in the professional life of the city. In the year 1812
there were two Episcopal churches within the present city limits—Christ

Church, Navy Yard, and St. John’s, Georgetown. There was need for a third,
caused by the fact that the White House and departmental buildings were
erected at a point almost midway between these two. Washington in those
days undoubtedly seemed a city of magnificent distances. So, on April 6,
1812, a committee was appointed by the vestry of the mother parish of
Christ Church to meet the situation. Then came the War of 1812, when both
the city and the public buildings suffered, and it was not until September
14, 1815, that the corner stone of St. John’s, Washington, was laid.

ST. JOHN’S CHURCH

Jonathan Elliott, in his history of the District published in 1831, said of
St. John’s Church:
It was built of brick, covered with rough stucco, in the form of a Grecian cross; but being too small
for its congregation, in 1820 it was enlarged by lengthening its western arm, to the form of a Latin
cross; and a portico and tower were also added.

EARLY VIEW OF ST. JOHN’S CHURCH

The most notable changes were made in 1863, when a sanctuary was
added, the interior remodeled, and many fine additions put in place. Since
that time there have been few changes of importance save in the interior
decorations and sanctuary beautification. The eye can not glance in any
direction without seeing some memorial. Over the altar is a brass cross,
commemorating President Arthur. In the west wall is a window
commemorating Presidents Madison, Monroe, and Van Buren. A window in
the east wall commemorates Presidents Tyler, Harrison, and Taylor. Over
the south gallery is a memorial window to Gen. Winfield Scott. The
atmosphere of the old church is vibrant of memories. But St. John’s is far
from being entirely a church of memories. It has made possible several
undertakings of institutional character in the diocese.

THE COURTS OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
The District of Columbia Courthouse is situated in Judiciary Square,
along Indiana Avenue, facing south, with John Marshall Place immediately
in front of it, leading down a slope of 30 feet to Pennsylvania Avenue. It is
the old city hall, now used for the Supreme Court of the District of
Columbia, and is one of the oldest buildings in the city. Designed by the
English architect, George Hadfield, the corner stone was laid August 22,
1820. The building is 250 feet long, 47 feet high, and 166 feet deep. Each of
the wings is 50 feet wide. Its style resembles the classical type of
architecture which received an impetus during the period from 1830 to
1840, when the Patent Office, the old Post Office, and the Department of
the Treasury Buildings were erected. It was remodeled by the Architect of
the Capitol, and in 1920, a century after the corner stone was laid, was
officially rededicated as the United States Courthouse. It will be at the head
of the new municipal center which has been authorized by Congress to
occupy four squares, two on each side of John Marshall Place.
The District of Columbia as the seat of the Federal Government of the
United States of America was without a court from 1791 until February 9,
1801. In the latter year the Circuit Court of the District of Columbia was
organized under the provisions of the act of Congress providing a judiciary
for the said District. From 1790 until the year 1801 all litigation arising
within the District was disposed of by the Maryland courts, at Annapolis.
The first session of the circuit court was held in Market Square,
Alexandria, situated in the territory ceded by Virginia. The first session on
the Maryland side was held in Washington on March 23, 1801, in the old
brick Capitol, occupying a room adjoining the Senate Chamber which had
been assigned to the Supreme Court of the United States. The circuit court
was rather nomadic, occupying a number of sites before the city hall was
finally built in 1820 as its permanent home. It was in the Capitol at the time
of the War of 1812 and was removed to “Mr. Carroll’s house” near the
Capitol. After the war the court returned to the Capitol and sat continuously
until 1819. After passing through many heartbreaking annoyances, the court
finally settled in the building erected for municipal affairs and for the local
courts, located in what is now known as Judiciary Square.
As time progressed the judicial system expanded, the local government
underwent radical changes, and the edifice erected to house a dual tenancy

was acquired by the United States and assigned to the circuit court as a
permanent home. It remained there until the court was abolished by
Congress on March 3, 1863.
When President Lincoln entered the White House just before the rupture
between the North and South, he was not satisfied with the personnel of the
circuit court. He prevailed upon Congress to abolish the circuit court and
provide for its successor—history hints this was a political move—and also
that the President be supported by a judicial system upon which he could
rely for complete loyalty to his administration. He believed that at least two
of the justices were in sympathy with the South and would use means to
embarrass his administration. The thought in his mind was that more
satisfaction could be derived by the abolition of the court and the enactment
of a new judicial system entirely friendly to his ideas of personal liberty and
justice than through the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus.

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA SUPREME COURT BUILDING, BY GEORGE HADFIELD.

Congress complied with President Lincoln’s wishes, and on March 3,
1863, created the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia, giving him

the appointment of the new justices and the clerk. This court was to have all
the jurisdiction of its predecessor—which by statute and decisions of the
Supreme Court of the United States had greater powers than any of the
United States circuit courts—not only a court of local jurisdiction, but also
a court of admiralty, equity between residents and nonresidents, common-
law jurisdiction, and the right of mandamus and common-law certiorari
over all Government officials, with an appellate branch to be composed of
three of the five justices to review the decisions of its special terms.
On May 4, 1863, the court organized and promulgated rules of practice.
From that date until February 9, 1893, it held its appellate jurisdiction. The
members of the bar previous to that date had interceded with Congress for a
separate court of appeals in order to circumvent any comment against the
supreme court owing to the close association of its justices sitting as an
appellate tribunal to review the decisions of their brothers holding the
special terms. This was accomplished. On February 9,1893, the court of
appeals was created. It is now composed of five justices, as against three
provided for in the organic act.
With its probate court—district court, embracing admiralty,
condemnation of adulterated articles under the pure-food act; the widening
of streets, and the condemnation of alleys and privately owned property for
carrying out the enlargement and beautification of Washington; its purely
local jurisdiction to settle disputes in equity and law; the jurisdiction over
Government officials and inferior courts of the District—it is taxed to the
limit of human endeavor to keep up with the tide of modern requirements
and hold all who come within its jurisdiction to an orderly and legal course
of conduct. Its opinions have always received wide notice and are
continually quoted in State and Federal courts.
Many noted cases have been disposed of, as disclosed by its records.
President Grant was sued for damages for false arrest of an individual.
When the case was tried the verdict of the jury was in favor of the
President. The trial of Charles J. Guiteau for the assassination of President
Garfield was held here, and after a long-drawn-out and stormy session
covering many weeks the assassin was convicted. The famous oil-scandal
cases against Doheny and Sinclair, involving the bribery of Albert B. Fall, a
former Secretary of the Interior, were tried by this court. Many other cases
of note could be mentioned, but space will not permit.

Under the various acts of Congress, the number of justices has gradually
increased until at the present time the destiny of this court is in the control
of ten justices. The bench as constituted to-day is composed of a chief
justice, the Hon. Alfred A. Wheat, and the following associate justices, the
Hon. Jennings Bailey, the Hon. Peyton Gordon, the Hon. Jesse Corcoran
Adkins, the Hon. Oscar R. Luhring, the Hon. Joseph W. Cox, the Hon.
James M. Proctor, the Hon. F. Dickinson Letts, the Hon. Daniel W.
O’Donoghue, and the Hon. Bolitha J. Laws.
The orphans’ court in the District of Columbia, as constituted by the act
of 1801, continued until 1870, when its functions were transferred to one of
the justices of the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia holding a
special term for probate business; the register of wills is also clerk of the
probate court.
Justice-of-the-peace courts continued until 1912, when they were
superseded by the present municipal court, with a jurisdiction in debt and
landlord and tenant cases, replevin and tort actions not exceeding $1,000,
and the right of litigants to apply to the court of appeals for a writ of error if
they feel aggrieved.
A police court, divided into two branches—municipal and Federal—with
appeal to the Court of Appeals of the District of Columbia, is presided over
by judges.

OLD LAND OFFICE BUILDING
One of the interesting historic landmarks
in the National Capital is the old Land
Office Building at Seventh and Eighth and
E and F Streets NW., where it occupies an
entire square. It was designed by Robert
Mills in 1830 and constructed of marble
from New York and Maryland under the
supervision of Thomas U. Walter, Architect
of the Capitol, at a cost exceeding
$2,000,000. It was built during that decade
when the Patent Office and the Department DR. WILLIAM THORNTON
of the Treasury Buildings, similar in their

classical type of architecture, were authorized by Congress and placed
under way during the administration of President Jackson.
This building was erected as the first permanent building for the Post
Office Department and of the city post office.
Here, in 1844, the first telegraph office in the United States and of the
world was opened and operated by S. F. B. Morse, the site being marked by
a bronze plaque in the wall on the east side of the building.
The first attempt to determine longitude by telegraph also was made in
this building in 1846. Earlier in the century a building stood here in which
the first theatrical performance in the National Capital was given. The site,
too, was at one time considered for the Botanic Garden. Until 1880 this
section was the residential district of the city.
During the World War the building was occupied by Gen. Enoch
Crowder, in charge of the National Selective Draft Board. On his return
from France, General Pershing made it his headquarters. Since his
retirement the building has been occupied in part by the United States Tariff
Commission.

OLD PATENT OFFICE BUILDING
The original two buildings burned, whereupon Congress authorized the
erection of a new Patent Office Building according to the designs of Robert
Mills, architect. The present building was begun in 1837 and completed in
1867. Doctor Thornton was the first Commissioner. It occupies two squares,
at Seventh and Ninth and F and G Streets NW., at the site where L’Enfant
had indicated in his plan there should be a great national church. It is a
monumental marble building, Doric in its style of architecture, and with its
large pediments and columns—in design and size like those of the
Parthenon—creates the impression of simple dignity and beauty that is
eternal. Models of American inventions to the number of 200,000 were kept
in this building until the new National Museum was built. The Patent Office
has been moved into the new Department of Commerce Building. It is one
of the large bureaus of the Department of Commerce.

THE WASHINGTON MONUMENT

On August 7, 1783, the year that witnessed the treaty of peace at Paris,
Congress ordered—
That an equestrian statue of General Washington be erected at the place where Congress shall be
established, * * * in honor of George Washington, the illustrious Commander in Chief of the Armies
of the United States of America during the War which vindicated and secured their liberty,
sovereignty, and independence.

OLD PATENT OFFICE BUILDING, NOW CIVIL SERVICE COMMISSION BUILDING

But no action was taken to carry out this legislation. The monument was
to have been executed by Ceracchi, a Roman sculptor, and paid for by
contributions of individuals. As has been mentioned, a site for it was
marked on the L’Enfant map of the city of Washington at the intersection on
the Mall of the axis of the Capitol and the White House.
As President, by his wise administration of the affairs of the new
Republic, General Washington so added to his fame and so won the
gratitude of his countrymen that on his death a select joint committee of
both Houses of Congress was appointed to consider a suitable manner of
paying honor to his memory. Thus, on December 23, 1799, on motion of
John Marshall in the House of Representatives, it was resolved by Congress
—

That a marble monument be erected by the United States in the Capitol, at the city of Washington,
and that the family of General Washington be requested to permit his body to be deposited under it;
and that the monument be so designed as to commemorate the great events of his military and
political life.

It was then proposed to make an area in front of the Capitol available for
the monument, and an appropriation of $100,000 was proposed to carry the
resolution into effect. Instead of an equestrian statue, by the terms of this
resolution the monument was to take the form of a “mausoleum of
American granite and marble, in pyramidal form, 100 feet square at the
base and of a proportionate height.”
On January 1, 1801, the House of Representatives passed a bill
appropriating $200,000 for the monument. The Senate, however, did not
concur in this act, due, it is thought, to political questions that absorbed the
attention of Congress and the people until the War of 1812.
In 1816 the General Assembly of Virginia endeavored to secure the
consent of Judge Bushrod Washington, then proprietor of Mount Vernon, to
have the remains of President Washington removed to Richmond, there to
be marked by a fitting monument to his memory.
When this came to the attention of Congress a select joint committee was
appointed which recommended that a tomb should be prepared in the
foundations of the Capitol for the remains of George Washington and that a
monument should be erected to his memory. But this plan failed, because
Judge Bushrod Washington declined to consent to the removal of the body
of George Washington from the vault at Mount Vernon, where it had been
placed in accordance with Washington’s express wish. Nevertheless, a vault
appears to have been prepared beneath the center of the Dome and Rotunda
of the Capitol and beneath the floor of the crypt.

PLAN OF THE WASHINGTON MONUMENT, BY ROBERT MILLS

In 1833 a group of public-spirited citizens organized the Washington
National Monument Society, for the purpose of erecting “a great National
Monument to the memory of Washington at the seat of the Federal
Government.” The first meeting was held on September 26, 1833, in the
city hall, now the District of Columbia Supreme Court Building. Chief
Justice John Marshall, then 78 years of age, was chosen the first president
of the society. The population of the United States had grown from
3,329,214 in 1790 to 12,866,020 in 1830, with 28 States in the Union at that
time. In 1835 the president of the society, John Marshall, died and was
succeeded in the office by ex-President James Madison, who took steps to
inaugurate a national campaign to secure contributions through agents
appointed to collect funds. Upon the death of Mr. Madison the society
amended its constitution so that thereafter the President of the United States
should be ex officio its president. The first to so occupy the office was
Andrew Jackson.
The progress of the society was at first slow, and in 1836 only about
$28,000 had been collected. In 1836 advertisements were published by
order of the society inviting designs from American artists, but no limitation
was placed upon the form of the design. It was determined by the society,

and so recommended, that any plans submitted should “harmoniously blend
durability, simplicity, and grandeur.” The estimated cost for the proposed
monument was not less than $1,000,000. A great many designs were
submitted, but the one selected among the number was that of Robert Mills,
a well-known and eminent architect of that period. This plan was published.
It is the design of an obelisk 500 feet high and 70 feet at the base, rising
from a circular colonnaded building 100 feet high and 250 feet in diameter,
surrounded by 30 columns of massive proportions, being 12 feet in
diameter and 45 feet high. There was to be an equestrian group over the
portal. The interior was designed to be “a spacious gallery and rotunda,”
which was to be a national pantheon, adorned by statues of the Colonial
Fathers, paintings commemorative of battle scenes of the Revolution, and a
colossal statue of George Washington. The feature of the pantheon
surrounding the shaft was never formally adopted by the society as a part of
the Monument. Its first purpose was to secure the necessary funds for the
shaft.
By December 10, 1838, the funds of the society had reached $30,779.84,
and the following year a restriction of a contribution to the sum of $1
appears to have been removed. In 1846 the society, through its ex officio
president, James K. Polk, made another appeal, stating the society wished to
proceed with the erection of the Washington Monument, and it was hoped
legislation would be enacted at the following session of Congress to provide
a location for it. By a resolution adopted February 29, 1847, the United
States consuls abroad were also invited to solicit subscriptions “for the
erection of a suitable National Monument to the memory of Washington
from American citizens, seamen, and others of liberal patriotic feelings.” In
that year the fund was increased to $70,000. Congress thereupon, in
January, 1848, granted authority for the erection of the Washington
Monument on public reservation No. 3, on the plan of the city of
Washington, containing upward of 30 acres, where the Monument now
stands, near the Potomac River, west of the Capitol and south of the
President’s house. As has been related, the actual location of the Monument
was fixed at a point more east and south of the position indicated in the plan
of L’Enfant, because it was somewhat more elevated ground and regarded
more secure for the foundation. The original intersection had been marked
by Thomas Jefferson by a small monument, known as the Jefferson pier. In

the McMillan Park Commission plan of 1901 the site of this pier is
indicated for a circular pool.

THE WASHINGTON MONUMENT UNDER CONSTRUCTION, 1872

On July 4, 1848, under a bright sky, in the presence of the President and
Vice President of the United States, Senators and Representatives in
Congress, heads of the executive departments and other officers of the
Government, the judiciary, representatives of foreign governments, military
organizations, associations of many descriptions, delegations from the
States and Territories and from several Indian tribes, the corner stone was
laid. Hon. Robert C. Winthrop, Speaker of the House of Representatives,
delivered the oration. Three distinguished persons of George Washington’s
time were present on this notable occasion: Mrs. Dolly Madison; Mrs.
Alexander Hamilton, widow of the first Secretary of the Treasury; and
George Washington Parke Custis, the adopted son of George Washington.

The corner stone laid, the society began operations to lay foundations and
to raise the shaft. Every precaution was taken to test the understrata where
the foundations were laid. At a depth of 20 feet a solid bed of gravel was
reached; the strata were found to be very compact, requiring a pick to break
them up.
By January, 1853, the Monument was 126 feet high, and in about six
years from the date of the laying of the corner stone it had reached the
height of 152 feet. During this period the society continued most actively at
work in the raising of funds to carry the Monument forward. In 1854,
however, an act occurred at the Monument which created much indignation
and public discussion through the country. A block of marble, which had
originally stood in the Temple of Concord at Rome, and which had been
sent by the Pope to be set in the wall of the Monument, was stolen, and no
trace of it was ever found. At the time contributions of stones from
societies, municipalities, and the several States were being encouraged, so
the Pope’s stone was not an unusual gift. The disappearance of the stone
angered and estranged a large body of citizens and discouraged the
collection of public contributions, so that all construction work ceased. By
1854, $230,000 had been spent on the structure, and funds for it were now
exhausted. In 1859 Congress passed an act incorporating the Washington
National Monument Society for the purpose of completing the Monument.
In 1869 Senator Nye introduced a bill to insure completion of the
Monument, and several like bills were introduced during the next few years.
On February 22, 1873, a committee of the House of Representatives
recommended an appropriation of $200,000. It was estimated that $700,000
would be required to finish the shaft, constructing also a suitable base, and
that the work would be completed by July 4, 1876, the one hundredth
anniversary of American independence. This gave the needed impetus to the
completion of the project.
Vigorous campaigns for funds were conducted in the States, and
campaign meetings were held in several large cities. In June, 1876, the
society published a further appeal, signed by its officers. President Grant
was ex officio president of the society at the time. On August 2, 1876,
Senator John Sherman offered a concurrent resolution in the Senate that the
Monument to commemorate the achievements of George Washington in
behalf of the Republic be completed during the centennial year. A bill
appropriating $200,000 for the project was approved by the President that

day. At the same time a special board of officers was detailed from the
Corps of Engineers to investigate and report on the sufficiency of the
foundations.

UNCOMPLETED WASHINGTON MONUMENT AS IT APPEARED FROM 1852 TO 1878

The board appointed in 1876 reported that the foundations were not
sufficient, and the first work undertaken by the Government consisted in
underpinning the structure. This was accomplished under the direction of
Lieut. Col. Thomas Lincoln Casey, afterwards Chief of Engineers, United
States Army, who was the engineer in charge of construction of the State,
War, and Navy Building at the time, and later of the Congressional Library
Building. Colonel Casey was assisted by Capt. George W. Davis, United
States Infantry, later major general, who was afterwards relieved by Bernard
R. Green, C. E. The work of excavating beneath the Monument was
commenced January 28, 1879, and the new foundation was finished May
29, 1880. Colonel Casey stated in his report:
The project or design of the work is an obelisk 550 feet in height, faced with white marble and
backed with dressed granite rock. Of this structure 156 feet is already finished.

