USA > Washington > Standard history of the city of Washington from a study of the original sources > Part 38
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The alterations made were very extensive as the size of the ap- propriation will indicate. They involved the removal of the greenhouse, the restoration of the terraces, with a public entrance at the end of the east terrace and the President's office at the end of the west terrace. Many structural changes were made in the main building the chief purposes of which were: "to put the house in the condition originally planned but never fully carried out; to make the changes in such a manner that the house will never again have to be altered; that is to say, the work should represent the period to which the house belongs architecturally, and therefore, be independent of changing fashion ; to modernize the house in so far as the living rooms are concerned, and provide all those conveniences which are now lacking."
In its restored condition the mansion approaches architec- turally as nearly as possible the intentions of the founders, while the interior accommodations have been skillfully adapted to the needs of the times.
In the chapters on the establishment of the city mention is made of the construction of the Treasury Department building, erected in 1799 by the original Commissioners. This building was destroyed by the British in 1814 and a new building was speedily erected in its place. This was destroyed by fire on March 31, 1833. By Act of Congress approved July 4, 1836, the President was authorized to select a site and construct a new fire proof building for this Department. This Act carried an appropriation of $100,000, and was the beginning of the present structure. It is commonly told that President Jackson, tiring of delay in the selection of the site, walked over the ground one morning and planted his cane in the northeast corner of the present site with the words: "Here, right here, I want the corner stone laid." At any rate, Robert Mills, the architect for the building, testified before a committee of Congress in 1838 that "The precise position of the building had been determined by the positive directions of the late President." The investiga- tion at which this testimony was given was the result of vigorous criticism to the location, design and materials of the building
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and resulted in the employment of Thomas U. Walter of Phila- delphia to supervise the completion of the work.
This portion of the building was completed in 1842 at a cost of $660,773. It extended 340 feet along 15th Street and was 170 feet deep.
By Act of March 3, 1855, Congress appropriated $300,000 for extending the building upon plans prepared by Mr. Walter. Under this act the south wing was completed in 1861, and the west wing in 1864. The site of the present north wing of the building was then occupied by the brick building of the State Department. This building was torn down in November, 1866, and the construction of the north wing of the Treasury build- ing begun in April of the following year. This wing was finished in 1869. The total building as thus completed cost $6,127,465.32.
The original east wing was faced with sandstone from Aquia Creek and ornamented with thirty drum columns of the same material. The other wings were faced with granite and orna- mented with granite monolithic columns quarried from Dix Island, near Rockland, Maine, and brought to Washington in sailing vessels.
The work of replacing the sandstone facing and drum col- umns of the east wing with granite facing and monolithic granite columns was commenced in May, 1907, and completed in the latter part of 1908. The stone for this work was quarried at Milford, New Hampshire.
The Patent Office building was begun in the fall of 1836 under an Act of Congress appropriating $108,000 out of the Patent Fund. The part of the building erected at this time was that facing F Street. The body of the building was Virginia sandstone and the front was faced with split granite. It is said that the proportions of the portico on F Street are exactly those of the Parthenon at Athens. This wing was completed in 1840 at a cost of $422,011.65.
The east wing fronting on 7th Street was begun in 1849 and completed in 1852 at a cost of $600,000. The 9th Street wing was begun in 1852 and completed in 1856 at a cost of $750,000. The north wing on G Street, which completed the
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building, was begun in 1856 and completed in 1867, at a cost of $575,000. The 7th, 9th and G Street wings were of granite, with exterior facings and columns of marble.
The massive granite building of the State, War and Navy Departments, located at the southeast corner of Pennsylvania Avenue and 17th Street, west of the Executive Mansion, was designed by Mr. A. B. Mullett, the Supervising Architect of the Treasury Department. It is 567 feet by 342 feet, covering an area of 4.920 acres, with a height of 145 feet. Its construction was completed in 1888, at a cost of approximately $11,000,000.
