USA > Washington > Standard history of the city of Washington from a study of the original sources > Part 40
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The movement looking to the creation of a Home for Aged Soldiers of the United States Army dates back as far as Febru- ary 27, 1829, when a report was made by the Committee on Military Affairs in Congress upon the subject of establishing "An Army Asylum Fund." In 1840, Captain Robert Anderson, later of Fort Sumpter fame, set forth the advantages which would result from such an institution, and outlined a plan for acquiring it. The Military Committee of the House of Repre- sentatives, embodied this letter in a report dated January 7, 1841, submitting to Congress an appeal containing the sub- stance of General Anderson's suggestions. In 1844, Major General Winfield Scott gave particular attention to this project in his annual report, and on the strength of General Scott's representations, the Committee on Military Affairs began urging the creation of such an establishment. On March 5, 1846, the Committee, acting upon a memorial of the officers stationed at Ft. Moultrie, and a petition signed by the officers of the Second United States Infantry, again called the matter to the attention of Congress, and repeated their recommendations on January 19, 1848, in a report based upon a memorial signed by the offi- cers of the Army then in Mexico. All of these reports of the
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Committee favored the enactment of the bill which had been re- ported in 1841.
During the siege of Mexico City, General Scott, in conse- quence of a breach of truce by the Mexicans, levied a tribute upon the City of Mexico of $300,000. He transmitted $100,000 of this sum to the Secretary of War in 1848, expressing the hope that the money might be placed to the credit of an army asylum. These funds, together with $18,791.19 of the same levy, were, by Act of Congress of March 3, 1851, made available for the support of the desired institution, which was created by that Act. As a source of perpetual revenue the Act of 1851 appropriated to the use of the Home all stoppage and fines ad- judged against soldiers by sentence of court marshal forfeitures on account of desertion, a certain portion of the hospital and post fund of each station, moneys belonging to estates of deceased soldiers unclaimed for three years, and also a deduction of 25 cents per month from the pay of each enlisted man.
Under the Act of March 3, 1851, providing for the home, temporary asylums were established in 1851 at New Orleans, Greenwood's Island, Mississippi, and in Washington City, the latter in the Winder Building at 17th and G Streets, northwest. The location in the District of Columbia was made the perma- nent home and in 1851 256 acres were purchased for this pur- pose. Between that time and 1869 about 16 acres were added at different times and in 1872 the adjoining estate of Harewood containing 191 acres was purchased from Mr. W. W. Corcoran. Other small tracts have been acquired since that time, making a total of 500 3-4 acres in the entire tract. The total amount paid for the property was $326,354.55.
The principal building on the grounds is the white marble building. The south part is named after General Winfield Scott and the addition on the north after General W. T. Sherman. A short distance west of the Scott Building is a building named after General Robert Anderson in recognition of his efforts for the establishment of the Home. This was the first building oc- cupied by the inmates of the Home and was used by Presidents Buchanan, Lincoln, Hayes and Arthur as a summer residence.
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The eastern building is named the King Building in honor of Surgeon B. King who for thirteen years was the attending Sur- geon and Secretary and Treasurer of the Home. Northeast of the Scott building is the building named in honor of General Philip H. Sheridan, erected in 1883. The mess hall and dormi- tory building of white marble named in honor of General U. S. Grant was occupied July 12, 1910.
The Walter Reed General Hospital at Takoma Park, D. C., was established in1908 as the general army hospital for the ter- ritory east of the Mississippi. It occupies 41 acres of land on the former 7th Street Pike, now Georgia Avenue. It is named after Colonel Walter Reed of the Medical Corps of the Army, who acquired fame as the head of the commission which investi- gated yellow fever conditions in Cuba at the time of the Spanish American War, and met his death in that service. The institu- tion is intended for the treatment of particularly serious and difficult cases transferred from the various post hospitals in the territory to which it is assigned.
The buildings now erected and in course of construction represent an outlay of nearly $500,000. The hospital is designed with a view to extensive temporary enlargement in the event of hostilities.