The base of the Monument is 55 feet square, the top will be 34 feet 6 inches square, and it will be
crowned with a pyramidion, or roof, 50 feet in height.
The proportions of the parts of this obelisk are in exact accordance with the classic proportions of
parts of this style of architecture, as determined after careful research by Hon. George P. Marsh,
American minister at Rome.
The shaft as proportioned, both in dimensions and weight, will be entirely stable as against winds
that could exert a pressure of 100 pounds or more per square foot upon any face of the structure.
The project includes the preparation of the foundation so as to enable it to carry this structure. This
preparation or strengthening consists in making the existing foundation wider and deeper, in order to
distribute the weight over a greater area, and in bringing upon each square foot of the earth pressed
no greater weight than it is known to be able to sustain.

The mass of concrete beneath the old foundation is 126 feet 6 inches
square, 13 feet 6 inches in depth, and extends 18 feet within the outer edge
of the old foundation and 23 feet 3 inches beyond this line. In placing this
work, 70 per cent of the area of the earth upon which the Monument was
standing was removed.
The second part of the strengthening of the foundation consisted in
constructing a continuous buttress beneath the shaft and extending out upon
the concrete slab, so as to distribute the pressure over the foundation. In this
operation sections of the rubble masonry were removed and replaced with
concrete. As compared with the original bulk of the old foundation, 51 per
cent of its contents was removed and 48 per cent of the area of the base of
the shaft undermined. The new foundation rests on a bearing surface 126
feet 6 inches square, or 16,002 square feet, as compared with 6,400 square
feet for the old foundation.
The entire work of underpinning was accomplished without causing the
slightest crack or the least opening in any joint of that portion of the
Monument already constructed, which, including the foundation, was 80
feet square at its base. The new foundation rests upon a bed of fine sand 2
feet in thickness, below which is a bed of bowlders and gravel. Borings
were made in this deposit for a depth of 18 feet without passing through it.
Thus, as completed, the new foundation covers two and a half times as
much area and extends 13¹⁄₂ feet deeper than the old one, being 36 feet 10
inches in depth. The bottom of the work is only 2 feet above the level of
high tide in the Potomac. No settlement has occurred to date.

THE WASHINGTON MONUMENT AS SEEN FROM THE MALL GROUNDS

Work was resumed on the shaft in 1880. The first 13 courses—26 feet—
were faced with white marble from Massachusetts. The remainder is
Maryland white marble similar to that used in the lower section. The new
work was backed with dressed New England granite to the 452-foot
elevation, above which the walls are entirely of marble, of through-and-
through blocks, and from the 470-foot level, where the ribs of the
pyramidion begin, the courses are secured to each other by mortise and
tenon joints cut in the builds and beds of the stone. During the working
season of 1880, 26 feet were added to the shaft; in 1881 there were added
74 feet; in 1882, 90 feet; in 1883, 70 feet; in 1884, 90 feet. These additions
brought the walls of the shaft to a height of 500 feet on August 9, 1884. The
pyramidion topping the shaft is supported on 12 marble ribs, which spring
from the interior faces of the walls of the well, beginning at the 470-foot
level. The covering slabs are 7 inches in thickness and are supported upon
projections or spurs on the marble ribs. The pyramidion has a vertical
height of 55 feet 5¹⁄₈ inches and consists of 262 separate stones. The weight
of the pyramidion is 300 tons. The capstone, which weighs 3,300 pounds,

was set in place on December 6, 1884. Over it is a small pyramid of pure
aluminum 5.6 inches at its base, 8.9 inches high, and weighs 100 ounces,
the largest piece of this metal ever cast in any country to that time. The
following inscriptions appear on the four faces of the aluminum capstone:
JOINT COMMISSION AT SETTING OF CAPSTONE:
CHESTER A. ARTHUR, M. E. BELL, EDWARD CLARK, JOHN NEWTON,
ACT OF AUGUST 2, 1876.

CORNER STONE LAID ON BED OF FOUNDATION JULY 4, 1848.
FIRST STONE AT HEIGHT OF 152 FEET LAID AUGUST 7, 1880.
CAPSTONE SET DECEMBER 6, 1884.

CHIEF ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT, COL. THOMAS LINCOLN CASEY,
CORPS OF ENGINEERS.
ASSISTANTS: GEORGE W. DAVIS, CAPTAIN FOURTEENTH INFANTRY;
BERNARD GREEN, CIVIL ENGINEER; MASTER MECHANIC, P. H.
MCLAUGHLIN.

LAUS DEO.

The entire height has been made slightly greater than ten times the
breadth of the base, producing an obelisk that for grace and delicacy of
outline is not excelled by any of the larger Egyptian monoliths, while in
dignity and grandeur it surpasses any that can be mentioned. The
Monument tapers one-fourth of an inch to the foot, being 15 feet thick at the
base and 18 inches thick at the top of the shaft. When the capstone was set
in place a salute was fired by artillery stationed near the base, while the
national flag was unfurled to the breeze in the rigging far above. The cost of
the Monument was $1,300,000. To the criticism that the obelisks of old
were monoliths, the reply was made that this Monument to Washington will
not be less significant or stately because of being made up of many separate
stones, for our country has been proud to give examples of both political
and material structures which owe their strength to union; and this
Monument embodies the idea of our national motto, E Pluribus Unum.

THE WASHINGTON MONUMENT

With a view of having the States of the Union properly represented in the
Monument the society extended an invitation for each State to furnish for
insertion in the interior walls a block of marble or other durable stone—a
production of its soil—of the following dimensions: 4 feet long, 2 feet high,
and with a bed of from 12 to 18 inches, the name of the State to be cut
thereon in large letters, and if desirable to the donor, the State’s coat of arms
also. Later, this invitation to contribute memorial blocks of stone was
extended to embrace such a gift from a foreign government. In response to
these invitations many rich and durable blocks of stone were received
which now adorn the interior walls of the shaft (in 1929 the memorial
stones numbered 187) from all parts of the world, including one from the
Parthenon at Athens, the ruins of ancient Carthage, and the tomb of
Napoleon at St. Helena. These memorial stones begin at a height of 30 feet
and end at 290 feet.
Great preparations were made for dedication of the Monument. This took
place on February 21, 1885, with Hon. John Sherman, chairman of the
commission, presiding. Several descendants and relatives of the Washington
family were present. The orator of the day was again the Hon. Robert C.
Winthrop, who as Speaker of the House of Representatives had delivered
the oration at the laying of the corner stone July 4, 1848. His oration on this
occasion was read, as illness prevented him from being present. Among
those in Washington to-day who witnessed the dedication is Hon. William
Tyler Page, then serving as a page in the House; later becoming Clerk of the
House of Representatives and executive secretary of the George
Washington Bicentennial Commission. Thus when we are reminded of the
three friends of George Washington who were present at the corner-stone
laying of the Washington Monument we must indeed admit that we even of
this day are not far removed from him and his times, and that our Republic
is still young, though greater achievements have been wrought in the past
100 years than in the previous 1,000 years of the world’s history.
The efforts of the Washington National Monument Society had at last
been realized, and the American people beheld the consummation of their
desire—a great monument erected at the seat of the Federal Government to
the name and memory of George Washington.

The interior is lighted by electricity, affording an opportunity to see the
memorial stones. Ascent is made by means of an elevator and an iron
stairway, supported by 8 vertical iron columns—4 columns terminating at a
height of 500 feet and 4 within the roof at 517 feet—which sustain the
elevator machinery above. The iron stairway consists of short flights, strung
along the north and south sides of the wall, connecting with iron platforms
4 feet 8 inches wide (to a height of 150 feet) and 7 feet 10³⁄₄ inches wide, 20
feet apart on a side, and extending along the east and west walls. There are
50 flights and 900 steps. From these steps and platforms the inscriptions
may be read.
In 1926 a new elevator was installed. It is of the electrically driven,
gearless, single wrap, traction type, with a speed of 500 feet per minute and
a lifting capacity of 6,000 pounds, exclusive of the weight of the car and
cables. It is equipped with a micro-leveling device, which insures exact
leveling of the car at landings and also makes possible the operation of the
elevator at slow speed in case of failure of the main motor, thus eliminating
the danger of stalling the car between landings. It accommodates 30 persons
and makes 12 trips per hour. There are 8 windows at a height of 504 feet
above ground—2 windows in each of the 4 faces of the pyramidion—4 feet
above the 500-foot landing. These windows measure 18 inches by 3 feet on
three sides, and on the east side 2 feet by 3 feet. Looking to the east from
the windows one sees the stately Capitol; to the north, across the President’s
Park, the beautiful mansion of the Chief Magistrate; to the northeast, the
Soldiers’ Home; to the northwest, the great residential section, the Naval
Observatory, and the Washington Cathedral; to the west the beautiful
Potomac River, as it winds its way for miles past the city, and Arlington
National Cemetery, the Nation’s most sacred resting place for those who
served in defense of their country; and as we follow the Potomac southward
there is Alexandria, 6 miles beyond, and in the faint distance Mount Vernon,
where is the tomb of the immortal Washington. And on that lofty height, the
greatest single piece of masonry in the world, we think also of other high
structures—the Empire State Building, with 86 stories, 1,248 feet; Chrysler
Building, 68 stories, 1,046 feet; Bank of Manhattan, 65 stories, 838 feet;
Woolworth Tower 60 stories, 792 feet; Metropolitan Life Insurance
Building, 700 feet; The New York Life Insurance Building, 610 feet, at the
site of the former famous Madison Square Garden; Singer Tower, 612 feet;
spires of Cologne Cathedral, 524 feet; spire of Old St. Paul’s, London, 508

feet; Pyramids of Cheops, 480 feet; Book Tower, Detroit, 472 feet; Victoria
Tower, Westminster, 325 feet; Statue of Liberty, 317 feet; Bennington Battle
Monument, 306 feet; the Capitol, 287 feet; Bunker Hill Monument at
Boston, 221 feet. In 1890 Daniel H. Burnham completed the Masonic
Temple, in Chicago, “the tallest building in the world,” 21 stories high,
among the first of all-steel construction. In New York City the caisson for
high-building foundation work was first adopted in the Manhattan Life
Insurance Building, near Exchange Place on Broadway, in 1894. Built on a
foundation of bedrock 55 feet below the surface, the structure of 18 stories
was built 350 feet in height from the sidewalk.
The masonry constructed by the Government is the best known to the
engineering art, and the weight is so distributed that, subject to a wind
pressure of 100 pounds per square foot on any face, corresponding to a
wind velocity of 145 miles per hour, the Monument would have a large
factor of safety against overturning. The entire weight is 81,120 tons. The
weight of the foundations is 36,912 tons, and there is a maximum pressure
on the underlying soil of 9 tons per square foot.
In the morning the Monument catches the first rays of the sun. In stormy
weather the top stands like a mountain peak, immovable, as seen amidst
clouds. So, indeed, does the great and noble Washington overtower all of
his contemporaries of the Revolutionary War and the formative period of
this Republic. The Washington Monument has been fittingly described as
typifying the character of George Washington—lofty in its grandeur, plain
in its simplicity, and white in its purity. The following is a quotation from
the oration of Speaker Winthrop delivered at the laying of the corner stone
on July 4, 1848:
Lay the corner stone of a monument which shall adequately bespeak the gratitude of the whole
American people to the illustrious Father of his Country. Build it to the skies; you can not outreach
the loftiness of his principles! Found it upon the massive and eternal rock; you can not make it more
enduring than his fame. Construct it of peerless Parian marble; you can not make it purer than his
life. Exhaust upon it the rules and principles of ancient and modern art; you can not make it more
proportionate than his character.

SOLDIERS’ HOME
In the United States the founding of a soldiers’ home dates from March 3,
1851, when an act of Congress was passed and approved “to found a
military asylum for the relief and support of invalid and disabled soldiers of

the Army of the United States.” For years before this, however, the principal
officers of the Army, particularly Maj. Gen. Winfield Scott, had given the
subject attention and had made special efforts to procure the needed
legislation. In February, 1848, General Scott transmitted to the Secretary of
War a draft for $100,000 as part of the tribute levied by him on the City of
Mexico for the benefit of the Army, and he expressed the hope that it might
be allowed to go to the credit of an Army asylum.
This home for the Regular Army was established in the District of
Columbia in 1851-52. It is located about 3 miles due north from the Capitol.
The original purchase of land was 256 acres. Additional tracts added since
the original purchase make a total of 500³⁄₄ acres.

UNITED STATES SOLDIERS’ HOME

The south part of the main building is named for Gen. Winfield Scott, the
founder of the home; the addition on the north for Gen. William T.
Sherman. Constructed of white marble; it was commenced in 1852 and
completed in 1891; is of Norman Gothic design, 251¹⁄₂ feet long by 158¹⁄₂

feet wide, and has a clock tower; it will accommodate 370 members and
contains a library and billiard hall.
The old homestead building near to and west of the Scott Building is
named after Gen. Robert Anderson, of Fort Sumter renown, to
commemorate the fact of his early advocacy of and great interest in the
establishment of the home. It was the home of the first members and has
frequently been used as the summer residence of the President. President
Buchanan occupied it in 1856-1860, President Lincoln in 1861-1864,
President Hayes in 1877-1880, and President Arthur in 1882-1884.
President Garfield thought of occupying it in the summer of 1881.
The eastern building—especially for members—was the first erected and
is called the King Building, after Surg. B. King, for 13 years the attending
surgeon and secretary and treasurer of the home.
The brick quarters northwest of the Sherman Building, erected in 1883, is
called the Sheridan Building, in honor of Gen. Philip H. Sheridan, who was
the president of the board of commissioners when the building was erected.
More recently built structures are the Grant Building, completed in 1911,
of white marble, accommodating 272 members and containing the hall of
the general mess, mess kitchen, and cold storage.
Stanley Hall, named for a former governor of the home, was completed
in 1897, and is the general amusement hall, seating about 700 persons.
A neat chapel, built of red stone, was completed in 1871. Religious
worship—Protestant and Roman Catholic—is regularly observed.
A well-designed hospital was completed in 1876 and is known as the
Barnes Building. The Forwood Building and the La Garde Building have
since been added. The maximum capacity of the present hospital is 500
beds. It is not only for the sick, but is an infirmary for the aged and helpless
members.
The home maintains a library of 20,385 volumes, with newspapers and
magazines, which are added to yearly as funds will permit.
A portion of the spacious grounds is cultivated for the benefit of the
home; but the largest part is woodland, and through it all, taking advantage
of its topography, nearly 10 miles of graded macadamized roads have been
constructed, winding through groves of selected trees of native and foreign
varieties and over the open ground, commanding fine views of the city, the
Potomac River, and the surrounding country for miles. The park is open to
the public.

Soldiers of 20 years’ service, and men, whether pensioners or not, who
disabled by wounds or disease in the service and in the line of duty and
have been honorably discharged from the Army are admitted to the home.

CABIN JOHN BRIDGE

CABIN JOHN BRIDGE
Erected about 1860 by Gen. Montgomery G. Meigs, this bridge spans
Cabin John Run, about 7 miles northwest of Washington. It is a part of the
aqueduct system, and the arch spanning the stream is 220 feet across at the
base and 105 feet in height. The entire length of the bridge is 584 feet. The
thickness of the bridge above the arch is 14¹⁄₂ feet, and it is 20 feet in width.
Until a few years ago it was the largest stone arch in the world.

FORD’S THEATER
Ford’s Theater Building, in which President Lincoln was assassinated
while attending a performance on the night of April 14, 1865, is on the east

side of Tenth Street between E and F Streets NW.
The building was originally a Baptist Church and used as such for more
than 15 years. It was used as a theater less than three years—from 1862 to
1865—and never as such after the night of the assassination. Taken over
immediately by Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton, it was made over into
a 3-story building for use of the War Department and was so used for many
years. Now it is a Government building, housing in part a portion of the
Oldroyd collection from the Lincoln museum. On April 9, 1893, while
repairs were being made, the three floors collapsed, killing 22 clerks and
injuring 68.
The residence of Harry C. Ford, who was manager of the theater for his
father, John T. Ford, stood adjacent to the theater on the right.

LINCOLN MUSEUM AND THE OLDROYD COLLECTION OF
LINCOLNIANA
Across the street from Ford’s Theater stands a red brick house (No. 516
Tenth Street NW.) to which President Lincoln, after being shot about 10.30
o’clock on the night of April 14, 1865, was carried and where, after an
interval of 9 hours, he died at 22 minutes after 7 o’clock the following
morning without regaining consciousness.
The room to which the martyred President was brought is a little front
one on the main floor. In size and simplicity it was a room like that of the
log cabin in Kentucky in which the great man was born. As a man of the
people, though they had elevated him to the highest position the Nation
could bestow on any of its citizens, he died amidst simple surroundings as
one of them.
The house was purchased by the United States Government in 1897 for
$30,000; the Oldroyd Lincoln Memorial Collection was purchased for
$50,000 and taken over by the Government September 1, 1926. It is now
under the jurisdiction of the National Park Service, and is visited by many
thousands each year.

Courtesy of Leet Brothers
FORD’S THEATER

THE HOUSE IN WHICH PRESIDENT LINCOLN DIED

Mr. Oldroyd gathered in the course of 50 years upward of 3,000 articles
pertaining to the martyred President. These can be seen by visitors to the
house. The room in which Abraham Lincoln died has been kept as nearly as
possible as it was when Lincoln passed away and when Stanton said, “Now
he belongs to the ages.”
The following are some of the articles that can be seen: Wreaths that lay
upon the casket in Washington and at the final burial in Springfield, Ill., and
a rose taken from his bosom just before the casket was closed—faded, but
hermetically sealed in a small glass case, it still appears a rose. There is also
in the house furniture used by Mrs. Lincoln in Springfield, including her
cookstove; the plain office desk and chair Abraham Lincoln used while
practicing law with William H. Herndon; a plain black and white shawl that
he wore in place of an overcoat, as men did in those days; the last bit of
writing he did; the Bible his mother, Nancy Hanks, gave to him before she
died, when he was not yet 9 years of age, and from which he was taught to
read; the desk upon which much of the Emancipation Proclamation was
written; also many documents, prints, and books describing his life.

Chapter XXI
PUBLIC AND SEMIPUBLIC BUILDINGS

THE CAPITOL
The site for the Capitol, or the Federal House, as selected by L’Enfant, is
on what was then known as Jenkin’s Hill, 88 feet above the level of the
Potomac River.
The northwest cornerstone of the main building was laid on September
18, 1793, by President Washington with Masonic ceremonies. The building
is of Virginia sandstone from quarries on Aquia Creek.
The north wing was finished in 1800 and the south wing in 1811. A
wooden passageway connected them. Congress convened there for the first
time at the second session of the Sixth Congress, which began November
17, 1800, and ended March 3, 1801.
The original designs were prepared by Dr. William Thornton, and the
work was done under the direction of Stephen H. Hallet, James Hoban, and
George Hadfield. Benjamin H. Latrobe was the architect. Washington and
Jefferson favored the classical type of architecture for the building, and it
was adopted.
On August 24, 1814, the interior of both wings was destroyed by fire set
by the British. Many books of the small Library of Congress housed in the
building at that time were burned, whereupon Congress purchased the
library of Thomas Jefferson at Monticello. The damage to the Capitol was
immediately repaired.
In 1818 the central portion of the building was commenced under the
architectural superintendence of Charles Bulfinch, architect, of Boston. The
original building was finally completed in 1827. Its cost, including the
grading of the grounds, alterations, and repairs, up to 1827, was
$2,433,844.13.