Previous to the construction of this building the War De- partment had been partially housed in the old Winder Building at 17th and G Streets, northwest, and the State Department, after the demolition of 1866 of the building occupied by it on the site of the present north front of the Treasury Building, had occupied the building now used as the Washington Orphans' Home at 14th and S Streets, northwest. The Navy Department and part of the War Department occupied two plain brick buildings on the site of the present State, War and Navy De- partment building. These buildings were erected in 1815 and 1820 respectively and were demolished in 1879.
The Pension Office was completed in 1885. It stands on the northwest corner of Judiciary Square, and is a brick struct- ure, 400 by 200 feet in size, covering 1.84 acres of ground. It was designed by General Montgomery C. Meigs and was modeled after the Farnese Palace at Florence, Italy. Its cost was $1,000,- 000. The most noteworthy feature of the exterior is the frieze of terra cotta relief work, three feet wide, extending around the building at the height of the first story, representing a military and naval procession. The interior is remarkable for the exten- sive open space which is used for inaugural balls, and for the enormous brick columns supporting the roof.
The former General Post Office building now occupied by the General Land Office, covering the square bounded by E and F, 7th and 8th Streets, was first erected in 1839 on the plans prepared by Robert Mills and was enlarged in 1855 on the plans of Thomas U. Walter. This building replaced the old Blodget
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Hotel building which had been purchased by the Government for a post office in 1810, and which was burned on December 15, 1836.
The present structure, which is an adaptation of the Corin- thian order of architecture, has much artistic merit, but fails of its proper effect in consequence of its proximity to the massive elements of the Patent Office building.
The Post Office Department building, which occupied about two years in its construction, was completed in 1899, at a cost of $2,585,835. The site was acquired at a cost of $655,490.77. The building was designed in the office of the Supervising Architect of the Treasury, and in style is an adaptation of the Romanesque. It is constructed of gray granite. The tower is 315 feet high.
The new City Post Office, adjacent to the Union Station, was authorized by Act of May 13, 1908. The site cost $450,189, and the building when completed will have cost approximately $3,000,000. It is to be occupied about July 1, 1914. This marble structure which is characterized by an Ionic colonnade on its south front, was designed by the office of the Supervising Architect of the Treasury, in collaboration with the firm of D. H. Burnham and Co., of New York, the designers of the Union Station.
The site of the Customs House on 31st Street between M and N Streets in Georgetown was purchased March 27, 1857, for $5,000. The building was completed early the following year at a cost of $55,368.15.
The Winder Building at the northwest corner of 17th and F Streets, northwest, was constructed in 1848 by W. H. Winder and was rented by the Government until 1854, when it was purchased for the sum of $200,000. It was occupied by the War Department and the Second Auditor's office (now the Auditor for the War Department) until 1888, when the war Department was removed to the new State, War and Navy Building. It has since then been occupied by the office of the Auditor for the War Department.
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The site of the Old Bureau of Engraving and Printing building was purchased July 7, 1878, for $27,536.50. The orig- inal portion of the building was completed July 1, 1880, at a cost of $310,000. In 1880 additional land was purchased and in 1891, the wing at the southwest corner was erected at a cost of $80,000. In 1895 additions were made at a cost of $50,000, and in 1900 the completing wing was constructed at the north- west corner. The new building for the Bureau of Engraving and Printing on 14th Street just south of the old building was commenced in December, 1911, and completed February 24, 1914. The plans were drawn in the office of the Architect of the Treasury under Mr. James Knox Taylor. The design was mainly the work of Mr. W. B. Olmstead, at that time the drafts- man in charge, subject to some modifications suggested by the Commission of Fine Arts.
The original building for the Department of Agriculture was erceted in 1868 at a cost of $140,420. It is a brick build- ing 170 by 61 feet, three stories high above the basement, with mansard roof, and stands near the south edge of the Mall on the line of 13th Street.