The U. S. Naval Hospital was founded in 1863 and assigned to the Washington Navy Yard, April 6, 1869. The brick build- ing at 9th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, southeast, was fin- ished in 1865. The new buildings erected on the grounds of the old Naval Observatory at the foot of 23d Street, southwest, were occupied October 16, 1906. The building at 9th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue continued to be occupied as a hospital until 1911, when it was abandoned and occupied by the Navy Depart- ment for office purposes.
The Commission of Fish and Fisheries was established in 1871 as the result of the efforts of the various State fishing au- thorities and the members of the American Fish Cultural Asso- ciation-now the American Fisheries Society. Its purpose was to investigate into the diminution in the supply of food fishes of the United States and the means of checking it. The headquar-
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ters building of the Commission, a three-story brick structure at 6th and B Streets, southwest, besides housing the executive offices, contains an interesting museum of marine life. This building had previously served an armory for the District militia for which purpose it was erected at a cost of $30,000, under au- thority of Act of Congress of March 3, 1855.
Arlington Cemetery, on the Virginia shore of the Potomac, opposite the City of Washington, occupies 200 acres of land, part of the original estate of eleven hundred acres belonging to Daniel Parke Custis, the first husband of Mrs. George Wash- ington. The estate was left by President Washington to his wife's grandson, George Washington Parke Custis, who on his death in 1857 left it to his daughter, Mrs. Robert E. Lee, for life and then to his grandsons Custis and Fitzhugh Lee. As it was never the property of General Lee the Government was un- able to confiscate it after the Civil War but purchased it in 1864 at a tax sale for $23,000. In May, 1865, it was created the first of 82 national cemeteries. Later a suit was brought by George W. Lee, the oldest son of General Lee, which resulted in the annulment of the tax sale whereby the Government had acquired the property, and the Government thereupon purchased the tract for $150,000.
Over 16,000 dead of the Civil War, as well as many of the victims of the Spanish-American War and other members of the military and naval establishments are buried at Arlington.
On Georgia Avenue, formerly the 7th Street Pike, near the Walter Reed Hospital, is a small national cemetery where are buried a portion of the Union soldiers who were killed in the defense of the City of Washington against the troops of General Early in July, 1864. This cemetery is near the site of Fort Stevens where the fighting occurred.
The system of public grounds and parks of the City of Washington is based upon the original plan of Major L'Enfant. While many of the areas designated by him for specific purposes have been appropriated to other uses, nevertheless, the parking system of the original portions of the city is approximately as L'Enfant laid it out. On L'Enfant's map was a list of so-called
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"references" indicating the purposes to which he intended the various parks to be appropriated. At approximately the present site of the Washington Monument L'Enfant intended to place an equestrian statue of General Washington which had been authorized by Congress in 1783. At the site of Lincoln Square, he proposed to place "a historical column at a distance of a mile from the Capitol, the same to serve as a standard of distances throughout the country." At the foot of 7th Street, he proposed to place a monument to celebrate the rise of the American Navy. At the present site of the Patent Office he proposed to place a church for National purposes such as public prayer, thanksgivings and funeral orations and assigned to the especial use of no particular sect or denomination, but equally open to all. This church he intended also to be a proper shelter for such monuments as had been voted by the late Continental Congress "for those heroes who fell in the cause of liberty and for such others as might thereafter be decreed by the voice of a grateful nation." He proposed to place grand fountains with a constant spout of water to be obtained from local springs, one on a reservation on Pennsylvania Avenue between 20th and 22nd Streets, west, another on New York Avenue between 12th and 13th Streets, another on Pennsylvania Avenue and 9th Street, another on New Jersey Avenue and G Street, southwest, and another on Maryland Avenue and 8th Street, northeast. Owing to changes made by Major Ellicott in L'Enfant's plans. these areas do not correspond precisely with existing parks but were probably at or near the sites of the present Washington Circle, Franklin Park, Garfield Park and Green Park. At the foot of the Capitol terrace he proposed to place a grand cascade formed of water from the source of the Tiber. This purpose has been carried into effect by the establishment of the fountain now existing at that point. The grounds to the west of the Capitol, L'Enfant designated as "a public walk through which carriages might ascend to the upper square of the Federal House." The present Mall he designated as "a grand avenue 400 feet in breadth and about a mile in length, bordered with gardens ending in a slope from the houses on each side." This