Because of the growth of the Republic, after half a century it became
necessary to build a Senate Chamber on the north and a House of
Representatives Chamber on the south. The cornerstone of the extensions to
the Capitol which increased it to its present size was laid on July 4, 1851,
by President Fillmore. Daniel Webster was the orator of the day. This work
was prosecuted under the direction of Thomas U. Walter, Architect of the
Capitol until 1865, when he resigned, and was completed under the
supervision of Edward Clark. The House extension was first occupied for
legislative purposes December 16, 1857, and the Senate extension January
4, 1859.
The white marble used in the walls is from Massachusetts and that in the
columns from Maryland.

Courtesy of Commercial Photo Co.
THE CAPITOL

The entire length of the building from north to south is 751 feet 4 inches
and its greatest dimension from east to west is 350 feet. The area covered
by the building is 3¹⁄₂ acres.

The Dome of the original central building was constructed of wood,
covered with copper. The present structure of cast iron was commenced in
1856, and completed in 1865. The entire weight of iron used is 8,909,200
pounds.
The Dome is crowned by the bronze Statue of Freedom, 19 feet 6 inches
high and weighing 14,985 pounds. It was modeled by the sculptor Thomas
Crawford. The height of the Dome above the base line of the east front is
287 feet 5 inches. The height from the top of the balustrade of the building
is 217 feet 11 inches. The greatest diameter at the base is 135 feet 5 inches.
The Rotunda is 97 feet 6 inches in diameter, and its height from the floor
to the top of the canopy is 180 feet 3 inches. The canopy overhanging the
Dome, portraying the Apotheosis of Washington, was painted by Brumidi.
The Rotunda frieze, 65 feet above the floor, making a circle 300 feet in
length around the walls, illustrates important periods in American history.
Paintings in the Rotunda are as follows:
The Landing of Columbus on San Salvador, October 12, 1492, by Vanderlyn.
The Discovery of the Mississippi by De Soto, 1541, by W. H. Powell.
The Baptism of Pocahontas, Jamestown, Va., 1613, by John G. Chapman.
The Embarkation of the Pilgrims from Delft-Haven, July 22, 1620, by Robert W. Weir.
The Signing of the Declaration of Independence, Philadelphia, July 4, 1776, by John Trumbull.
The Surrender of Burgoyne, Saratoga, October 17, 1777, by John Trumbull.
The Surrender of Cornwallis, Yorktown, Va., October 19, 1781, by John Trumbull.
The Resignation of General Washington, December 23, 1783, by John Trumbull.

The Senate Chamber is 113 feet 3 inches in length by 80 feet 3 inches in
width and 36 feet in height. The galleries will accommodate 682 persons.
The House of Representatives Chamber is 139 feet in length by 93 feet in
width and 36 feet in height. In 1800 the Chambers were lighted by lamps
and tallow candles, and the 142 Representatives were seated in chairs. To-
day there are 435 Members of the House of Representatives, in addition to
2 Delegates and 2 Resident Commissioners, who are seated on benches,
which are arranged in a semicircle like those of the theater of Dionysius.
To-day the Capitol is lighted by electricity and equipped with a modern
ventilating system.
The room later occupied by the Supreme Court of the United States was
the Senate Chamber until 1859. Previous to that time the court occupied the
room immediately beneath, now used as a law library.
Beautiful paintings by Brumidi, Trumbull, and others adorn the Capitol,
and many statues, gift of the States, may be seen in Statuary Hall, set apart

as such in 1864, being formerly the House of Representatives Chamber.

THE CAPITOL AT NIGHT

STATUE OF FREEDOM

Massive bronze doors by Rogers, depicting scenes from the life of
Christopher Columbus, are at the main entrance, the east, and open from the
portico to the Rotunda. They call to mind the Ghiberti doors in Florence.
There are 24 columns of Maryland sandstone, 30 feet high, in the central
portico. Statues by Greenough and Persico flank the steps.
The Capitol is to-day the most significant building in this country. Its
assessed value in 1930 for building and grounds was $45,000,000.
On the east portico of the Capitol newly elected Presidents of the United
States take the oath of office.
STATUE OF FREEDOM

As has been stated, the Statue of Freedom surmounting the Dome of the
Capitol is the work of one of America’s great artists, Thomas Crawford. The
modeling was done in Rome, and at the time of his death, in 1857, he was
endeavoring to secure the necessary funds for the casting of it at the Royal
Foundry at Munich. On April 19, 1858, the plaster model was shipped from
Leghorn, Italy, and after a perilous voyage to New York it arrived in
Washington in April, 1859. At that time work on completion of the Capitol
was proceeding under the supervision of Thomas U. Walter, architect.
On May 24, 1860, the Secretary of War, in a statement concerning the
casting of the statue stated that—
it will be cast by Clark Mills and he will be paid for his services and for the rent of his foundry [at
Mills Avenue toward Bladensburg, where the Andrew Jackson equestrian was cast in 1853] and
necessary expenses at the rate of $400 per month and that the material, fuel, labor, etc., will be paid
for by the Government.

This arrangement had been entered into and the work had progressed to
quite an extent, when Captain Meigs, who had returned to duty at the
Capitol, issued a formal statement of the existence of war, on May 15,
1861, suspending work on the Capitol extension and the new Dome. But
subsequently, even though the existence of war between the States
handicapped the Government, the necessary arrangements for completing
the Dome and for casting the statue were made. The statue was hoisted in
place on the Dome amid a salute of 35 guns on December 2, 1863.
The original model of the statue may be seen to-day in the rotunda of the
Museum of History Building of the Smithsonian Institution.
BRONZE DOORS OF THE CAPITOL

These bronze doors, the central and most elaborate of the Capitol, were
modeled by Randolph Rogers at Rome in 1858, and cast at the Royal
Bavarian Foundry in Munich by Ferdinand von Muller, director, at a cost of
$17,000. Each of the doors is 19 feet high and 5 feet wide. They are
surmounted by a semicircular transom-panel or lunette representing the
landing of Columbus in the New World on October 12, 1492. The casing
border is a decorative scheme composed of anchors, rudders, and armor;
four figures in low relief typify Asia, Africa, Europe, and America. At the
top of the casing arch is a bust of Columbus.

BRONZE DOORS AT MAIN ENTRANCE TO THE CAPITOL, BY ROGERS

Each of the doors is separated into four panels, portraying scenes in alto-
relief from life of Columbus.
The lowest panel on the left-hand door pictures Columbus before the
Council of Salamanca. Then follows his departure from the Convent of La
Rabida for the Spanish Court. The next is the audience before Ferdinand
and Isabella, and the last the sailing from Palos on the first voyage.
The top panel on the right-hand door represents the first encounter with
the Indians. The next the triumphal entry into Barcelona. Then follows
Columbus in chains, and the last depicts the death of the discoverer.
The borders of the separate doors each contain eight figures representing
prominent personages of the fifteenth century who played important parts in
the events connected with the discovery of America.
BRONZE DOORS OF THE SENATE WING

The bronze doors of the Senate wing were designed by Thomas
Crawford, sculptor, though the actual work of executing the plaster models
was done by William H. Rinehart. They represent Crawford’s last work as a
sculptor. It was first contemplated that one of the doors should be cast at the
Royal Bavarian Foundry in Munich and that the other door should be cast in
this country. The death of Thomas Crawford in 1857 and the subsequent
occurrence of the Civil War caused many of the plans to be changed. The
doors, the first of that kind in America, were finally cast in 1868 at
Chicopee, Mass., by James T. Ames, and the expense, $50,000, was far
greater than was anticipated at the time when it was planned to have the
work done in this country. They weigh 14,000 pounds. The sculptor,
Rinehart, received about $9,000.
Each of the doors consists of three panels and a medallion picturing
events of the Revolutionary War.
The upper panel of the right-hand door contains a representation of the
death of General Warren at the Battle of Bunker Hill on June 17, 1775; the
center panel shows General Washington rebuking Gen. Charles Lee at the
Battle of Monmouth, N. J., on June 28, 1778; the lower panel pictures the
storming of a redoubt at Yorktown, Va., led by Alexander Hamilton, on
October 14, 1781; the medallion at the bottom represents a conflict between
a Hessian soldier and a New Jersey farmer.
The medallion at the bottom of the left-hand door represents Peace and
Agriculture. Above is a panel showing General Washington passing

underneath an arch of flowers at Trenton, N. J., while on his way to New
York City to be inaugurated as the first President of the United States; the
middle panel represents Washington taking the oath of office as President,
which was administered by Chancellor Livingston on April 30, 1789—the
United States Supreme Court had not as yet been organized, so that the oath
could not be administered by the Chief Justice. The top panel represents
President Washington laying the corner stone of the Capitol on September
18, 1793.

BRONZE DOORS AT THE SENATE WING, BY CRAWFORD

BRONZE DOORS OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES WING

The bronze doors of the House of Representatives resemble in general
outline and arrangement the bronze doors of the Senate. Each door consists
of three panels and a medallion picturing events in American history. The
design is that of Thomas Crawford, sculptor, but the modeling and
completion was that of William H. Rinehart. The models after being
transported to this country remained for a long time in storage and were
finally cast by M. H. Mosman, at Chicopee, Mass., who had succeeded to or
continued the business organization of James T. Ames, by whom the Senate
doors were cast.
The doors were installed in the autumn of 1905, the cost to the
Government being $45,000.
The upper panel of the left-hand door portrays the Massacre of Wyoming,
July 17, 1778; the center panel the Battle of Lexington, April 19, 1775; the
lower panel presentation of flag to Gen. William Moultrie for his defense of
Sullivans Island, Charleston Harbor, June 28, 1776; and the medallion at the
bottom shows the death of General Montgomery in the attack on Quebec,
December 31, 1775.
The upper panel of the right-hand door depicts the reading of the
Declaration of Independence; the center panel the signing of the Paris treaty
of peace between the United States and Great Britain, September 3, 1783;
the lower panel Washington’s farewell to his officers at New York,
December 4, 1783; and the medallion at the bottom contains a seated figure
of Franklin in his study.

THE CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES
Congress is one of the three coordinate branches of the United States
Government. It is the legislative branch and consists of a Senate, to which
the Members, two from each State, are elected for a term of six years; and
the House of Representatives, to which the Members are elected for a term
of two years. The membership is based on the population of the United
States, and in January, 1939, numbered 435 Members. The apportionment is
made among the several States in the ratio that the whole number of persons
in each State bears to the total population of the country. States arrange for
their own congressional districts after the number of Members of the House
of Representatives from each State has been determined upon. There are in

the House, also, 2 Territorial Delegates—1 each from Alaska and Hawaii—
and 2 Resident Commissioners—1 from the Commonwealth of the
Philippines and 1 from Puerto Rico. They have the right to debate but not to
vote.

BRONZE DOORS AT THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES WING, BY CRAWFORD

SENATE CHAMBER

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES CHAMBER

The Constitution provides that Congress shall assemble on January 3 of
each year (20th amendment); and each Congress usually consists of two
sessions.

SENATE OFFICE BUILDING

The powers of Congress are set forth in Article I, section 8 of the
Constitution, which is divided into 18 clauses. The power to raise revenue
originates in the House of Representatives, which carries the burden in
providing necessary appropriations; the Senate has the power of confirming
or rejecting appointments made by the President and to ratify treaties.
Measures are originated in the form of bills or resolutions, which are
thereupon referred to committees for report before being introduced in the
Senate or House of Representatives.
The age requirement for eligibility as a Member of the House of
Representatives is 25 years, and for the Senate 30 years; each person must
have been a citizen of the United States for seven years and a citizen of the
State from which elected.
Members of Congress are by the Constitution granted exemption from
arrest under certain conditions while attending the sessions of their
respective Houses and in going to and returning from such sessions, “and
for any speech or debate in either House, they shall not be questioned in any
other place.”
The proceedings and debates in Congress are published in the
Congressional Record, which is printed daily at the Government Printing
Office with such rapidity that even though a session of Congress may

continue until late in the night a copy of the Record is at hand for each
Member the following morning.

OLD HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OFFICE BUILDING

NEW HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OFFICE BUILDING

A bill or resolution, to become a law, must be passed by both the House
of Representatives and the Senate and approved by the President. If there
are points of disagreement in the Senate or House of Representatives in the
enactment of legislation, each body appoints conferees to settle the points in
dispute. The President has the power to veto a bill, but the measure can
become law if reconsidered and passed by both the Senate and the House of
Representatives by a two-thirds majority. Occasionally the President makes
use of the “pocket veto”; that is, if the bill was passed within 10 days
(Sundays excepted) of the adjournment of Congress, the President may
retain (pocket) the bill, which is thus killed at the end of the session without
the interposition of a direct veto, and without risking the chances of its
passage over the veto. If the President does not interpose the ordinary veto,
a bill becomes law at the expiration of 10 days.

UNION STATION

The President is given authority by the Constitution to convene either or
both Houses of Congress in extraordinary session.

SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OFFICE
BUILDINGS
The Senate and House Office Buildings, the former flanking the Capitol
to the north and the latter to the south, were designed by Carrere &
Hastings, architects, and are in the classical style of architecture. A new
House Office Building, designed by the Allied Architects, Inc., of
Washington, has recently been completed, and also the East Wing of the
Senate Office Building, designed by Wyeth & Sullivan, architects of
Washington. Each Senator is provided with offices of from two to three
rooms, and likewise each Representative, excepting a few whose offices are
in the Capitol.

UNION STATION
In the design of the station much thought was given to the architectural
features. Since Greece and Rome have furnished architectural inspiration
for so many of the public buildings of Washington, a freely interpreted
classic may be considered as the recognized architecture of these structures;
and as the new station was to be the monumental gateway to the National
Capital, it seemed fitting that the architectural motives should be drawn
from the triumphal arches of Rome. They inspired Mr. Burnham to design
the Union Station as he did. Construction work was begun in August, 1902,
the terminal opened October 27, 1907, and was completed in April, 1908.
Some of the elements entering into the design of the terminal were
unique. In most cities the probable future growth and nature of the traffic
plays an important part in the planning of a passenger terminal. Washington
has very little suburban traffic; and as it will never become a commercial
center, the question of providing for future growth was of minor
importance. The main problem was how to care for and provide against
abnormal conditions, which arise at least once every four years. The
handling of inauguration crowds had always been a heavy expense to the
railroads, because they had to provide such elaborate temporary facilities.
On the other hand, to provide adequate permanent facilities meant a large
expenditure, with the attendant heavy carrying charges. On account of the
dilapidated condition of the passenger facilities owned by the companies,
and the urgent need of larger and better terminals, a union terminal seemed
to show advantages over the separate stations provided for in the acts of
1901.

Courtesy of Commercial Photo Co.
UNION STATION—CONCOURSE

The layout embraces every feature and facility involved in the
construction of a first-class terminal, including a depot building planned
and constructed after the most modern lines, and containing every feature
for the convenience, comfort, and pleasure of the traveling public; the most
complete and up-to-date facilities for conducting the business of a large
railroad station; a main power plant for furnishing power of every kind
required for the successful operation of the station and yards; a large and
completely equipped express terminal for caring for the express business
handled by the companies; a modern commodious roundhouse and shop
layout for caring for repairs to equipment; the most complete interlocking
layout and intercommunication system ever constructed; one of the most
complete passenger-equipment yards ever built; and a track system
covering yards and main tracks within the passenger-terminal zone
aggregating about 60 miles of single track.
The station building proper is 626 feet 10 inches long and 210 feet 9
inches wide, exclusive of the space taken up by the columns in front of the

central pavilion or main portico. The front and ends are made up of groups
of semicircular arches characteristic of Roman architecture. The main
portico or central pavilion consists of 3 arches, each 29 feet 6 inches wide
and 48 feet 9 inches high. Flanking it on either side are 7 arches, each 12
feet 4 inches wide and 24 feet 8 inches high, while the end pavilions are
composed of arches 22 feet wide and 38 feet 6 inches high.
The west end is made up of 5 arches 19 feet 2 inches wide and 37 feet 7
inches high, and 1 arch 12 feet 4 inches wide and 24 feet 8 inches high. The
former are used as exits for carriages from the carriage porch, the latter to
carry out the open portico treatment across the front. At the east end leading
to the open portico are 2 windows with arch treatment, and there are 5
arches 12 feet 6 inches wide and 24 feet 8 inches high, 1 arch 22 feet wide
and 38 feet 6 inches high, leading to a carriage pavilion.
The east pavilion leads to a suite of rooms for the use of the President
and the guests of the Nation, the west pavilion to the carriage porch at the
west end of the ticket lobby. The central and end pavilions are connected by
a portico or loggia from 14 feet 6 inches to 16 feet 6 inches wide, the
portico and pavilions forming a continuous covered porch the entire length
of the structure, and affording protection from the elements. The east and
west wings of the building are 69 feet 7¹⁄₂ inches above the floor level, and
the domes over the carriage entrances are 78 feet 3¹⁄₂ inches above the same
point. The dome over the main waiting room is 122 feet 10 inches high.