The new building for the Department of Agriculture was authorized by Act of Congress of February 9, 1903, the cost to be limited to $1,500,000. The money appropriated was expended by Secretary of Agriculture James Wilson in the erection of two separated wings so arranged as to permit of the later erec- tion of an impressive central structure connecting them. These wings were completed in February, 1908, and stand on the Mall just east of 14th Street with their rear projections abruptly terminating on B Street, south, apparently in anticipation of the closing of this street as suggested in the plans of the Park Commission of 1901, and the erection of a south portion of this building across the present line of this street, completing a hollow square. The present completed wings are of marble facing, and are the design of Rankin, Kellogg and Crane, Archi- tects, of Philadelphia.
The beginning of the Library of Congress was a collection of nine hundred and seventy-three volumes gathered in London
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in 1800 by Albert Gallatin, Dr. Mitchell and others. The first Congressional appropriation for the purchase of books for the Library was made in the session of 1805-1806 and authors were requested to leave copies of their works with it.
At the time of the British invasion in 1814 the Library possessed three thousand volumes. These were destroyed with the burning of the Capitol buildings in which they were kept.
The nucleus of a new library consisted of the collection of Mr. Jefferson of seven thousand volumes which was purchased for $23,950. The Capitol as reconstructed contained rooms de- signed for the Library in which the books were placed on the completion of the building in 1824. On December 24, 1851, the Library, which then contained fifty-five thousand volumes, lost thirty-five thousand volumes, as well as Gilbert Stuart's paint- ings of the first five presidents, by a fire. Under Thomas U. Walter, the Library rooms were re-constructed at an expense of $72,500, the new quarters taking up the entire western projec- tion of the Capitol building, and being fitted with iron cases and ceilings.
In 1866, through the efforts of Hon. Rutherford B. Hayes, then Chairman of the House Committee on Library, the collec- tions of ex-Mayor Peter Force were purchased for $100,000, and the same year the Smithsonian Library was consolidated with the Congressional Library. In 1882, the library of Dr. J. M. Toner of Washington, was added.
The construction of a building for the accommodation of the Library was authorized by Acts of Congress approved April 15, 1886, October 2, 1888, and March 2, 1889. The Library of Congress Building was completed in 1897. Its cost, not includ- ing the site, which cost $585,000, was $6,375,000, much of which was spent in its art works.
The building is of Italian Renaissance, topped by a gilded dome. It was originally designed by the architectural firm of John L. Smithmeyer and Paul J. Pelz, but their plans were modified by Brigadier General Thomas L. Casey, Chief of Engi. neers, U. S. A., and the building was erected according to the plans as so modified, under the supervision of General Casey
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and Mr. Bernard R. Green. The scheme of the interior archi- tecture and decoration is that of Edward Pearce Casey, of New York, and it was under his supervision that commissions for the mural paintings and sculpture were allotted. The building throughout is the product of American artists and artisans.
The Senate office building was erected under the direction of the Superintendent of the Capitol Building and Grounds acting under the supervision of a commission consisting of Senators Shelby M. Cullom, of Illinois, Jacob II. Gallinger, of New Hampshire, and Henry M. Teller, of Colorado. . The consulting architect was John M. Carrere of New York. Proceed- ings for the condemnation of the site were begun August 10, 1904. On March 15, 1905, the demolition of the buildings on the site was commenced and on March 5, 1909, the building was completed. This building stands on the square bounded by B Street, Delaware Avenue, First Street and C Street, northeast, and occupies three sides of the square, that on First Street remaining open. The site for this building was acquired at a cost of $746,111; the construction of the building cost $3,594,- 761; the furnishing $300,500; and the approaches $123,000; total $4,764,372.
The House of Representatives office building was erected under the direction of the Superintendent of the Capitol Build- ing and Grounds, acting under the supervision of a commission consisting of Representatives Joseph G. Cannon, of Illinois, William P. Hepburn, of Iowa, James D. Richards, of Tennessee, and Walter I. Smith, of Iowa. Thomas Hastings of New York was the consulting architect. The demolition of the buildings on the site commenced February 1, 1904, and the building was completed November 9, 1907. It stands on the square south of the Capitol bounded by B Street, New Jersey Avenue, First Street, and C Street, southeast, and occupies all four sides of the square. The amount appropriated for the construction of the building was $3,100,000; for the acquisition of the site $743,- 635.55; for the approaches $132,500; and for the furnishing $300,500 ; total $4,276,635.55.