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avenue he intended to lead to the Monument of General Wash- ington and to connect "the Congress garden" with "the President's Park," and "a well improved field" which was to be "a part of the walk from the President's House of about 1800 feet in breadth and three quarters of a mile in length." This latter is the present White House Lot, upon the east and west margins of which he designated in colors the situations which he considered "commanded the most agreeable prospects" and to be "the best calculated for the spacious houses and gar- dens such as might accommodate foreign ministers, etc." He also indicated a park around the space occupied by the Capitol, though not covering the entire area of the present Capitol Square and extending out East Capitol Street to Lincoln Park. In addition L'Enfant indicated by coloring them in yellow, 15 parks at the intersections of streets and avenues which he proposed to divide among the several States of the Union for each of them to improve, the centers of the squares to be orna- mented with statues, columns, obelisks or such other ornaments as the different States might choose to erect "to perpetuate not only the memory of such individuals whose councils or military achievements were conspicuous in giving liberty and independ- ence 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 properly to cele- brate." Along the north edge of the Mall, he indicated in red, spots for the location of places of worship. A number of other squares or areas not designated, he indicated as suitable for colleges and academies "in which every society whose object is national may be accommodated."
As related in Chapter V, these appropriations, except as to the grounds for the Capitol and President's House, were all stricken out on Major Ellicott's plan, and later, upon the prepa- ration of Dermott's "Tin Case Map," seventeen public appropriations were indicated which by proclamations signed by President Washington and President Adams were officially declared to be the public areas of the city. At the time the city
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was established much of these areas was covered with luxuriant growths of forests. This was particularly true of the space occupied by the Mall and President's grounds. The Commis- sioners who founded the city did little to protect these trees under the authority granted by the deeds of trust, and they were ruthlessly destroyed by the proprietors. This was a source of great regret and vexation to President Jefferson who regarded their destruction as little short of a calamity.
The areas occupied by the Mall, from the Capitol to the Potomac River, the White House Park, and Lafayette Square were laid out as parks in 1852 under the plans of Andrew Jack- son Downing, a noted landscape architect of New York.
It is evident from a review of the old city ordinances that even in its early days some system of parking adorned with trees was in existence. As early as March 25, 1803, a fine of $5 was imposed upon any person wilfully injuring any of the street trees. On August 3, 1815, an ordinance was passed appro- priating $100 per annum out of the funds of the first and second wards for the purpose of keeping in order, tarring or replanting trees planted by the corporation in the public squares, streets and avenues within those wards. On May 26, 1820, an ordinance was passed granting permission to persons who desired to plant trees in any part of a street or avenue opposite their own grounds to enclose such part of the street or avenue as might be necessary for the purpose of protecting the trees so planted, not exceeding six feet, without the curb line. The trees so planted must not be more than 20 feet apart.
The credit for the adoption of the present existing system of street parking belongs to the Board of Public Works under the Territorial Government, which took advantage of an Aet of Congress approved April 6, 1870. This Act authorized the City of Washington to set apart as parks to be adorned with shade trees, walks, and enclosed with curbstones, not exceeding one-half the width of any and all avenues and streets in the city, leaving a roadway of not less than 35 feet in width in the center or two such roadways on each side of a park in the center of the same, the cost to be defrayed by special assess-
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ments upon the adjoining property. This measure was presented in the Senate by Senator Justin Morrill of Vermont acting on behalf of the Committee on Public Buildings and Grounds. In the course of the debate on this bill Senator Sherman of Ohio remarked that "the ordinary way now in the large cities of the West is to have the parking on either side and the roadway in the center; that is the proper way."