UNION STATION—WAITING ROOM

The concourse in the rear of the main building is 760 feet long and 130
feet wide, exceeding by nearly nine feet the length of the Capitol. It is
covered by a segmental arched ceiling 45 feet high in the center and 22 feet
at the springing line above the main floor. About 40 per cent of the ceiling
area is of glass, the remainder is artistically coffered ornamental plaster. The
concourse is divided by the usual train fence into two sections, that on the
station side being 83 feet and that on the track side 47 feet wide.
There are 32 tracks leading to the station—20 on the level of the waiting
rooms and 12 depressed below the street level a distance of 20 feet. Two
tubes of the Pennsylvania Railroad Co. and Southern Railway Co., each 16
feet wide, run from the station south along First Street between the Library
of Congress and the Capitol for about a mile. At the Fountain of Neptune
the tunnel is 40 feet below the surface. Approximately 285 trains enter and
leave the railway station each day; the daily number of passengers is
approximately 30,000.
The general waiting room has a clear width of 120 feet, is 219 feet long,
exclusive of the colonnades, and is covered by a Roman barrel-vaulted

ceiling, its highest point, exclusive of coffers, being 96 feet above the floor
level. The decorations are sunken panels patterned after the baths of
Diocletian. It is lighted by a semicircular window 72¹⁄₂ feet in diameter at
the east end, by three semicircular windows in the south side and five on the
north side, each 27¹⁄₂ feet in diameter, and by the glass roof over the ticket
lobby at the west end. Imperial Rome at her greatest did not possess a hall
of such proportions.
The Union Station is built of Vermont white granite. In the construction
of this massive building Mr. Burnham set a standard for civic improvement
for the construction of railroad terminals in this country.
The complete architectural treatment of the front elevation of the station
includes six stone statues and four eagles, the former over the central
pavilion, and the latter over the carriage entrances at the east and west ends.
This statuary is placed in front of the great friezes over the main entrance
arches and over the carriage archways and, with the inscriptions in the
panels between, have been made a special architectural feature.
Before the adoption of the scheme a number of suggestions for the
subjects of the statues and inscriptions were secured, ranging from the
explorers and discoverers of this country to the various inventors who have
had most to do with the development of transportation. The general
architectural treatment of the building, however, was such as to preclude the
usual portrait statues. To make them take their place as part of the
architecture required that they be limited to allegorical draped figures,
forming simple, massive silhouettes against the vast frieze. In the
development of the complete scheme, embracing the subjects for the
statuary, with appropriate inscriptions in the intervening panels, the late
Charles W. Eliot, former president of Harvard University, was consulted.
The result is an appropriate and adequate treatment of the decorative frieze
over the doorway of the vestibule to the Capital of the Nation.
The general decorative features of the main entrance to the building
consist of six massive stone columns, two on each side and one in front of
each pier supporting the main arches. Upon pedestals on the tops of these
columns the granite statues, about 18 feet high, are placed, those on the
west side of the entrance representing Prometheus and Thales, typifying
Fire and Electricity, those on the east side Ceres and Archimedes, typifying
Agriculture and Mechanics, while Freedom and Imagination are depicted
by the central figures. Those on the west side represent two of the great

forces connected with the operation of railroads, while those on the east
owe much of their development and wealth to the railroads. The central
figures typify the atmosphere of freedom in which the inventive
imagination has been able to accomplish such great results. The columns
flanking the carriage entrances are surmounted by stone eagles about 8 feet
high.
The following inscriptions are cut in the granite panels over the main
entrance:
West (Prometheus and Thales) Central (Freedom and Imagination)

FIRE—GREATEST OF SWEETENER OF HUT AND OF
DISCOVERIES HALL
ENABLING MAN TO LIVE IN BRINGER OF LIFE OUT OF
VARIOUS CLIMATES NAUGHT
USE MANY FOODS—AND FREEDOM O FAIREST OF ALL
COMPEL THE DAUGHTERS OF TIME AND
THE FORCES OF NATURE TO DO THOUGHT
HIS WORK
MAN’S IMAGINATION HAS
ELECTRICITY—CARRIER OF CONCEIVED ALL
LIGHT AND POWER NUMBERS AND LETTERS—ALL
DEVOURER OF TIME AND SPACE TOOLS, VESSELS
—BEARER AND SHELTERS—EVERY ART AND
OF HUMAN SPEECH OVER LAND TRADE—ALL
AND SEA PHILOSOPHY AND POETRY—AND
GREAT SERVANT OF MAN— ALL POLITIES
ITSELF UNKNOWN
THE TRUTH SHALL MAKE YOU
THOU HAST PUT ALL THINGS FREE
UNDER HIS FEET

East (Ceres and Archimedes)

THE FARM—BEST HOME OF THE FAMILY—MAIN
SOURCE OF NATIONAL WEALTH—FOUNDATION OF
CIVILIZED SOCIETY—THE NATURAL PROVIDENCE

THE OLD MECHANIC ARTS—CONTROLLING NEW
FORCES—BUILD NEW HIGHWAYS FOR GOODS
AND MEN—OVERRIDE THE OCEAN—AND MAKE
THE VERY ETHER CARRY HUMAN THOUGHT

THE DESERT SHALL REJOICE AND BLOSSOM
AS THE ROSE

In the panels over the entrances to the carriage porch and state apartment
the following inscriptions are cut:
Carriage Porch (south elevation) State Apartment (south elevation)

HE THAT WOULD BRING HOME LET ALL THE ENDS THOU AIMEST
THE AT BE
WEALTH OF THE INDIES MUST THY COUNTRY’S, THY GOD’S,
CARRY AND TRUTH’S,
THE WEALTH OF THE INDIES BE NOBLE, AND THE NOBLENESS
WITH HIM THAT
SO IT IS IN TRAVELLING—A MAN LIES IN OTHER MEN—SLEEPING
MUST CARRY KNOWLEDGE WITH BUT
HIM NEVER DEAD—WILL RISE IN
IF HE WOULD BRING HOME MAJESTY
KNOWLEDGE TO MEET THINE OWN

State Apartment (east elevation)

WELCOME THE COMING
SPEED THE PARTING GUEST

VIRTUE ALONE IS SWEET SOCIETY
IT KEEPS THE KEY TO ALL
HEROIC HEARTS AND OPENS YOU
A WELCOME IN THEM ALL

The decorations immediately in front of and along the sides of the east
and west entrances consist of stone balustrades upon which at proper
intervals are ornamental lamp posts.
Immediately in front of the main entrance to the Union Station there are
three ornamental iron flagstaffs 110 feet in height, the ornamental base and

decorative portions of which are in bronze. These were designed by D. H.
Burnham & Co., architects of the Union Station.
Since the completion of the Union Station in 1908 there have also been
placed on the Plaza the Columbus Memorial Fountain in front of the main
entrance, and two large fountains, one on each side of the memorial.
All stone used in the decoration of the Plaza, except that in the bowls of
the fountains, is Vermont white granite, from the same quarry as that used
in the station building. The fountain bowls are of Maine green granite. The
upper bowls are 13 feet in diameter and cut from a single piece of stone; the
lower bowls are 22 feet 6 inches in diameter, the rims being made from
eight separate pieces of granite. The bottoms of these bowls are of
reinforced concrete and are lined with sheet lead.

WASHINGTON CITY POST OFFICE
The Washington City Post Office moved into its present quarters on
September 5, 1914. The building faces on Massachusetts Avenue and
extends from North Capitol Street to First Street NE.
At the time of occupancy it was considered the model post office for the
rest of the country, being provided with the most modern mail-handling
equipment that human ingenuity could devise. There are conveyor belts
through a tunnel under the streets for bringing the enormous amount of
Government mail from the Government Printing Office directly into the
post office, where it is made up for dispatch to trains; other belts for
conveying mail from one section of the office to another; bucket lifts for
raising mail from a lower to a higher floor; gravity chutes to send mail from
an upper to a lower level; miniature trolley systems to carry smaller
amounts of mail, or even single important letters, from one section of the
workroom floor to another; and other devices to save footsteps of the
employees and conserve their time.
The building is three stories above the ground level and two stories
below. The two upper floors and one of the lower ones are given over to
Post Office Department activities, such as the Postal Savings Division, the
Division of Stamps, the Division of Equipment and Supplies, and others.
The building is so constructed that the maximum of natural daylight is
permitted to enter. It has no heating plant of its own, being supplied with
heat from the plant located at First and E Streets SE. that supplies the

Capitol, Senate and House Office Buildings, and the Government Printing
Office. The necessary pipes are brought into the building through
underground tunnels.

WASHINGTON CITY POST OFFICE

There are approximately 6 acres of floor space available for the
Washington Post Office. This additional space was secured by a new
addition. It was thought at the time the post office moved into its new
quarters that the floor space provided would be ample to take care of all
increases in the volume of mail for a period of 50 years. In a few years the
office far outgrew this space, and Congress appropriated for an addition to
the building about equal in size to the original one. The construction of this
addition cost $4,000,000.
The original building cost $3,028,000, and the general style of the
architecture is that of the monumental work of Roman times and was
designed by Peirce Anderson, architect, to harmonize with the Union

Station, which adjoins, and to which it is connected by a covered bridge,
over which mail to and from the trains is trucked.
The main exterior motive consists of an Ionic colonnade flanked by
corner pavilions treated with round arches, inclosed in a strong frame of
columns and pilasters and surmounted by solid attics carrying inscriptions
as follows:
MESSENGER OF SYMPATHY AND LOVE
SERVANT OF PARTED FRIENDS
CONSOLER OF THE LONELY
BOND OF THE SCATTERED FAMILY
ENLARGER OF THE COMMON LIFE

CARRIER OF NEWS AND KNOWLEDGE
INSTRUMENT OF TRADE AND INDUSTRY
PROMOTER OF MUTUAL ACQUAINTANCE
OF PEACE AND OF GOOD WILL
AMONG MEN AND NATIONS

Many visitors to Washington will stop and read these inscriptions and,
being interested in the authorship thereof, will make inquiry concerning it.
Research shows that the originals were prepared by Dr. Charles W. Eliot, at
that time president of Harvard University, but that some slight changes were
made in the text by the late President Wilson to the extent of the alteration
of some three or four words. It is this revision that appears on the building.
The material of the exterior of the building is Vermont white granite and
is the same as that used in the construction of the Union Station. The
general treatment of the main lobby, which is 250 feet in length, is that of a
high cella, 30 feet wide and 53 feet high, and surrounded by an order of
pilasters in Tavernelle marble. The adjoining vestibules are ornamented by
24 monolithic columns of gray-green granite from New Hampshire. These
columns are 2 feet and 4 inches in diameter and 20 feet in height. The floor
is of Tennessee marble, laid in patterns of pinks and grays. The main lobby
ceiling has an elaborate coffered design inspired from the best period of the
Italian Renaissance.

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

The gross receipts of the Washington Post Office have increased from
$1,792,917 in 1914 to nearly $7,000,000 in 1938.
In order to make postal facilities as easily accessible as possible, there are
located throughout the city 31 classified and 41 contract stations.
To properly transport mail from the main office to the various stations,
electric-line terminals, steamboat wharves, and aviation fields, and to make
collections from the street letter boxes and deliver parcel-post packages, the
office operates a fleet of fully 100 Government-owned automobile trucks.
Designed by Graham Anderson, Probst & White and built of white
Vermont granite, the addition was completed in 1937 and it doubled the size
of the city post office.

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
The Library of Congress, the world’s largest and most elaborate building
devoted wholly to library uses, occupies two city squares east of and facing
the Capitol Grounds, also an addition recently completed.

The architecture is of the Italian Renaissance order, from plans made by
J. J. Smithmeyer and Paul Pelz, and modified by Edward P. Casey. The
exterior walls are of New Hampshire granite. Fifty masters of painting and
sculpture worked together to make it a treasure house of the best
contemporary American art, fit to shelter one of the greatest libraries of the
world. Army engineers superintended its construction.
Begun in 1886, completed in 1897, the building measures 340 feet by
470 feet and covers about 3¹⁄₂ acres. Its cost to date has been $7,868,951.
The addition was designed by Pierson & Wilson, architects of Washington,
and built of Georgia marble.
In front of the Library is a bronze fountain by Hinton Perry, sculptor,
representing the Court of Neptune.
The grand stair hall of the entrance pavilion is of Italian white marble, is
particularly beautiful at night, when visitors delight to see it. It leads to the
great rotunda, which is the reading room. To the right are the library rooms
of Senators and Representatives and the periodical room. To the left are the
rooms for the blind and the conservatory of music.
On the second floor at the head of the staircase is Elihu Vedder’s famous
mosaic, Minerva. On this floor also are on exhibition the original
Declaration of Independence, the original Constitution of the United States,
and the Gutenberg Bible. To the right is the prints division, now called the
division of fine arts, and to the left the manuscripts division.

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS—GRAND STAIRCASE

The reading room contains the card-index catalogue of the books in the
Library, will accommodate 1,000 readers at a time, and is free to any reader
over 16 years of age. The alcoves are devoted to books on particular
subjects.
The reading room is under the dome, which is 100 feet in diameter and
195 feet high to the lantern. In the lantern of the dome is a female figure
indicating Human Understanding, and on the collar surrounding the lantern,
150 feet in circumference, is the Evolution of Civilization, symbolic of the
12 nations and epochs which have contributed to the world’s advance—
both great works of art by Edwin Howland Blashfield. The dome is
beautifully decorated, and the series of statues in bronze by famous
American sculptors at intervals on the balustrade encircling the rotunda
make the scene impressive.
The pillars in the rotunda are 40 feet high, the windows 32 feet wide.
There are 16 bronze statues surrounding the railing of the gallery under
the dome, representing leaders in great fields of learning, as follows:

Religion: Moses the great lawgiver, holding the Tables of the Law, given at Mount Sinai, by
Charles Henry Niehaus; St. Paul, with sword and scroll, by John Donoghue.
Commerce: Christopher Columbus, by Paul Bartlett; Robert Fulton, holding a model of his first
steamboat, Clermont, by Lewis Potter.
History: Herodotus, the “Father of History,” by Daniel Chester French; Edward Gibbon, author of
the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, by C. H. Niehaus.
Art: Michelangelo, by Paul Bartlett; Beethoven, by Theodor Bauer.
Philosophy: Plato, by John J. Boyle; Francis Bacon, by John J. Boyle.
Poetry: Homer, by Augustus Saint-Gaudens; Shakespeare, by Frederick W. MacMonnies.
Law: Solon, by F. Wellington Ruckstuhl; James Kent, by George E. Bissell.
Science: Newton, by Cyrus E. Dallin; Joseph Henry, by Herbert Adams.

Numerous paintings, mosaics, and inscriptions adorn the interior walls.
The dark Tennessee, the red Numidia, and the shades of yellow Sienna
marble give the room a rich color effect.
When the collection of a million books was moved from the crowded
Capitol it was believed that the increase for the next hundred years had been
amply provided for; but before 15 years had passed it had been found
necessary to roof over one of the four great open courts (more than a
quarter of an acre in extent) and fill it with a 10-story steel bookstack to
hold 1,500,000 volumes. By 1927 another court had been filled with a 14-
story stack. Two years later four levels were added to the first of these court
stacks, making the two equal.
To meet the great increase in the future, Congress appropriated for the
purchase of a square and a half of land to the eastward and the construction
of an annex building costing $9,300,000. To the annex will be transferred
the copyright office, card division, printery, and bindery, but leaving room
in it for eight or ten million volumes of less active material, such, for
example, as the 97,000 volumes of bound newspapers. There are 20 acres of
floor space in the new building.
The Library’s resources for research are unsurpassed in the Western
Hemisphere; its service as a national library is unexcelled. The printed book
collection on June 30, 1938, totaled 5,591,000, surpassed in numbers only
by that of the Bibliothèque National in Paris, and increasing at a greater rate
than those in any other library. Last year 196,000 volumes were added.

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS ADDITION

Founded in 1800 by an act appropriating $5,000 for the purchase of
“books for the use of both Houses of Congress,” the Library continued,
down to the midpoint of its 139 years of history, to be no more than its
name implies—a collection for the use of the National Legislature. By 1865
the Library had attained a growth of 82,000 volumes, which was notable
among American libraries neither in size nor in service rendered.
The collections include the library of Thomas Jefferson (6,760 volumes,
the nucleus of the present collections, purchased for $23,950 in 1815), the
Peter Force and the Toner collections of American history, the Smithsonian
Institution’s unequaled collection of the proceedings of learned societies of
the world, the Yudin collection of Russian books (with later additions
probably the largest outside of Russia), the collection of John Boyd Thacher
(fifteenth-century books, and books on the French Revolution, early
Americana, autographs of European notables), the Schiff-Deinard collection
of Hebrew literature, and 130,000 Chinese books, understood to be one of
the largest and best-organized collections outside the Orient. Most notable
among recent accessions is the Vollbehr collection of 3,000 fifteenth-
century books (incunabula), for whose purchase Congress appropriated
$1,500,000 in July, 1930. The gem of this group is the Gutenberg Bible, one

of the three extant perfect copies on vellum of the first great book printed in
Europe from movable type (A. D. 1450-1455).

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS—READING ROOM

Manuscripts relating chiefly to American history are among the Library’s
greatest treasures. The reproducing by photography of manuscript materials
for American history in foreign archives and libraries, which since 1927 has
formed so significant a portion of the division’s work, has added more than
2,000,000 pages to the resources which students of that history can use in
Washington without going to Europe.
Chief among originals beyond all price are the Declaration of
Independence, the Constitution of the United States—both added in 1921—
the personal papers of President Washington, many Presidents, and other
statesmen.
The Library is rich in music. This collection numbers over 1,194,000
pieces and volumes, surpassed only in two or three European libraries. An
auditorium of 500 seats, given and richly endowed by Mrs. Elizabeth
Sprague Coolidge, provides free concerts and lectures.
Other notable groups are 1,400,000 maps and views; 542,000 engravings
and other pictorial reproductions, including the splendid Pennell
collections; the law library (404,000 volumes). The social and political
sciences are represented by 890,500 volumes, language and literature by
350,000, history by 420,000, and pure science by 265,500.
The most recent important development in service is the division of
aeronautics, established through a benefaction of $140,000 from the Daniel
Guggenheim Fund for Aeronautics, now supplemented by an annual
congressional appropriation.
Special facilities for serious research include some 50 individual study
rooms and (elsewhere) 125 special desks or tables. Interlibrary loans for
investigators whose work is likely to advance the boundaries of knowledge
are sent far and wide through the United States and some abroad.
There is a service for blind readers which last year loaned 42,000
volumes in embossed type to some 3,000 readers in the United States.
Printed catalogue cards, numbering 110,000,000, prepared by the Library
for its own catalogues, are sold at cost to some 6,300 other libraries,
effecting for the subscribers prodigious savings in their cataloguing bills but
yielding a revenue to the Treasury of $328,405.
Until very recently Congress alone provided the funds to meet all the
Library’s expenses, excepting one gift of $20,000 received in 1904. But in
1925 the Library of Congress Trust Fund Board was created by Congress,
the Secretary of the Treasury and the Librarian of Congress being ex officio

chairman and secretary of the board, respectively. The act authorized the
board to receive and invest funds for permanent endowments, and the
Librarian to receive gifts of money for immediate disbursement. Already
endowments aggregating about $2,000,000 and gift funds of $1,415,000 for
immediate expenditure have been received and have yielded an income
from 1925 to 1938 of $726,000. These new resources add to the
bibliographic apparatus and support a project for developing an archive of
American folk song. One endowment yields $4,000 per year for the
purchase of recent Hispanic literature and employs a consultant to suggest
items for purchase in this particular field.

THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE AND THE CONSTITUTION

Six consultants, men of professional rank and experience, are engaged
(without any administrative duties) in advising the maturer users of the
Library in their investigations. This unique service is to be found nowhere
else in libraries.
Notable among gifts are those of John D. Rockefeller, jr.—one of
$450,000 for the acquisition in facsimile copies of source material for
American history existing in the archives of foreign countries, and another
of $250,000 for the development of a great union catalogue of important
books in other American libraries.
The scheme of classification, covering 5,000 printed pages, has been
adopted in 80 large libraries in America and Europe.
Herbert Putnam, the Librarian, took office on April 5, 1899.
The Library staff, organized in 30 divisions, consists of 1,055 persons, of
whom 585 are doing library work proper; 136 handle the copyright
business, which since 1870 has been under direction of the Librarian; 204
constitute the building force, which guards the building day and night,
keeps it in beautiful order, attends to heating, lighting, and ventilating the
15 acres of floor space, vacuum cleans—the year round—the 162 miles of
books, and looks after the countless other mechanical matters. The
remainder (111 persons) are printers and bookbinders engaged on Library
work, but under the Public Printer’s direction; 19 are engaged on special
projects.