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The Senate and House office buildings are intended to unite with the Capitol to form one composition : the B Street fronts of the office buildings being identical in size and design and having the same cornice line as the Capitol. The office build- ings were kept simple in design, without pediments, domes, or other accentuated features, in order to subordinate them to the Capitol. The general division of parts is suggestive of that in the Gardes Meubles on the Place de la Concorde, Paris. The end pavilions are modeled after those of the Colonnade du Louvre. The B Street colonnades are each made up of 17 "bays" separated by 16 pairs of Roman Doric columns, with a single column at each end. The Senate building is faced with Vermont marble, the House building with marble from Georgia and South Dover, N. Y.
The Senate office building seriously mars the vista of the Capitol from the Union Station. This objection would have been obviated if Congress had included the site of the building in the proposed Plaza connecting the Capitol and Union Station and located the office buildings east of First Street.
The practice of housing the offices of the government of the District of Columbia in rented buildings in various parts of the City of Washington, which prevailed for more than thirty years after the abandonment of the old City Hall, was regarded by both citizens and officials as a source of civic reproach, which could not too soon be removed.
The efforts of the Territorial government to have a municip- al building erected on Reservation No. 17, north of the Wash- ington Market Company's buildings, was the first tangible movement in that direction, but it failed because of the demand for all the District's available funds to meet the more urgent needs to improve the streets and provide for the requirements of current administration. Those efforts resulted in the appro- priation by Congress in the deficiency Act of March 3, 1873, of not exceeding $75,000 for the purchase by the United States of the interest of the District of Columbia in the City Hall, of which mention has been made in the chapter on the Territorial government.
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No building was begun in pursuance of that law, and the subject was practically dormant until 1890, when the Commis- sioners in their report for that year made an urgent appeal to Congress that provision be made for an adequate home for the government of the District.
In their estimates for 1892 they included an item of $150,000 to begin such a building to cost between $300,000 and $500,000; and in their annual report for 1891 recommended the use of the site in front of the Washington market for that purpose. The need for a structure for the purpose was annually urged by them upon Congress, but nothing resulted from the recommendations except a favorable report by the Public Buildings Committee of the House, on H. R. 7651 of the 53d Congress, on July 6, 1894. The Commissioners had about despaired of impressing Congress with the importance of the subject, when to their surprise section 6 of the public building law of June 6, 1902, was enacted and provided for the purchase, at a cost not to exceed $550,000, which was the price paid for it, of Square 255, upon which the power house of the Capital Traction street railway had stood before its destruction by fire on September 29, 1897, and for the erection thereon of a fireproof building for the accommo- dation of the municipal and other officers of the District of Columbia, at a cost not to exceed $1,500,000, payable half by the District of Columbia and half by the United States. E Street between that square and Pennsylvania Avenue was made part of that square for the site of the building. The Secretary of the Treasury and the Commissioners were directed by that law to act jointly in contracting for and erecting the building.
The building was designed by Cope and Stewardson, archi- tects, of Philadelphia, whose plan was submitted and accepted in competition with a number of other architects.
The immediate supervision of the construction of the build- ing was placed in charge of "an officer of the Government especially qualified for that duty to be appointed by the Pres- ident of the United States." Captain Chester Harding, of the Corps of Engineers, then an assistant to the Engineer Commis- sioner, was appointed to that position, and continued on that
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duty until the summer of 1907, when he was assigned to assist in the construction of the Panama Canal, and was succeeded on July 20 of that year by Captain William Kelly, of the same Corps, under whose supervision the building was completed.
The maximum expenditure for the building was fixed at $2,000,000, and the title to the site transferred to the District of Columbia, by the public building Act of March 3, 1903. Its actual cost was about $1,950,000. The material of the building is white marble obtained from South Dover, New York.