FOLGER SHAKESPEARE LIBRARY
When Henry C. Folger, of New York City, decided to build the library his
first thought was to have this monument to the glory of Shakespeare
designed in harmony with the architecture of Shakespeare’s time. However,
the library being in Washington, very near the Capitol, the House of
Representatives and Senate Office Buildings, and the Library of Congress
(to which group was added the Supreme Court Building), made it appear
somewhat dangerous to introduce Elizabethan architecture in such a
classical frame.
After a conference with Dr. Paul Cret, architect, and Alexander B.
Trowbridge, consultant, Mr. Folger agreed with this view, and a white
marble structure of classic design was agreed upon. However, if the façades
of a building are part of the scenery, once the door is passed, it is quite

legitimate to harmonize the interiors with the collections therein displayed.
It was with this end in view that the general plan was studied and adopted.

FOLGER SHAKESPEARE LIBRARY

The requirements of the donor necessitated a reading room as free as
possible from disturbance, and to find, for the benefit of the public, a room
where could be displayed some selected material—books, prints, costumes,
paintings, and works of art relating to Shakespeare. An exhibition room and
theater were laid out to form a somewhat separated unit. The location of this
reading room on the courtyard side away from the street noise is also more
favorable to study. Below the reading room are two stories of stacks fully
lighted by the courtyard.
The exhibition hall and the reading room form the center of the plan. The
east wing is occupied by the lecture room-theater, which has its own lobby,
and can be used at night independently of the rest of the building. The
retiring rooms and dressing rooms are in the basement, and stairs lead to the
balcony.
The west wing is occupied by the administration. On the main floor are
the founder’s rooms and the offices of the director, his assistants, and

clerks. On the second floor are the library staff workrooms and five private
study rooms for scholars.
The over-all size of the building is 226 feet by 111 feet. It rises to a
height of 48 feet on a property 364 feet by 186 feet. Work was started in
November 1929. The façades were to harmonize in masses and material
with classic Washington. A quiet modern Georgia marble façade, with silver
grilles and balconies, was designed, using, as principal decoration, a set of
nine bas-reliefs illustrating Shakespeare’s plays and some inscriptions
emphasizing its purpose of memorial to a great poet.

EXHIBITION HALL—FOLGER SHAKESPEARE LIBRARY

The sculptural theme is based on the following plays: Macbeth, Romeo
and Juliet, King Lear, Julius Caesar, Midsummer Night’s Dream, The
Merchant of Venice, Richard the Third, Hamlet, and Henry the Fourth.
Their execution was entrusted to John Gregory of New York. They are
placed so as to have more importance than the usual frieze—below each
window of the exhibition room, at the proper height for the passer-by, and
along a marble terrace raised 3 feet above the street level.

SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION

SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION
The Smithsonian Institution was established by act of Congress in 1846,
under the terms of the will of James Smithson, an Englishman, who in 1826
bequeathed his fortune to the United States to found, at Washington, under
the name of the “Smithsonian Institution,” an establishment for the
“increase and diffusion of knowledge among men.” The Institution is
legally an establishment, having as its members the President of the United
States, the Vice President, the Chief Justice, and the President’s Cabinet. It

is governed by a Board of Regents. The Secretary of the Smithsonian
Institution is its executive officer and the director of its activities. The
building was designed by James Renwick, architect.
The regents are empowered to accept gifts without action of Congress, in
furtherance of the purpose of the Institution, and to administer trusts in
accordance therewith. Throughout its history, the Smithsonian Institution
has conducted and encouraged important scientific researches, explorations,
and investigations, which have contributed largely to the advancement of
knowledge, and thereby accomplishing the “increase of knowledge.” The
“diffusion of knowledge” is carried on through several series of
publications based on its researches and collections, through its museum
and art gallery exhibits, and through an extensive correspondence. The
Smithsonian issues 13 series of scientific publications which are distributed
free to libraries, learned societies, and educational institutions throughout
the world. It also maintains a library of 876,000 volumes, which consists
mainly of transactions of learned societies and scientific periodicals.
The Institution has charge of the National Museum, the National Gallery
of Art, the National Collection of Fine Arts, the Freer Gallery of Art, the
International Exchange Service, the Bureau of American Ethnology, the
National Zoological Park, and the Astrophysical Observatory (with several
field stations).
The United States National Museum is the depository of the national
collections. It is rich in the natural history, geology, paleontology,
archeology, and ethnology of America, and has large and important
collections illustrating American history, including military and naval
material, and also valuable series relating to arts and industries. It is an
educational and research museum and issues scientific publications. Its
aeronautical collection includes the airplane The Spirit of St. Louis,
deposited by Col. Charles A. Lindbergh in the spring of 1928.
The National Gallery of Art is a bureau of the Smithsonian Institution
created by joint resolution of Congress approved March 24, 1937, as a
result of the gift of Andrew W. Mellon to the Nation of his art collection of
masterpieces valued at $50,000,000 and $10,000,000 to erect a building to
house it. The above act accepting Mr. Mellon’s gift provided that the art
collections already in possession of the Smithsonian Institution and
therefore designated the National Gallery of Art should thereafter be known
as the National Collection of Fine Arts. The National Gallery of Art is

administered for the Smithsonian Institution, in which title is vested, by a
Board of Trustees. The monumental marble building, designed by John
Russell Pope, is now under construction on the site on the north side of the
Mall between Fourth and Seventh Streets. (See p. 281 for illustration.)
The Bureau of American Ethnology is engaged particularly in the
collection of information relating to the American Indians. The National
Zoological Park has an area of 175 acres and is located adjacent to Rock
Creek Park. Its collection comprises about 3,000 animals.

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE
The Government Printing Office, in which the printing and bookbinding
for the various branches of the National Government is executed, is located
on North Capitol Street between G and H Streets NW. Covering almost a
city block with its eight-story, red-brick building, this plant is the best-
equipped and is reputed to be the largest printing office of its kind in the
world.
Printing for the Government of the United States was first mentioned
during the initial session of Congress, in 1789, in the form of a
recommendation to that body that proposals be invited for “printing the
laws and other proceedings of Congress.”
The first specific appropriation for public printing was passed in 1794,
when an expenditure of $10,000 was authorized for “firewood, stationery,
and printing.”
Between 1804 and 1814, Congress had no fixed policy in relation to
printing. A contract system by the lowest bidder was adopted. The plan
prevailed for 5 years but was very unsatisfactory, and Congress was
compelled to look for a better method. In December, 1818, both houses
passed a resolution appointing a joint committee to “consider and report
whether any further provisions of law are necessary to insure dispatch,
accuracy, and neatness in printing the documents of the two Houses of
Congress.” The inquiries by this committee led them to New York and
Philadelphia, where they studied printing costs and methods, and upon
returning to Washington they made a report declaring most emphatically for
the establishment of a national printing office as the only means by which
Congress could secure necessary printing at reasonable costs.

No definite action was taken on the report, with the result that for the
next forty-odd years the method of handling public printing was constantly
changing. Some years there was a “Printer to the Senate” and a “Printer to
the House,” both elected by a ballot of Congress, and in other years there
was a “Superintendent of Public Printing.” Altogether it was expensive and
impractical, and by act of Congress on June 23, 1860, a national printing
office was authorized. On February 19, 1861, $135,000 was appropriated,
and with this money the printing establishment of Joseph T. Crowell,
located at H and North Capitol Streets, Washington, D. C., was purchased,
upon approval of the Joint Committee on Printing. This building had been
constructed in 1856 by Cornelius Wendell, as a private office. The building
at that time was 243 by 61¹⁄₂ feet, 4 stories high, but by subsequent
appropriations up to 1876 several additions were made to the original
structure.

THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE

The plant, as taken over in 1861, employed between 300 and 400 persons
and evidently was, for that period, very complete. It consisted of a drying
room, pressroom, wetting room, job room, folding room, reading room,
office, bindery, machine shop, boiler house, and stable. Among some of the

items of equipment were 1 timepiece, 5 wrenches, one 40-horse engine, 104
pressboards, 2 wetting tubs, and a large assortment of book and job type.
The reading room had eight armchairs, two pine desks, and one mahogany
desk. The bindery had but few machines, with only 2 ruling and 2 cutting
machines, but the list carried 10 pairs of shears, 4 bodkins, and other minor
equipment. The pressroom had 23 Adams presses and 3 cylinder presses.
With the stable came two horses, one wagon, and one carryall, and the
boiler house had one 60-horse boiler, 525 feet of fire hose, five buckets, etc.
On March 23, 1861, President Lincoln appointed Hon. John Defrees, of
Indiana, as the Superintendent of Public Printing. He reported that at once
the cost of work decreased at least 15 percent from the old contract prices.
On March 3, 1873, the printing of the debates of Congress, then known
as the Congressional Globe and handled under private contract, was taken
over by the Government Printing Office and thereafter became the
Congressional Record.
In 1876, Hon. A. M. Clapp, then Congressional Printer, was designated
the first Public Printer, at a yearly salary of $3,600. Composing rooms
employed 520 persons, pressroom 209, and bindery 591; in all, 1,361
persons were on the roll. The total yearly pay roll was $786,493. It cost
$188,198 to print the Congressional Record in 1876, while binding of all
kinds cost $402,069, paper $298,251, and the total output of the Office was
charged at $1,617,469. The total purchase of machinery and equipment in
that year was only $342.50.
In 1878 the building known as the Globe Vault was purchased from the
private owner, together with the bound and unbound volumes of the
Congressional Globe and all the stereotyped plates. The price paid was
$100,000.
Fireproof extensions to the Government Printing Office were erected in
1879 and 1880. In 1882 the first fire escapes were installed, and force
pumps proved such an attraction to the public that the apparatus had to be
covered with canvas. Bows and arrows were also provided which would
enable life lines to be “shot” through the upper windows.
By the act of January 12, 1895, the Office of the Superintendent of
Documents was established in the Government Printing Office. Previously
it was a part of the Interior Department. The principal functions of the
office were the preparation of the official catalogs and indexes of the
Government and distribution and sale of Government publications.

The Office was placed under operation of the civil-service law August 1,
1895. In the same year the Annex Building, formerly used by the
Superintendent of Documents, was constructed, and in the following year
the Public Printer reported the total floor space of the entire Office had
increased to 8³⁄₄ acres.
In 1898 Congress appropriated $190,000 for the purchase of ground
occupied by the present building. In 1899 the building was started. It was
completed about 4 years thereafter, at a cost of $2,430,000.
In 1903 a small space in the Old Building was set aside as the “sick
room.” Its equipment consisted of a cot, blanket, and a small supply of
medicines contributed by the employees. This was the nucleus from which
developed the first emergency hospital in any Government establishment
and was the initial step toward scientific medical and surgical service. In
1907 an emergency room was installed and an additional physician and
matron were assigned to that service.
The first linotype machine and the first monotype keyboard were
installed in 1904. In 1912 electric trucks displaced the horse-and-wagon
delivery. In 1915 the Government Printing Office was an exhibitor at the
Panama-Pacific International Exposition held in San Francisco, Calif.
Between 1921 and 1934 several innovations were made. A few of the
outstanding are as follows: The eighth floor was remodeled and raised to
provide room for the Cafeteria, Harding Hall, recreation rooms, rest rooms,
and large space for productive work. The Cafeteria serves around 2,800
meals daily, and Harding Hall, seating 1,200, is devoted to social activities
of employees and may be quickly converted into a ballroom, a motion-
picture theater, or a forum. Recreational activities include orchestra,
baseball clubs, bowling alleys, dances, moving pictures and lectures, annual
excursions, and similar affairs. The photo-engraving plant was also added
as one of the new mechanical departments and is also located on the eighth
floor. A roof garden was built, covering practically the entire building. The
emergency hospital was enlarged, and wards for men and women were
provided, with beds, toilets, and shower baths.
Two hundred apprentices received training for occupational pursuits in
the various printing and bindery trades represented in the Office.
A testing laboratory was established in the Office for the purpose of
standardizing all materials, supplies, and stock used in the manufacture of
printing.

The boiler and generating rooms were abolished, and the purchase of
electric current and steam from the Capital Power Plant was started.
Since 1934, under the direction of Public Printer A. E. Giegengack, the
Government Printing Office has continued to grow not only in size but also
in public esteem. Under his leadership, appropriations for a much-needed
building program were granted by Congress, and the erection of a
warehouse and an eight-story, red-brick addition to the main Printing Office
building was accomplished. The cost of this building program, which
included buildings, machinery and equipment, furnishings, the expense of
moving, and other incidentals, amounted to $7,700,000.
Among the many noteworthy improvements inaugurated for the
betterment of service to the Government, to the public, and to the 5,500
employees of the Office, are the following:
The establishment of a department of typography, through which there
are incorporated into Government printing the accepted improvements in
the field of typography; the standardization of a type-metal alloy for all
type-casting machines; the installation of a more efficient cost-finding and
pay-roll bookkeeping system; the reestablishment of the Government
Printing Office Apprentice School; and encouragement of greater employee
participation in all social, fraternal, and welfare activities sponsored by the
Office.
Uncle Sam’s Book Shop sold 10 million copies from its list of 65,000
publications in 1937. This department is called the Office of the
Superintendent of Documents, which is located in the Government Printing
Office building, and these Government publications, covering almost every
phase of human endeavor, are for sale to the public at a reasonable price.

THE WHITE HOUSE
The site of the White House, or the President’s House, was selected by
President Washington. It was part of the David Burnes farm, and at the time
it was chosen a cornfield extended one-half mile south to the Potomac.
The cornerstone of the President’s House was laid on October 13, 1792,
but not by George Washington, as the records show that he and his family
were in Philadelphia at the time. The design was made by James Hoban, an
architect of Dublin, Ireland, who won a $500 prize and a lot for the best
plan. In its exterior it somewhat resembles the palace of the Duke of

Leinster in Ireland. That, however, has Corinthian columns over a rusticated
base, showing the influence of the Renaissance in England; and there are
other distinctions in their classical motives.
The White House was first occupied by President and Mrs. John Adams,
who moved in the latter part of November, 1800, the year Washington
became the seat of government. At the time it was very incomplete, and
much discomfort was experienced, particularly as to heating and lighting.
The East Room was used to dry the family wash. The White House was not
finished until 1826. Then and for many years following it secured its water
from springs a short distance to the northeast, in the vicinity of what is now
Franklin Square.

THE WHITE HOUSE—NORTH SIDE

The President’s House, as it was then called, was considerably damaged
by fire by the British, who threatened the destruction of the city in 1814.
The building, except for the wings at each side, which were used for offices
and servants’ quarters, was restored by Hoban. Of white sandstone, the
building which became discolored by the fire was thereupon painted white

and has since been known as the White House. It was first lighted by gas in
1848, and a system of heating and ventilating was installed in 1853.
The White House was remodeled during the administration of President
Roosevelt in 1902, when the Executive Office was taken out of the building
and placed in a temporary building to the west of the main building. This
was enlarged during the administration of President Taft in 1909 to twice its
former size. It was further remodeled in 1927 by making the building
fireproof and constructing a third story out of the attic.
In 1929 it was found necessary by President Hoover to use also the
basement for an office. In the same year the building was partially burned,
but has since been rebuilt. It is thought by some that in the years to come
the remodeled State Department Building will become the permanent
Executive Office Building, and the State Department will have a new
building on the west side of Lafayette Square.
The White House has a length of 183 feet (east and west) and a width of
85 feet; it is 58 feet high. The portico of Ionic columns forms a porte-
cochère and measures 40 feet by 59 feet (east and west), and is 50 feet high.
The building contains many beautiful paintings and other works of art,
among them a Gilbert Stuart portrait of George Washington, called the
Lansdowne Stuart, which was saved by Dolly Madison by cutting the
picture from its frame when the White House was burned by the British in
1814. It is now in the East Room, which is the great reception room, 82 feet
long (the width of the mansion), 40 feet wide, and 22 feet high. From the
ceiling hang three massive crystal chandeliers. In addition to numerous
paintings, large vases and other articles adorn the room.
Other interesting rooms are the State Dining Room, the scene of brilliant
State functions; the Blue Room—the President’s reception room—the walls
of which are covered with rich blue corded silk, with window hangings of
blue; the Red Room, the walls and window draperies of which are of red
velvet; and the Green Room, which has on the walls green velvet. The
wainscoting of the Green Room is of white enamel.
Large and beautiful grounds bound the White House on the south. Here
the Marine Band plays every Saturday afternoon during the summer
months. Also it is here where the annual Easter egg rolling takes place,
always a great day for the boys and girls of Washington. The area is called
the White Lot because about 1850 a board fence that later was painted
white surrounded these grounds.

DEPARTMENT OF STATE BUILDING AS IT WILL APPEAR WHEN REMODELED

Originally the main entrance to the White House was on the south side,
while the portico on the opposite side was a garden where the family spent
their evenings. This is the arrangement observed to-day at Arlington House
and at Mount Vernon, and is an indication that in the colonial days the back
yards of homes were as nicely kept as were the front yards.

DEPARTMENT OF STATE

DEPARTMENT OF STATE BUILDING, 1801

In 1788 the Department of Foreign Affairs moved from Fraunce’s Tavern
to a house owned by Philip Livingston, on the west side of Broadway, near
the Battery, in New York City. Later it moved to another house on the same
street on the opposite side. The Capital having been again located at
Philadelphia, the department took up its abode first on Market Street, then
on the southeast corner of Arch and Sixth Streets, then in North Alley, and
finally at the northeast corner of Fifth and Chestnut Streets, where it
remained until it was moved to Washington, except for an interval of three
months—from August to November, 1798—when it occupied the
statehouse at Trenton, N. J., the office being moved from Philadelphia on
account of an epidemic of yellow fever.
On July 27, 1789, the act establishing an executive department to be
called the Department of Foreign Affairs was approved; but the Sedgwick
Act, approved September 15, 1789, changed this title to the Department of
State and that of the principal officer to the Secretary of State. A few days
later John Jay, who was Secretary of Foreign Affairs under the
Confederation, was nominated to be Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and

Thomas Jefferson to be Secretary of State, and both were commissioned on
September 26. Jay accepted at once, but continued to discharge the duties of
Secretary of State for some months. Under date of October 13 President
Washington informed Jefferson of his appointment, and added that Mr. Jay
had been so obliging as to continue his good offices. When this letter was
written Jefferson had not returned to America from his mission to France.
Upon his arrival Jay recommended to him favorably “the young gentlemen
in the office.” Jefferson formally entered upon the discharge of his duties on
March 22, 1790.
When the seat of government was established in the District of Columbia
in 1800 the archives and the seven employees of the Department of State
were crowded into the Treasury Office, a building of 30 rooms, to the east
of the White House. It was the only Government building sufficiently
completed to receive them. John Marshall was then Secretary of State. On
August 27, 1800, the Department of State was removed to one of the Seven
Buildings on Pennsylvania Avenue and Nineteenth Street NW.
It has been interesting to determine positively the name of this historic
group of buildings, because some confusion has arisen through there being
in 1800 two groups or rows of houses, near to one another, one called the
Six Buildings and the other the Seven Buildings. Christian Hines, in his
Early Recollections of Washington City (1866), says, when giving a list of
the few houses standing in the year 1800:
One square between Pennsylvania Avenue and K and Twenty-first and Twenty-second Streets, the
Six Buildings, three stories high, owners and occupants not recollected * * *. One square bounded by
Pennsylvania Avenue and I and Nineteenth and Twentieth Streets, 10 houses—one 3-story frame,
occupied by a Mr. Middleton; one 2-Story frame, owned and occupied by William Waters, Esq., and
the Seven Buildings, brick, 3 stories high.

Samuel C. Busey, in his Pictures of the City of Washington in the Past
(1898), refers to and confirms Hines’s statements as to these two sets of
buildings, and adds that in the Six Buildings was located O’Neal’s famous
hotel. All writers apparently agree that the first home of the Department of
State in Washington was in the house on the northwest corner of
Pennsylvania Avenue and Nineteenth Street. This row of buildings—Nos.
1901-1913 Pennsylvania Avenue—is still standing, though it has undergone
considerable change.
From the early part of 1820 to November, 1866, the Department of State
was located at the corner of Fifteenth Street and Pennsylvania Avenue NW.,

in what was known as the Executive Building. The picture shown below
was given to William McNeir, chief of the division of accounts of that
department, by Thomas Ridgate, who found it in the attic of the old
building. It will be noted from the picture, which shows the Treasury
Department Building columns at the extreme left, that it was taken before
the building was razed to make room for the north wing of the present
Treasury Department Building; the rest of the new building had at that time
been erected. Of this building Jonathan Eliot states, in his Historical
Sketches of the Ten Mile Square, describing Washington in 1830:
At the distance of about 200 yards, on the east of the President’s house, are situated two buildings
for the Department of State and of the Treasury; and at the same distance on the west are two others
for the War and Navy Departments. These buildings are all of the same dimensions and construction;
they are 160 feet long and 55 feet wide, of brick, two stories in height; they are divided in their length
by a broad passage, with rooms on each side, and a spacious staircase in the center. The two most
northerly buildings are ornamented with an Ionic portico of six columns and pediment. The grounds
about these offices have been graduated and planted of late years, and the shrubbery begins to present
a pleasing appearance.

EXECUTIVE BUILDING, 1820-1866

W. K. Force, in his Picture of Washington for 1850, said, speaking of the
northeast Executive Building:

The first floor is occupied by the Fifth Auditor of the Treasury at the east end, and the Second
Comptroller of the Treasury at the west end. On the second floor are the apartments of the Secretary
of State and his suite; also the library of the department, containing some ten or twelve thousand
volumes.

John Quincy Adams was Secretary of State when the move to this new
home was made, and thereafter followed a long list of distinguished
Secretaries, the last to occupy this building being William H. Seward, from
1861 to 1869.
The north wing of the present Treasury Department Building bears on its
exterior wall on Fifteenth Street a tablet, erected April 30, 1929, by the
Kiwanis Club of Washington, in cooperation with the Committee on
Marking Points of Historic Interest, which contains the following
inscription:
FRIENDSHIP BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA WAS
DEVELOPED AND STRENGTHENED BY THE SIGNING OF THE
WEBSTER-ASHBURTON TREATY, ON AUGUST 9, 1842, IN THE OLD
STATE DEPARTMENT BUILDING WHICH STOOD ON THIS SITE. THIS
TREATY ESTABLISHED THE NORTHEASTERN BOUNDARY BETWEEN
THE TWO COUNTRIES.

On March 3, 1871, Congress appropriated half a million dollars to start
work on the State, War, and Navy Departments Building. The act provided:
For the construction under the direction of the Secretary of State, on the southern portion of the
premises now occupied by the War and Navy Departments, of a building which will form the south
wing of a building that, when completed, will be similar in ground plan and dimensions to the
Treasury Building and provide accommodations for the State, War, and Navy Departments.

The original plans were drawn by Thomas U. Walter, a noted
Philadelphia architect, who designed the Dome of the Capitol and the
completed Treasury Building, but A. B. Mullett, Supervising Architect of
the Treasury, undertook the work, and finally only the interior conformed to
the original plans.
The building was erected in five different sections. The south wing was
commenced in 1871 and completed in time for the Department of State to
move in July 1, 1875. The east wing was commenced in 1872 and
completed seven years later, so that on April 16, 1879, the War and Navy
Departments moved into that wing. The old War Department Building,
which had occupied the site of the north wing of the present building, was

demolished in 1879, and the new building or north wing was completed
three years later, the War Department moving into it in December, 1882.
The west and center wings were the last to be erected, work on them
commencing March 31, 1883, and being completed January 31, 1888. For a
long time each wing was necessarily separated by a solid wall—and later by
an iron grill, or gates in the corridors—but finally these disappeared, and
the beauty of the long corridors as they now are appeared. The total cost of
the whole building was slightly more than $10,000,000, and appropriations
therefor spread over a period of 17 years. Separate permanent buildings for
the War and the Navy Departments are now to be erected, these two
departments being housed at present largely in temporary buildings. The
Department of State alone remains in the building.
In 1910 a building for the Department of State was recommended for a
site along Fifteenth Street, south of Pennsylvania Avenue, where now the
Department of Commerce has been built. In 1917 it was recommended that
a Department of State Building be erected on the west side of Lafayette
Square.
In the new Federal building program Congress has provided that the
present State, War, and Navy Building be remodeled to conform in design
to the Treasury Department Building, and to be known as the Department of
State Building. The building will thus properly balance the White House.
Congress made a fund of $3,000,000 available for this work. The Secretary
of the Treasury appointed Waddy Wood, architect of Washington, to prepare
the design, which has been approved by the Commission of Fine Arts.
However, the project has been held in abeyance.
The Department of State was created as the first department of the
Government in 1789, in order to help the President in carrying on our
foreign relations. However, in the early years of our country the Department
of State not only had charge of foreign affairs, but, as Thomas Jefferson, the
first Secretary of State, once wrote, it also had charge of all important
matters of domestic government as well, except matters of war and finance.
In the early days the Secretary of State even managed the mint. Until 1849
he had charge of the Patent Office, until 1859 handled all copyright matters,
and until 1850 the census of the United States was taken under his
direction. Before the Civil War, United States judges, marshals, and
attorneys all received their instructions from the Department of State, but in
1870 a new Department of Justice was established to take care of these

matters, and little by little much of the domestic work was taken from this
department and put under new departments, such as the Department of the
Interior, the Department of Labor, and the Department of Commerce.
Therefore, to-day the Department of State devotes most of its time to
handling foreign affairs, although it is still the custodian, or the keeper, of
the great seal, the official seal of the Government of the United States.
When Congress passes new laws the original copies are kept in this
department, and when there is any correspondence between the various
States of the Union and the Federal Government it is carried on through the
Department of State.
The Secretary of State has a force of some 950 people in the department
in Washington, and about 3,800 people scattered over all the world in the
Foreign Service of the United States. The department in Washington is
divided into 35 divisions and offices, each with its special work to perform.
Six divisions have charge of matters pertaining to foreign countries—South
and Central America; the Far East, as China, Japan, and Siam; the division
of Western European affairs; Eastern European affairs; a division of the
Near East; and the Mexican division.
One of the largest offices in the department is the passport division,
which issues passports to American citizens traveling in foreign countries.
Last year 134,737 Americans obtained passports so that they might travel
abroad, the fees for which amounted to nearly $1,500,000, almost enough to
pay the entire expenses of the Department of State.

DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY BUILDING

When foreigners wish to come to this country they must first go to one of
our American consuls to obtain a visa or a permit. The immigration of
foreigners into this country is now restricted by law. Therefore our consuls
examine the foreigners abroad, so that they may know before starting on
their journey whether they will be allowed to remain in this country. The
visa division of the Department of State has charge of that work.
Whenever there are expositions or meetings of various kinds abroad, and
it is decided that the United States Government shall take part in them, such
participation has to be arranged through another of the divisions of the
Department of State. As many as 150 cables are sent every day to all parts
of the world, which are taken care of in the department’s telegraph office. In
many foreign countries our Government is now buying and constructing its
own buildings for our ambassadors and consuls, and one of the offices in
the department attends to these matters.
The Secretary of State is assisted in the direction of all these officers and
offices by an Under Secretary of State, four Assistant Secretaries of State,
and a legal adviser. The United States has an ambassador or minister in 54

different countries of the world. There are 314 foreign commercial cities
where the United States has a consul general, consul, vice consul, or
consular agent, who, among other duties, help steamship lines and great
business establishments to promote commerce with the United States. Our
consuls protect and assist the hundreds of American missionaries whose
stations are in remote foreign regions of the world. In addition to their many
duties they help thousands of visitors during trips abroad who seek advice.
And when an American is visiting in a foreign land, even though scenery
and ruins that recall civilizations of past ages give him pleasure, there is
nothing that gives him more joy than to see in such places the Stars and
Stripes waving over a United States consulate.

DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY
The Department of the Treasury was created by act of Congress
September 2, 1789. Robert Morris, of Pennsylvania, financier and
statesman, one of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence, was the
first financial officer of the Government and was Superintendent of Finance
from 1781 to 1784. Upon the resignation of Morris the powers conferred
upon him by the Continental Congress were transferred to the Board of the
Treasury. This board served until Alexander Hamilton, of New York, the
first Secretary of the Treasury, assumed office. Hamilton served from
September 11, 1789, to January 31, 1795, thus serving under President
Washington. Since the formation of the Government there have been 50
Secretaries of the Treasury; the present incumbent, Hon. Henry
Morgenthau, jr., of New York, assumed office January 1, 1934. The
Secretary of the Treasury, of course, has supervision over the finances of
the Government. The annual estimates, however, since 1921 have been
transmitted to Congress by the Director of the Budget for the President of
the United States.
The first building of the Treasury Department situated at this location
east of the White House was a small wooden structure, called the State and
Treasury Departments Building. It was built at the time the seat of
government was established in the District of Columbia in 1800 and
comprised 30 rooms. This original building was burned by the British
during the invasion of Washington in 1814. A second building was erected.
This was destroyed by fire in 1833. In 1836 Congress authorized the

erection of “a fireproof building of such dimensions as may be required for
the present and future accommodations.” Also the material for the building
was to be similar to that used for the Capitol and the White House. The
architect was Mr. Robert Mills, who at the same time was designing the
Patent Office Building and later won the competition for the design of the
Washington Monument. When it came to the question of location of the
new building, it is said that President Andrew Jackson, becoming impatient
at the delay, said “Here, right here, is where I want the corner stone laid.”
Thus the building stands where it is to-day. In 1839 the department was
installed in the unfinished building.
The Treasury Building consists of a 4-story rectangle around a large
central court; this court is divided by a corridor of offices. On the west the
building faces the beautiful White House Grounds, its north side is on
Pennsylvania Avenue, its east front runs along Fifteenth Street, and its south
side overlooks a half-mile stretch of park leading down to the Potomac
River.
The building completed in 1842 included only the middle portion of the
present east wing and the central corridor and offices. The south wing was
completed in 1861, the west wing in 1864, and the north wing in 1869. It is
an imposing granite structure. In design it is pure Grecian, furnishing what
is claimed to be one of the finest examples of this style of architecture in
Washington, if not in the entire country. There are great pediments on the
north, south, and west sides. Monolithic columns of the Ionic order
adorning the façades are the distinguishing feature of the building
architecturally. There are 72 of these columns, each 36 feet in height, 30
being set to form an unbroken colonnade 341 feet long on the east front.
Most of the granite used was brought to Washington in sailing vessels from
Maine. The building has 488 rooms and cost over $6,000,000.
The department long ago outgrew the building. The personnel in
Washington now numbers more than 22,000, with some 26 main bureaus
and divisions. At present Department of the Treasury bureaus occupy, in
addition to the main building, 9 entire buildings and part of 6 other
buildings owned by the Government and 5 rented quarters. The Treasury
Annex is an imposing building, designed by Cass Gilbert, across
Pennsylvania Avenue on the north. Congress has authorized its extension to
H Street.

The Department of the Treasury is the central agency through which the
Federal Government conducts its financial affairs. Generally speaking, it
receives and has custody of all funds paid to the Government and disburses
all moneys of the Government. At the head of the department are the
Secretary of the Treasury, the Under Secretary of the Treasury, and three
Assistant Secretaries of the Treasury, whose offices are all located in the
main building.
The receipts of the Government come chiefly from internal-revenue
collections and customs duties. The Bureau of Internal Revenue administers
and enforces the internal-revenue laws and collects all internal-revenue
taxes. The personnel of this bureau has been brought together and now
occupies a beautiful new building recently completed as part of the
development along the Mall. Import duties or customs are collected by the
Bureau of Customs.
Disbursements of Government funds can be made only on the
authorization of Congress. When any payment is authorized, a warrant
signed by the Secretary of the Treasury and countersigned by the
Comptroller General of the United States is drawn. Upon this authority
payment is made. The division of bookkeeping and warrants, under the
general supervision of the commissioner of accounts and deposits, keeps
complete records of all appropriation accounts as well as of public moneys
covered into the Treasury and of warrants authorizing disbursements.
The Treasurer of the United States is charged with responsibility for the
actual receipt and disbursement of all public moneys that may be deposited
in the United States Treasury and in all other depositaries authorized to
receive deposits of Government funds for credit in the account of the
Treasurer of the United States. He has also many other fiscal duties.
The public-debt service handles the records and operations pertaining to
the issue and retirement of the public debt and the interest payments
thereon, under the supervision of the commissioner of the public debt.
The Bureau of the Mint manufactures the coin circulating medium of the
country. It maintains mints at Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Denver for
the coinage of money, as well as assay offices in New York and elsewhere.
The Bureau of Engraving and Printing at Washington engraves and prints
notes, bonds, securities, stamps, checks, etc.
The Comptroller of the Currency is charged under the law with the
supervision of national banks.

VIEW NORTHWEST FROM THE WASHINGTON MONUMENT

OTHER IMPORTANT BUILDINGS
Lack of space in this book makes it necessary merely to mention the
more important of the other monumental buildings in the National Capital.
Detailed information concerning them may be found in the author’s
Washington the National Capital and in other books on Washington. They
should be studied in connection with the buildings described in this chapter.
Attention is called first to the group of monumental semipublic buildings,
classical in design, on Seventeenth Street north of Constitution Avenue and
along that Avenue from Seventeenth Street west to the Potomac River. It
has been said that nowhere else in the world is there such a fine group of
marble buildings.
THE CORCORAN GALLERY OF ART

This Gallery had its beginning in the year 1869. It ranks as one of the
great art galleries in the United States. The present building (at New York
Avenue and Seventeenth Street) was designed by Ernest Flagg, architect,

and completed in 1897. It is built of Georgia marble. It houses rare
masterpieces of painting and sculpture.
THE AMERICAN NATIONAL RED CROSS

Adjacent to the Corcoran Gallery on the south, the American National
Red Cross occupies three large buildings constructed of Vermont marble.
They were designed by Trowbridge & Livingston, architects, of New York
City. The Red Cross had its beginning during the Civil War. In 1905 the
organization was chartered by Congress along its present lines. There are
5,500,000 adult members and 8,500,000 Junior members (as of June 30,
1938).
MEMORIAL CONTINENTAL HALL

The next building to the south is the headquarters of the National Society
of the Daughters of the American Revolution. It faces Seventeenth Street,
was designed by Edward Pearce Casey, architect, built of Vermont marble,
and completed in 1905. The cornerstone was laid April 19, 1904, the
anniversary of the Battle of Lexington. On that date the organization holds
its convention in Washington each year. It was founded October 11, 1890,
and on February 1, 1938, numbered 142,744 members, with about 2,500
chapters in all parts of the United States.
CONSTITUTION HALL

Another of the Society’s buildings, facing Eighteenth Street, in this
square, is the leading auditorium of the city. It was designed by John
Russell Pope, architect, built of Alabama limestone, and completed in
October, 1929. The auditorium seats 4,000 persons. On page 278 there is a
picture of the building. The mural decorations of the interior are by J.
Monroe Hewlett, architect.
THE PAN AMERICAN BUILDING

This building, at the corner of Seventeenth Street and Constitution
Avenue, is considered by some to be the most beautiful in Washington. It
was designed by Albert C. Kelsey and Paul P. Cret, architects, in the
Spanish-classical style of architecture. It was built of Georgia marble and
was dedicated April 26, 1910. It is the headquarters of the 21 Republics of
the Pan American Union. In it is the famous Hall of the Americas. Andrew

Carnegie contributed $850,000 toward the building, and the United States
Government contributed the 5-acre tract, on which stood the Van Ness
Mansion (1815) and the David Burnes cottage, which stood there in the
days of George Washington.
THE NEW DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR BUILDING

Designed by Waddy B. Wood, architect, the new Department of the
Interior building occupies two squares between C and E and Eighteenth and
Nineteenth Streets. It is built of Indiana limestone and is the largest air-
conditioned office building in the world.
PUBLIC HEALTH SERVICE BUILDING

This building, designed by J. H. deSibour, architect, is classical in design
and built of white Georgia marble. It was completed in 1933. It is four
stories in height and houses the large and growing office of the Surgeon
General of the United States and his staff of assistants. In its location on
Constitution Avenue it forms a part of the frame for the Lincoln Memorial.
FEDERAL RESERVE BOARD BUILDING

Completed in 1937, this building forms the center of the group of
monumental marble buildings along Constitution Avenue west of
Seventeenth Street. The design, by Paul P. Cret, architect, is based on
classical motives. It is built of white Georgia marble. It is the headquarters
building for the Federal Reserve Board. In it is a large mosaic map of the
United States by Ezra Winter, mural painter, showing the location of the 12
Federal Reserve branch banks in the different sections of the country.
NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES

This building, designed by Bertram G. Goodhue, architect, is
immediately east of the Federal Reserve Board building. It is classical in
design and built of white marble from Dover, N. Y. The building was
dedicated by President Coolidge in April, 1924. The interior is decorated
with paintings and decorations by Hildreth Meiere and Albert Herter; the
sculptural decorations are by Lee Lawrie.
AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF PHARMACY

Immediately north of the Lincoln Memorial stands the American Institute
of Pharmacy. It was designed by John Russell Pope, architect, and built of
white Vermont marble. It is classical in its style of architecture, and in its
location west of the National Academy of Sciences completes the group of
buildings on Constitution Avenue that form a frame for the Lincoln
Memorial. The building is the headquarters of the druggists in the United
States. More than 14,000 druggists subscribed toward the building fund.
The Pharmacopoeia of the United States, under which prescriptions and
drugs are standardized, is supervised by the Institute.
SCOTTISH RITE TEMPLE

This building, at Sixteenth and P Streets NW., is the headquarters of the
Supreme Council of the Thirty-third Degree, of the Ancient and Accepted
Scottish Rite of Freemasonry of the Southern Jurisdiction. It is modeled
after the tomb of Mausolus, at Halicarnassus, in Asia Minor, which was
regarded by the ancients as one of the Seven Wonders of the World. Its 33
Ionic columns are 33 feet tall, suggesting the 33 degrees of Masonry. On
each side of the main entrance is a colossal sphinx, symbolic of Divine
Wisdom and Power, executed by A. A. Weinman, sculptor. The building
was designed by John Russell Pope, architect.
CARNEGIE INSTITUTION OF WASHINGTON

At 16th and P Streets NW. is the Carnegie Institution of Washington. The
building was designed by Carrére and Hastings, and shows an influence of
the French classical style of architecture.
CHAMBER OF COMMERCE OF THE UNITED STATES

Dedicated in 1925, this building, at Connecticut Avenue and H Streets
NW., is classical in its style of architecture and is adapted to modern office
requirements. It was designed by Cass Gilbert, architect. Fully 13,000
business men representing almost 200 cities of the United States
contributed toward the building.