The building was begun on June 17, 1904. It was dedicated in connection with the morning celebration of the one hundred and thirty-first anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, by the citizens of the District, under arrangements made by a committee appointed by the Washington Board of Trade and the Washington Chamber of Commerce, of which Mr. John Joy Edson was chairman. The exercises were held on the steps of the main entrance, and consisted of addresses by the Speaker of the House of Representatives, the Secretary of the Treasury, Mr. A. B. Browne, representing the Washington Board of Trade, and Mr. Chapin Brown, representing the Washington Chamber of Commerce, and Hon. Henry B. F. Macfarland, the President of the Board of Commissioners of the District of Columbia ; Chairman John Joy Edson presiding and making brief introduc- tory remarks. The United States Marine Band furnished the music. An American flag presented by the Washington Cham- ber of Commerce was unfurled, to an appropriate salute.
The municipal offices were moved into the building during June and July of 1908.
The Police Court building is situated at the northwest cor- ner of 6th and D Streets, northwest, on the site of the old Uni- tarian Church, which was purchased by the District out of an appropriation of $20,000 made June 4, 1880 for that purpose. The building was constructed and the site enlarged out of an ap- propriation of $38,000 made April 27, 1904. While the building was in course of erection the court held its sessions in a rented building on 15th Street between D and E Streets, northwest.
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The building occupied by the Court from its inception until its removal to the Unitarian Church building was numbered 466 C Street, northwest.
The Smithsonian Institution is the outgrowth of the provis- ion in the will of James Smithson, an Englishman, who died at Genoa, Italy, June 27, 1829, whereby a legacy of practically his entire property was after the death of a nephew without issue, bequeathed "to found at Washington, under the name of the Smithsonian Institution, an establishment for the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men." On the death of Mr. Hungerford, the nephew who held a life interest in Mr. Smith- son's estate, the estate became available for the purposes of the institution in 1835. After some correspondence between the English solicitors for the estate and John Forsyth, Secretary of State, President Jackson transmitted the entire matter to Con- gress on the 17th of December, 1835, for such measures as might be deemed necessary. The result was that Congress decided to act in the capacity of parens patriae of the District of Columbia for the purpose of appearing in the courts of England and maintaining the claim of the City of Washington as trustee for the intended institution to be located in that city.
By Act approved July 1, 1836, the President was authorized to appoint an agent to prosecute for and in behalf of the United States in the courts of England the right of the United States to the legacy bequeathed by Mr. Smithson's will. Under author- ity of this Act President Jackson appointed Richard Rush, of Pennsylvania, agent to recover the funds. After some contest a decision was made by the English Chancery Court on May 9, 1838, the net proceeds of which amounted to £106,370 7s 3d, equal to $508,314.46 in American money. Of this sum the Secretary of the Treasury under authority of Congress, invested $499,500 in the purchase of bonds of the State of Arkansas, and $8,270.67 in bonds of the State of Michigan. Other small invest- ments of the fund were made as it grew.
The question of the means to be adopted in disposing of this fund agitated Congress for eight years after the receipt of the money. Ex-President John Quincy Adams, then a member
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of Congress, continually urged action. After considering many plans, including that which had many advocates-the returning of the money to England, Congress finally, by Act approved August 10, 1846, authorized the establishment of the Smithson- ian Institution on land to be selected from that part of the Mall west of 7th Street, and providing that the Institution to be so established should be devoted to agriculture, horticulture, rural economy, chemistry, nature history, geology, architecture, domestic science, astronomy and navigation.
At this time the fund aggregated more than $800,000, though a considerable amount of interest due from the States to which it had been loaned was in default. This amount was appropriated by the Act for the establishment of the Institution since the bonds in which the original fund had been invested, had some years yet to run.
The present building was shortly afterwards commenced and was completed in 1855. It is of Byzantine architecture and is constructed of red sand stone from quarries on the upper Potomac. It extends 426 feet east and west. The building was designed by James Renwick, Jr., and was the first non- ecclesiastical building of this style of architecture erected in this country. Immediately on its completion it was made the repository of the national collections which dated back to the United States Exploring Expedition around the world from 1838 to 1842.
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