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY
The National Geographic Society, organized in 1888, “for the increase
and diffusion of geographic knowledge,” is the largest educational and

scientific body in the world.
In its 50 years the society has sponsored a series of notable explorations,
discoveries, and research activities of our times, and it has developed its
unique and beautifully illustrated National Geographic Magazine as a
means of disseminating geographic information among its world-wide
membership.

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY

CONSTITUTION HALL

The society’s administrative and editorial offices, at Sixteenth and M
Streets NW., were enlarged by an addition which extends its handsome and
dignified headquarters along a 214-foot frontage. A commodious and
modern office building at Third Street and Randolph Place NE., is used for
mailing its magazine, maps, and communications to its world-wide
membership.
In its editorial, research, technical, photographic, and clerical
departments, and in the publishing of the National Geographic Magazine,
the society now employs more than 800 persons. It is the largest non-
Government user of the National Capital’s post office facilities.
The society’s members, numbering 1,150,000 (December, 1938),
represent every community of 100 or more persons in the United States,
while its foreign membership of 183,709 includes residents in every
country, colony, principality, and mandated area of the world which has any
semblance of a postal system.
To each member goes monthly the National Geographic Magazine, which
has been called the foremost educational periodical in the world; each

member also receives every map and panoramic illustration as issued. Thus
the society has distributed among its more than a million member homes
some 20,000,000 wall maps, in color, in addition to the numerous sketch
maps which accompany articles in the magazine.
The society’s weekly lectures, which are held in Constitution Hall, have
become a part of the intellectual life of the National Capital. Since their
inception more than 1,400 explorers, statesmen, and world travelers of note
have addressed the Washington meetings. Such explorers as Rear Admiral
Peary, Sir Francis Younghusband, Capt. Roald Amundsen, Colonel
Lindbergh, and Rear Admiral Byrd have related their findings to the
society’s members; also such noted travelers as the late Viscount Bryce,
former Ambassador Jusserand, the late William Howard Taft, and Colonel
Roosevelt, after his return from his African game hunt and his Amazon
expedition.
When these lectures are of general interest they are reprinted and
illustrated in the magazine for the society’s entire membership.
At its Sixteenth Street headquarters the society maintains a library of up-
to-date geographic information, comprising some 20,000 volumes, in
addition to maps, periodicals, and reports from foreign governments and
geographic societies.
The leading universities of the city, such as Georgetown University,
founded 1789; George Washington University, founded 1821; Catholic
University, founded 1889; American University, founded 1893; Howard
University, founded 1867; Columbia Institution for the Deaf, founded 1857;
and Trinity College, Brookland, founded 1897; also have their monumental
buildings.
In the Triangle group are to be found: Department of Commerce
Building, York & Sawyer, architects; Department of Labor and Interstate
Commerce Commission Building, Arthur Brown, architect; Post Office
Department Building, Delano & Aldrich, architects; Department of Justice
Building, Zantzinger, Borie & Medary, architects; Internal Revenue
Building, Louis Simon, architect; National Archives Building, John Russell
Pope, architect; Federal Trade Commission (Apex) Building, Bennett,
Parsons & Frost, architects.

THE TRIANGLE GROUP OF PUBLIC BUILDINGS ALONG CONSTITUTION AVENUE

THE NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART

THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES BUILDING

THE MAKERS OF THE CONSTITUTION

THE SIGNERS OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE

Other buildings are: The Central Heating Plant (for heating 75 buildings),
Paul P. Cret, architect; Bureau of Engraving and Printing, W. B. Olmstead,
architect; Smithsonian Institution (begun in 1846), James Renwick,
architect; National Museum Building, Hornblower & Marshall, architects;
Freer Gallery of Art, Charles A. Platt, architect; Department of Agriculture
Building, Rankin, Kellogg & Crane, architects; Department of Agriculture
South Building, the Supervising Architect; Naval Observatory; State, War,
and Navy Building, A. B. Mullett, supervising architect; Old Pension Office
Building (General Accounting Office); Army War College, McKim, Mead
& White, architects; Walter Reed Hospital; Naval Hospital; Public Library,
Ackerman & Ross, architects; United States Bureau of Standards; National
Zoological Park (large new buildings completed in 1937); National Gallery
of Art (now under construction), John Russell Pope, architect.

IMPORTANT BRIDGES OF WASHINGTON
Arlington Memorial Bridge, McKim, Mead & White, architects; Calvert
Street Bridge, Paul P. Cret, architect; Francis Scott Key Bridge, Nathan
Wyeth, architect; Connecticut Avenue (Taft) Bridge, Edward P. Casey,
architect, lions by R. Hinton Perry; Q Street Bridge, Glenn Brown and
Bedford Brown, architects, A. Phimister Proctor, sculptor; Klingle Ford
Bridge, Connecticut Avenue, Paul P. Cret, architect; New Chain Bridge,
designed under supervision of Brig. Gen. Dan I. Sultan, former Engineer
Commissioner of the District of Columbia; John Philip Sousa Bridge,
Southeast, McKim, Mead & White, architects.

CATHEDRAL OF ST. PETER AND ST. PAUL
(WASHINGTON CATHEDRAL)
The cathedral is situated on Mount St. Alban, in the northwestern part of
the city, on a hill 400 feet in height, said to be the highest point in the
District of Columbia, giving a superb view over the National Capital.
The cathedral, also known as the National Cathedral, was designed by
George F. Bodley, of London, and Henry Vaughn, of Boston. It is a typical
fourteenth century Gothic edifice. The cornerstone was laid in 1907, and
since then a large part of the cathedral has been completed. Its ultimate cost,
it is estimated, will be $20,000,000. The central nave is about complete, the
apse and north transept are finished as are also several of the chapels, such
as the Bethlehem Chapel, the Norman Chapel, the Chapel of St. John, and
the Chapel of St. Mary. There are costly stones in the building from many
parts of the world, including a stone from Bethlehem, which formed the
cornerstone.

WASHINGTON CATHEDRAL

WASHINGTON CATHEDRAL

NATIONAL SHRINE OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION

The building is constructed of limestone. The sculpture and beautifully
stained glass windows form the principal decorations.
The total length of the building from the exterior of the apse at the
eastern end to the main entrance at the western end will be 534 feet. The
total spread of the transepts will be 215 feet, and each of these arms of the
cross will be 105 feet wide. The ground area of the cathedral will be 71,000
square feet, and this will be ample to provide standing room for 27,000
persons or seating space for 7,500. The central tower will rise to a height of
262 feet and each of the two western towers will be 195 feet high. The nave
will have a span of 40 feet and its height will be 95 feet.
Within the cathedral are buried Woodrow Wilson, our World War
President; also Admiral George Dewey, General Nelson A. Miles, and
several bishops of the Episcopal Church.
The grounds comprise 67 acres, and the carefully designed Bishop’s
Garden forms an interesting feature. The National Cathedral School for
Girls and for Boys and the College of Preachers are within the grounds.

NATIONAL SHRINE OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION
This cathedral has been designed in the Roman-Byzantine style of
architecture. It is located on Michigan Avenue, Brookland, in the Catholic
University grounds. The cornerstone for the church was laid in 1920. It is
estimated that the total cost will be $50,000,000. The architects are
Maginnis & Walsh, of Boston, and Professor Frederick V. Murphy,
architect, of Washington.
The building as designed is cruciform in plan, with a triple apse, at the
focus of which is placed the central altar within a great baldachin. The apse
is of vast scale and, with the presbytery that separates it from the transepts,
will admit of important ceremonies. The dome will be 250 feet high; the tall
campanile, or bell tower, 330 feet high. The building is to take its place with
such notable memorials as Santa Maria Maggiore, of Rome, and Santa
Maria del Fiore, of Florence. It is to stand as a symbol of American
Catholic devotion to the Virgin Mary. The availability of the Byzantine
tradition for the rendering of this idea was readily perceived. The crypt,
capable of seating approximately 1,500 persons, has been completed. Here
a most interesting decorative scheme in terms of faïence has been
introduced to enrich the effect of the vaults. The central altar is of Algerian
onyx. The pavement is of Italian marble. The crypt is richly treated with
still other marbles and with mosaics.

NATIONAL CHURCHES IN WASHINGTON
There is no city in the country that has so many representative churches
as the city of Washington, which is undoubtedly due to the fact that this is
the National Capital. The leading denominations of the country, recognizing
the importance of religion in the life of the Nation, have erected or are
raising funds for the erection of great edifices, including memorial
churches, fittingly to represent them at the seat of government.
In chapter XX attention has already been directed to the earliest churches
in Washington.

EMBASSIES AND LEGATIONS

Among the notable buildings in the National Capital that have had a
distinguished place since the early days of the Republic are the residences,
embassies, and legations of the representatives from foreign countries. At
the present time there are 53, representing the leading countries of the
world.
The legation and embassy buildings are held territory of the respective
countries to which they belong, and fly the flag of their respective nations,
excepting on state occasions, when they fly both their own flag and that of
the United States.
L’Enfant, in his plan of the city, contemplated diplomatic buildings to
line the Mall. But as the Mall was delayed in its development for over a
century, the museum type of building has been erected on the Mall and the
diplomatic establishments located elsewhere. In later years the suggestion
was offered to locate them in the vicinity of the State Department.
At the present time the embassies and legations are located, for the most
part, in the residential section of northwest Washington. Quite a number are
on Sixteenth Street in the vicinity of Meridian Hill Park. In more recent
years several of the leading countries have built new embassies on spacious
grounds. In this Great Britain has taken the lead, having built a large
embassy on 4 acres of ground at 3100 Massachusetts Avenue, near the
Naval Observatory. Three blocks beyond, the Norwegian Legation building
has recently been completed. In recent years the Imperial Japanese
Government built a new embassy at 2514 Massachusetts Avenue. The
French Government recently purchased the home of John Hays Hammond
for its new embassy.

BRITISH EMBASSY

ITALIAN EMBASSY

A list of the countries having embassies and legations in Washington
(with the exception of Estonia, whose representative is located in New York
City) is as follows:
Albania: The Mayflower Hotel.
Argentina: 1806 Corcoran Street.
Belgium: 1777 Massachusetts Avenue.
Bolivia: Fifteenth and K Streets.
Brazil: 3007 Whitehaven Street.
Bulgaria: 2881 Woodland Drive.
Canada: 1746 Massachusetts Avenue.
Chile: 2154 Florida Avenue.
China: 2001 Nineteenth Street.
Colombia: 1520 Twentieth Street.
Costa Rica: 2128 Bancroft Place.
Cuba: 2630 Sixteenth Street.
Czechoslovakia: 2349 Massachusetts Avenue.
Denmark: 1868 Columbia Road.
Dominican Republic: 2633 Sixteenth Street.
Ecuador: Barr Building.
Egypt: 2301 Massachusetts Avenue.

El Salvador: 2400 Sixteenth Street.
Estonia: Rockefeller Plaza, New York City.
Finland: 2416 Tracy Place.
France, Chancery: 1601 V Street.
Germany: 1439 Massachusetts Avenue.
Great Britain: 3100 Massachusetts Avenue.
Greece: 2221 Massachusetts Avenue.
Guatemala: 1614 Eighteenth Street.
Haiti: 5017 Sixteenth Street.
Honduras: 2611 Woodley Place.
Hungary: 1424 Sixteenth Street.
Ireland: 2310 Tracy Place.
Italy: 2700 Sixteenth Street.
Japan: 2514 Massachusetts Avenue.
Latvia: 1715 Twenty-second Street.
Lithuania: 2622 Sixteenth Street.
Mexico: 2829 Sixteenth Street.
Netherlands: 1470 Euclid Street.
Nicaragua: 1521 New Hampshire Avenue.
Norway: 3401 Massachusetts Avenue.
Panama: 1536 Eighteenth Street.
Paraguay: Wardman Park Hotel.
Peru: 1300 Sixteenth Street.
Poland: 2640 Sixteenth Street.
Portugal: Wardman Park Hotel.
Rumania: 1601 Twenty-third Street.
Siam: 2300 Kalorama Road.
Spain: 2801 Sixteenth Street.
Sweden: 2247 R Street.
Switzerland: 2419 Massachusetts Avenue.
Turkey: 1606 Twenty-third Street.
Union of South Africa: 3101 Massachusetts Avenue.
Union of Soviet Socialist Republics: 1125 Sixteenth Street.
Uruguay: 1010 Vermont Avenue.
Venezuela: 2400 Sixteenth Street.
Yugoslavia: 1520 Sixteenth Street.

Chapter XXII
THE PUBLIC-BUILDINGS PROGRAM

NEW BUILDINGS NECESSARY
As a result of the World War, Government departments in Washington
became overcrowded, and from 30,000 to 40,000 employees were housed in
temporary buildings. This congested situation made a public-building
program one of urgent need. For 40 years no real department building had
been erected in Washington. The Department of Agriculture was in 47
rented buildings. The Department of War and the Department of the Navy
were housed in many temporary war buildings.

PLAN OF 1910 FOR DEVELOPING SOUTH SIDE OF PENNSYLVANIA AVENUE

PLANS AS DEVELOPED
In 1910 plans were authorized for three department buildings—Justice,
Commerce and Labor, and State—to be built along Fifteenth Street,
between Pennsylvania Avenue and B Street NW., now Constitution Avenue,
and the land in this locality was bought by the Government, but the building

project was deferred. Again, in 1913, Congress took up the question of a
public-building program, and in 1917 a comprehensive survey was made by
the Public Buildings Commission of the needs of the Government for
additional buildings. At that time the area south of Pennsylvania Avenue
along Fifteenth Street to Constitution Avenue, which in 1910 was proposed
for three buildings, was designated for two buildings. Then came the World
War, during which the many temporary war buildings were erected.
President Coolidge in his message to Congress on December 9, 1925, called
attention to the great need for public buildings and asked for an annual
appropriation of $10,000,000. He said:

VIEW OF THE MALL FROM THE CAPITOL DOME, LOOKING WEST

VIEW OF THE MALL FROM THE WASHINGTON MONUMENT, LOOKING EAST

No public buildings bill has been enacted since before the war. I am not in favor of an act which
would be characterized as a general parceling out of favors and that usually bears a name lacking in
good repute. I am ready to approve an act similar in character to that already passed by the House,
providing a lump-sum appropriation to be expended under the direction of the Treasury or any other
proper authority, over a term of years, with such annual appropriation as the national finances could
provide.

The public buildings act was approved May 25, 1926.
This marked the beginning of a public-buildings program in the National
Capital greater than any which had been undertaken by the United States
since the establishment of the seat of government along the banks of the
Potomac in 1790.
Congress placed the public-buildings program in the hands of the
Secretary of the Treasury, both for Federal buildings in the States and for
the District of Columbia. To assist him in the plans for new public buildings
here in the National Capital the Secretary of the Treasury appointed a board
of architectural consultants. The Commission of Fine Arts has been called
upon regularly to advise in the development of the plans for the new public
buildings.

Five years had not yet elapsed when the long pent-up needs for buildings
to accommodate public business finally burst their bonds in the act of 1926.
The preparations for the flood had been long in the making—so long and so
carefully considered, indeed, that the flood has always been under control.
There has been no haphazard planning. No hasty or ill-considered work has
been done. The harmonious development of the National Capital has
progressed in form that would have pleased George Washington, and
latterly with a speed and vigor that would have gladdened his heart.
In addition to the great public-buildings program and the Arlington
Memorial Bridge, Congress authorized during the past ten years many other
great projects for the development of the National Capital which contribute
to making Washington the greatest and most beautiful national capital in the
world. Among these are: The completion of the Tomb of the Unknown
Soldier at Arlington, the restoration of Arlington Mansion, the Mount
Vernon Highway, the George Washington Memorial Parkway, the
enlargement of the Capitol Grounds and development of Union Station
Plaza, development of the Mall, addition to the House Office Building,
addition to the Library of Congress, United States Supreme Court Building,
Government Printing Office extension, Social Security Building, War
Department Building, Navy Department Building, new Naval Hospital,
Municipal Center development, Walter Reed General Hospital buildings,
Botanic Garden and new conservatory near the Capitol, and a National
Arboretum.

TREATMENT OF THE CAPITOL GROUNDS

PENNSYLVANIA AVENUE BETWEEN THE TREASURY AND THE CAPITOL

PENNSYLVANIA AVENUE
Pennsylvania Avenue is the great historic avenue of the Nation,
particularly that portion between the legislative and executive branches of
the Government—the Capitol and the White House—extending a distance
of 1 mile. It was named by Congress at the time the plan of Washington was
under consideration, in compliment to the State of Pennsylvania. In the time
of Thomas Jefferson it was a dusty highway, and to add beauty to it he
planted quick-growing poplar trees. Being about at sea level in elevation, it
was the scene of rowboats in times of flood as late as the year 1880. Several
large department stores of the city to-day had their beginning on the
Avenue. The Evening Star has been published there for about 89 years; its
home, remodeled from time to time, to-day is a large and beautiful building.
Since the L’Enfant plan provided for giving Pennsylvania Avenue a
conspicuous place in the development of the National Capital, Congress
decided, by the public buildings act of May 25, 1926, that the necessary
land on the south side of the Avenue from the Capitol to the Treasury should

be purchased by the Government and monumental buildings erected
thereon. In the House of Representatives the bill was sponsored by
Congressman Richard N. Elliott. As Chairman of the Committee on Public
Buildings and Grounds, he had a very prominent part in furthering the
legislation for the public buildings program of the National Capital and also
for the country at large. More public buildings were authorized during the
Sixty-ninth and Seventieth Congresses (1925-1929) than in all the
preceding Congresses. In the United States Senate the public buildings
program was sponsored by Senator Bert N. Fernald and after his death in
1926 by Senator Henry W. Keyes, Chairman of the Committee on Public
Buildings and Grounds of the Senate. This is the Triangle Plan, which is
now being carried out. In due time it is expected also that the north side will
be developed to correspond to the south side. However, several buildings
now there may be considered as established for decades to come.
Here at Pennsylvania Avenue, connecting the Capitol and the White
House, we are at the heart of the Nation. It is the Via Sacra of the great
Republic of the New World.
On September 5, 1931, at the ground-breaking ceremony for the Archives
Building, at Pennsylvania Avenue and Seventh Street, Hon. Ferry K. Heath,
Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, who was in immediate charge of the
public-buildings program, said: “The story of the traffic and parades of this
great Avenue would be an outline of the history of the United States.”
The act for enlarging the Capitol Grounds, and the municipal center
development on the north side of the Avenue, gives the Government control
from the Capitol to Sixth Street.

UNION STATION AND PLAZA, LOOKING NORTH FROM THE DOME OF THE CAPITOL

TRIANGLE DEVELOPMENT
Upon the adoption of the public buildings act of May 25, 1926, Hon.
Andrew W. Mellon, Secretary of the Treasury, took up with the Public
Buildings Commission, and the executive departments that were in
immediate need of new buildings, the project to place the building program
under way. Secretary Mellon authorized the preparation of a tentative study
for new public buildings, and after an interval of a few months sketches
were submitted to him for a series of buildings monumental in character
and intended for the most part for locations south of Pennsylvania Avenue.
The greater part of the Triangle development has been completed.

ENLARGEMENT OF THE CAPITOL GROUNDS AND
UNION STATION PLAZA DEVELOPMENT
An important feature of the McMillan Park Commission plan of 1901
was the creation of a series of “Congress Gardens” on the north side of the

Capitol. For many years this project was held in abeyance pending the
completion of the purchase of lands. The development necessitated the
purchase of 12 squares and laying out a plan for this long-neglected area at
the entrance to the city. The plan also provided for a new avenue to extend
from Union Station to Pennsylvania Avenue, and street cars are routed
accordingly.
In addition to the landscape features, the plan, which was designed by
Bennett, Parsons & Frost, architects of Chicago, provided for a terrace upon
which is located a fountain and also a large basin, which reflects the Dome
of the Capitol. To harmonize with this plan, a new approach to the
northwest corner of the Senate Office Building has been built.
The temporary war buildings and Government hotels, which stood on the
grounds a whole decade after the World War, have been removed, and the
work of developing the plan was carried forward as rapidly as possible
under the direction of David Lynn, Architect of the Capitol.
Through this plan the United States Capitol is given the appropriate
landscape setting which, as the most important building in this country, it
should have. The plan joins the plan for the Mall, giving the Capitol the
open approach from the west and embellishing Union Square at the head of
the Mall.

UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT BUILDING
The United States Supreme Court Building is in classic style, in harmony
with the architecture of the Capitol and adjacent buildings, and is located in
the square east of the Capitol, north of the Library of Congress, and facing
the United States Senate Chamber.
The building, 385 feet from east to west and 305 feet from north to south,
has four open courtyards 64 feet square. The portico is of the Corinthian
order, and there is a low pilaster treatment around the building.

Photograph by Commercial Photo Co.
THE UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT BUILDING

THE UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT CHAMBER
FRIEZE BY A. A. WEINMAN, SCULPTOR

General designs were prepared, and then, to unify every part of the
design, a model was made which was publicly exhibited in the Rotunda of
the Capitol for a number of months.
The Supreme Court Chamber is placed on the main axis of the plan. It is
characterized by appropriate simplicity and quiet dignity. It is classical in
style, 82 feet by 91 feet square in its extreme dimensions, about 64 feet
square inside the columns, and 45 feet high from floor to ceiling.
The second floor contains a law library and rooms for members of the bar
and conference rooms.
The third floor contains a law library and reading room. The justices’
rooms are on the first floor, convenient to the court room.
A number of rooms for the use of lawyers are provided in the second
story. Two large conference rooms are provided on the main floor, and on
this floor also rooms are provided for the Attorney General, the Solicitor
General, the clerk of the Supreme Court, and the marshal. Convenient
rooms and special telephone booths have been provided for the press.

The appropriation for the building authorized by Congress was
$9,740,000.
The building was designed by Cass Gilbert, architect, and the erection
was under the charge of the Supreme Court Building Commission, Chief
Justice Charles Evans Hughes, chairman. David Lynn, Architect of the
Capitol, a member of the commission, was the contracting officer.

HOMES OF THE SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES
The Supreme Court of the United States is the major tribunal of one of
three coordinate branches of the Government—the judicial. During the 148
years of its existence the Supreme Court has sat in eight different places,
always in or near the Capitol or place of meeting of the legislative body.
Thus it met, first, in New York; second, in Independence Hall, Philadelphia;
third, in the basement of the Capitol, where it was when the British burned
the Capitol in 1814; fourth, while the Capitol was being rebuilt the Supreme
Court occupied the residence of the clerk of the court; fifth, when the
Capitol wings were built it moved into its former chamber; sixth, when
driven out by an explosion and fire in 1898 it occupied the committee room
of the Senate Committee on the District of Columbia, of which Senator
McMillan was chairman, and also sat for a brief period in the Judiciary
Committee Room.
It then moved back into what was the old Senate Chamber until 1859
which was designed by Benjamin Latrobe, after the model of a Greek
theater, a semicircular hall with a low-domed ceiling. It is historic. Here
Webster replied to Hayne; here Calhoun debated with Clay and Webster;
and in it the Electoral Commission sat which decided the presidential
contest between Hayes and Tilden in 1877.

Chapter XXIII
THE GOVERNMENT OF THE DISTRICT OF
COLUMBIA
The first Government of the District of Columbia consisted of three
Commissioners appointed by the President of the United States. Then 21
mayors served from 1802 to 1871.
A Territorial form of government, consisting of a governor, a board of
public works, and a legislative assembly, was provided for by an act of
Congress of February 21, 1871. The legislative assembly consisted of 11
members, called a council, and 22 other members, called a house of
delegates. The District also had a Delegate in the House of Representatives
of the United States. The governor and the board of public works were
appointed by the President of the United States, and the legislative
assembly was elected by the people. This form of government lasted three
years, until June 20, 1874, when Congress provided that the District should
be governed by three commissioners, appointed by the President. This was
known as the temporary form of government and lasted until June 30, 1878.
Thereupon the Congress, by an act approved June 11, 1878, created the
present form of government of the District of Columbia, to become
effective July 1, 1878. By this act the District was created a municipal
corporation with right to sue and be sued.
The act provided for the appointment of three commissioners, two of
them to be selected by the President from persons residing in the District of
Columbia for a period of three years preceding their appointment. The third
member was to be an officer of the Engineer Corps, United States Army,
detailed by the President, and to be known as the engineer commissioner.
The appointments of the civilian commissioners are for a period of three
years, or until their successors are appointed. The detail of the engineer

commissioner is at the pleasure of the President. This detail is usually about
four years.
While the District has a municipal form of government, Congress, by
various statutory enactments, has treated it as a branch of the United States
Government by including it in legislation applying to the executive
departments, such as the budget and accounting act, the act classifying the
salaries of Federal employees, and the act providing for retirement of
Federal employees.
In the act of June 11, 1878, it was provided that the expenses of the
government of the District should be borne 50 per cent by the United States
Government and 50 per cent from the revenues of the District of Columbia,
raised by taxation. This method of financing remained in force from 1878
until 1920. In that year the proportionate expense was changed by Congress
so that 60 per cent of the expenditures was raised by taxation and 40 per
cent was contributed by the Federal Government. This provision continued
in force until the year 1925, when Congress determined on a lump-sum
contribution of $9,000,000 annually, the balance of the expenses to be
raised by taxation; the amounts of money appropriated have varied since
then.
The heads of the various departments make recommendations to the
commissioner in charge of their respective departments, and each
commissioner brings these recommendations to meetings of the board of
commissioners, which are held on Tuesday and Friday of each week. The
secretary to the board of commissioners records the action on these
recommendations and acts as executive officer of the board by issuing
orders and carrying on correspondence.
Not all of the municipal duties are, however, vested in the board of
commissioners. The management of the public schools is vested in a school
board of nine members appointed by the justices of the Supreme Court of
the District of Columbia. The Public Library, with its branches, is managed
by a board of trustees appointed by the board of commissioners. The penal,
charitable, and correctional institutions are managed by a board of public
welfare appointed by the commissioners. The public utilities are under a
public-utilities commission, consisting of two civilians, appointed by the
President, and the engineer commissioner, who is a member ex officio. The
public parks are under the jurisdiction of the Department of the Interior,
which is also in charge of public buildings and grounds. The water supply is

under an Army engineer officer, designated the district engineer, but the
distribution of the water is under the jurisdiction of the commissioners. The
zoning of private property as to height of building, use of building, area of
ground to be built upon, is handled by a zoning commission, of which the
three commissioners are members and, in addition thereto, the Architect of
the Capitol and the Director of the National Park Service.
The justices of the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia and the
judges of the police, municipal, and juvenile courts are appointed by the
President, as is also the recorder of deeds.
The National Capital Park and Planning Commission has been created by
Congress to advise the commissioners as to the planning of the city in
laying out new and changing old highways. This commission purchases all
land for parks and playgrounds. The land so purchased for parks is placed
under the Department of the Interior and the land for playgrounds under the
commissioners.
All expenditures for municipal purposes, including the schools, parks,
water supply, land purchases, etc., are appropriated by Congress annually,
and are based upon estimates submitted by the heads of the District
government and the other officials hereinbefore named.
These estimates are submitted by the Commissioners to the Director of
the Budget, a Federal official, and when approved are submitted by the
President to Congress, together with the estimates of the Federal
Government. Before submitting such estimates the Commissioners fix upon
a tax rate which they believe should not be exceeded. This tax rate is such
that, when applied to the taxable value of real, personal, and intangible
property in the District of Columbia, it will raise the funds necessary to
meet the estimates of the appropriations submitted to the Director of the
Budget. The present rate of taxation for real and personal property is $1.75
per $100, based on full value. For intangible personal property, such as
money in bank, stocks and bonds, etc., the rate is $5 per thousand.
For the fiscal year ended June 30, 1938, the assessed value of land in the
District of Columbia was $480,473,718, and of improvements
$713,025,368, a total of $1,193,499,086.
The assessed value of tangible personal property for the same year was
$81,566,107. The value of intangible personal property was $575,472,070.
The budget estimate as submitted by the President to Congress each year
is reviewed by subcommittees of the Appropriations Committees of the

House and Senate, and the total amount of the Appropriation is fixed by
Congress and approved by the President.
Under the provisions of the Constitution, all legislation affecting the
District of Columbia must be passed by Congress. The advice of the
Commissioners is usually sought before such legislation is enacted.
What has been stated is but a brief outline of the government of the
District of Columbia. It can readily be seen that the District has a dual status
as a municipal corporation and as a branch of the Federal Government. This
situation has no parallel in any other city of the United States. The District
is also unique in having no bonded debt. All of its expenses are borne from
current revenues.
The residents of the District of Columbia do not enjoy the privilege and
obligation of suffrage. On the question of whether the people should be
allowed to vote in national elections and in local elections there is a division
of opinion.

ARLINGTON CEMETERY, ARLINGTON MANSION, AND FORT MYER

Chapter XXIV
ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY

HISTORY OF ARLINGTON
The land comprising the Arlington estate, 1,100 acres, was sold by
Gerard Alexander to John Parke Custis in December, 1778, for a
consideration of £11,000 Virginia currency. John Parke Custis never lived at
Arlington, and on his death in 1781 his son, George Washington Parke
Custis, inherited the Arlington estate. Mr. Custis lived at Mount Vernon,
however, until after the death of Martha Washington, which occurred on
May 22, 1802. He then took possession of the tract, changed the name to
Arlington, after an old family seat on the eastern shore of Virginia. While he
was building the mansion he lived in a small cottage on the Potomac. The
two wings were built first. The central portion of the house, with its massive
columns, is said to have been built from plans drawn by George Hadfield,
an English architect, who came to this country with the intention of
designing the new Capitol. The date when the mansion was completed is
uncertain, but Mrs. Robert E. Lee is authority for the statement that it was
completed just before the Civil War. The family lived in the wings for many
years.
In 1804 Mr. Custis married Mary Lee Fitzhugh, daughter of William
Fitzhugh, of Chatham, at Alexandria, Va. To this union four children were
born, but only one, Mary Ann Randolph Custis (born October 1, 1808),
lived. On June 30, 1831, she became the wife of Lieut. Robert E. Lee. Upon
the death of her father, in 1857, title to the estate passed to Mrs. Lee.
On May 24, 1861, Union troops occupied Arlington, and it soon became
an armed camp. Under an act of Congress passed June 17, 1862, certain
commissioners of the Government were appointed to levy and collect taxes
in Virginia and elsewhere; and if default in payment was made, to sell the
real estate upon which the taxes were levied. Prior to January, 1864, the

commissioners had adopted a rule by which payment of taxes in the district
where the Arlington property was located would not be accepted unless
tendered by the owner in person. Mrs. Lee could not comply with this rule,
so she sent a cousin, Mr. Fendall, to pay the taxes. The money was refused,
and he was informed that Mrs. Lee must be present in person.
On January 11, 1864, there was due only the sum of $92.07 on the 1,100
acres of the Arlington estate, together with a 50 per cent penalty, when the
property was sold “according to law,” as stated in the tax certificate. The
United States acquired title to the property at public auction by the payment
of $26,000.

ARLINGTON MANSION—RECEPTION HALL

Upon the death of Mrs. Lee, in 1873, her eldest son, George Washington
Custis Lee, according to the will of his grandfather, George Washington
Parke Custis, became entitled to the Arlington estate. He at once took steps
looking to the recovery of the property. After petitioning Congress in vain,
he began suit in ejectment in 1877 at Alexandria, Va. In 1879 the United
States Circuit Court for the Eastern District of Virginia decided he was

entitled to the estate and that the United States did not have lawful title. The
Department of Justice carried the case to the United States Supreme Court,
which decided that the property belonged to Mr. Lee. The United States was
thus faced with the question of whether to disinter the remains of thousands
of soldiers and sailors and vacate the property, part of which had become a
military post, or purchase the same. However, Mr. Lee was willing to sell
Arlington for $150,000. On March 3, 1883, the Forty-seventh Congress
appropriated the necessary money, and on March 31 Mr. Lee executed a
deed which conveyed the title to the United States. The deed was recorded
at the Alexandria County Courthouse on the 14th day of May, 1883, just 22
years, less 10 days, from the day, May 24, 1861, when General Scott’s
soldiers crossed the Potomac River and took possession.
Mary Randolph, wife of David Meade Randolph, and a relative of the
Custis family, is the first person known to have been buried at Arlington. In
April, 1853, Mrs. Custis, wife of the owner of the estate, George
Washington Parke Custis, died and was laid to rest in a little plot of ground
beneath huge oaks not far from the mansion house. The master of Arlington
died on October 10, 1857, and was laid beside his wife. To-day their graves
may be seen, surmounted by simple marble shafts, within an iron-fenced
inclosure, where lilies-of-the-valley cover the ground in profusion. The
Quartermaster General’s Department has recently erected a marker beside
the grave of Mrs. Randolph, giving a short history of her life.

ARLINGTON AS A NATIONAL CEMETERY
Gen. Montgomery C. Meigs, Quartermaster Corps, United States Army,
was the first to suggest to President Lincoln that the estate be converted into
a military cemetery, and in 1864, by order of Secretary of War Stanton, 200
acres were set apart and dedicated as a national cemetery for the burial of
Union soldiers and sailors. However, the first man to be buried there was a
Confederate soldier who died in the hospital May 13, 1864.
There are buried in Arlington a small number of those who fought in the
Revolutionary War and some who were in the War of 1812. Their remains
were removed to Arlington from an abandoned cemetery in 1892.
Thousands of men who died in the Civil War are buried there, with veterans
of the Spanish-American War and the Philippine campaign, and now the
veterans of the World War are steadily being added to the number.

ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY—MEMORIAL AMPHITHEATER

In front of Arlington House is the tomb of Maj. Pierre Charles L’Enfant,
engineer, artist, and soldier, who, under the direction of President
Washington and Thomas Jefferson, designed the plans for the city of
Washington.
ARLINGTON MEMORIAL AMPHITHEATER

On May 5, 1868, Gen. John A. Logan, commander in chief of the Grand
Army of the Republic, issued the following general order (No. 11):
The 30th of May, 1868, is designated for the purpose of strewing with flowers or otherwise
decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country, * * * posts and comrades
will, in their own way, arrange such fitting services and testimonials of respect as circumstances may
permit.

There has been an annual observance of this ceremony in all the national
cemeteries of the country since this order was promulgated.
For years a vine-covered pergola, erected by the Quartermaster’s
Department of the Army, was used for the Memorial Day exercises. When it
was found to be entirely inadequate to accommodate the increasing number

of people who attended the exercises, it was decided to erect a suitable
building which would serve not only as a memorial to our soldiers and
sailors but which would also provide an assembly place for those attending
such exercises as might be held in the cemetery grounds.
Accordingly, the first steps toward this end were taken in 1903, when the
necessity for such a building and the appropriateness of its erection were
first suggested by the commander of the Department of the Potomac, Grand
Army of the Republic. Preliminary sketches and plans were prepared in
1905 and presented to Congress by the Secretary of the Treasury, but no
action was taken until 1908, when the Arlington Memorial Amphitheater
Commission was created, and an appropriation of $5,000 to secure and
present more detailed plans for the proposed memorial was made. No
further action was taken by Congress for five years, when, by the act of
March 3, 1913, the construction of a memorial amphitheater and chapel, in
accordance with plans prepared by Carrere & Hastings, architects, of New
York City, was authorized. Ground was broken March 1, 1915, the corner
stone was laid October 13, 1915, and the memorial was dedicated May 15,
1920.

THE TOMB OF THE UNKNOWN SOLDIER OF THE WORLD WAR

The main feature of the structure consists of an open-air amphitheater,
elliptical in plan, with a seating capacity of about 4,000 persons. Its
diameter, north and south axis, is 200 feet, and 152 feet on its east and west
axis. It has a height of approximately 30 feet. The amphitheater is inclosed
by a marble colonnade with entrances at the ends of the principal axis. The
main entrance is from the east, and this section contains a reception hall and
stage on the main floor, a museum room or “Valhalla” on the second floor,
and a chapel in the basement. Under the floor of the colonnade, crypts are
provided for the burial of distinguished soldiers, sailors, and marines. The
amphitheater, erected at a cost of $825,000 is built of white marble from
Vermont. Inscriptions commemorate the great wars of the United States.
Immediately to the east of the main entrance is the Tomb of the Unknown
Soldier, which was completed by the War Department in accordance with
plans that provide also for a great approach to the tomb and the
amphitheater.
TOMB OF THE UNKNOWN SOLDIER

At the time when the rites for the Unknown Soldier were solemnized, on
November 11, 1921, the time for preparation was so short that the location
of the tomb on the terrace in front of the amphitheater was quickly decided
upon. The casket was inclosed in what was designed to be the base of a
monument which was to be erected later. The preliminary work was
designed by Thomas Hastings, of the firm of Carrere & Hastings, architects
of the amphitheater.
Five years later, on July 3, 1926, Congress authorized the Secretary of
War to secure by competition designs for a monument to cost $50,000, and
provided that the accepted design should be subject to the approval of the
Arlington Amphitheater Commission (the Secretaries of War and of the
Navy), the American Battle Monuments Commission, and the Commission
of Fine Arts. A competition was held, in which there were 39 competitors, 5
of whom were selected to enter the final stage. The final award was made to
Thomas Hudson Jones, sculptor, and Lorimer Rich, architect, of New York
City.
The competitors generally based their designs on such a modification of
the terrace as would place the monument at the head of a flight of steps, the
approaches to which called for rearrangement of the immediate foreground
of the terrace. Congress accepted the winning design, and a supplemental
appropriation was made for carrying out the design. The work of
completing the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier was in charge of the
Quartermaster General of the Army. The cost of the memorial, constructed
of Colorado Yule marble, was $400,000.
Within this marble sarcophagus rests the remains of the Unknown
Soldier, a hero of the World War. The Republic has bestowed upon him its
most cherished decoration for valor, the Congressional Medal of Honor, and
all the major nations associated with America in the Great War have
similarly honored his memory and the memory of the thousands of his
comrades who laid down their lives in that titanic struggle.