The original promoter of the movement which resulted in this legislation was Mayor Bowen who was moved to recommend such a system of parking by the inconvenience suffered by the residents of K Street especially between 12th and 16th Streets, northwest, resulting from the dust arising from the carriageway of that street. A broad parking of trees and shrubbery was contemplated as a protection to the residents from this dust. Under the authority of the act of Congress above mentioned, the City Councils authorized the improvement of K Street by the removal of the curbstones and gutters on both sides of the street and the placing of them twenty-five feet nearer the center, the intervening spaces between the old sidewalks and the relocated curbstones to be graded and converted into grass plots, orna- mented by shrubbery and a row of trees on each side. The prosecution of this work was entrusted to a commission and its execution was practically the sole work of Mr. Henry A. Willard, one of the members of this commission. This parking was after- wards removed by the Board of Public Works and an area of bituminous carriageway surface substantially as at present existing, was substituted.
Shortly after coming into existence the Board of Public Works under the Territorial Government, along with its other projects for the development and improvement of the city, vigorously entered upon the task of establishing a comprehen- sive system of street parking. At its meeting on September 4, 1871, the Board of Public Works appointed William Saunders, William R. Smith and John Saul, a commission to report to the Board what trees they would recommend to be planted and the best places to procure them. Mr. Smith was at the time and for many years thereafter continued to be Superintendent of the
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Botanical Gardens, Mr. Saunders was then and for many years after, the Superintendent of the grounds of the Department of Agriculture and Mr. Saul was a prominent local nurseryman. This commission continued as a purely voluntary body from the date of its authorization by the Board of Public Works throughout all of the succeeding forms of government until broken up by the deaths of its members about the beginning of the new century. On May 11, 1897, Rear Admiral James E. Jouett, U. S. N., was appointed by the District Commissioners to fill the vacancy occasioned by Mr. Saul's decease on January 8,1898.
This commission was commonly known as the Parking Commission. It was created without authority of law and served without compensation, but it would be difficult to find an in- stance of public or altruistic service on behalf of any community surpassing in the degree of devotion to the trust accepted or in professional enthusiasm and skill that which was displayed by this commission throughout the period of its existence. To its efforts the nation is indebted for the system of street trees which is so prominent a feature of the Capital City. Nor would reference to this subject be complete without a recognition of the service rendered by Mr. Truman Lanham, who for 25 years has been the superintendent of Trees and Parkings.
For many years a controversy existed between representa- tives of the local and national governments over the question of the jurisdiction over the sidewalk and other parking spaces in the city. This question was settled by Congress in an act approved July 1, 1898, wherein jurisdiction and control of the street parking in the streets and avenues of the District of Columbia was transferred to and vested in the Commissioners of the District of Columbia, and other parts of the park system of the District of Columbia were placed under control of the Chief of Engineers of the United States Army under such regu- lations as the President might prescribe through the Secretary of War. The act defined the park system as comprising all public spaces laid down as reservations on a map which accom- panicd the annual report for 1894 of the Officer in Charge of
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Public Buildings and Grounds, together with all areas more than 250 feet square between sidewalk lines after the same should have been set aside by the Commissioners of the District of Columbia for park purposes. This act further authorized the Chief of Engineers of the Army to temporarily turn over to private owners of the adjoining lands, to be cared for by such owners under such regulations as he might prescribe, all the parking spaces in the streets set aside by the Commissioners for park purposes.
With the incoming of the 20th century, the urgent need of additional public buildings as well as a tendency towards the construction of buildings of a semi public character made it apparent to the public as well as to the law-makers of the nation that the establishment of some definite plan for the location of such structures in the future was a matter of imperative neces- sity in order that harmonious relationships might be established between the various structures. This sentiment took definite shape during the course of the commemorative exercises held in celebration of the 100th anniversary of the removal of the seat of government to the District of Columbia. Throughout the numerous addresses of that occasion was expressed a pre- dominating sentiment favoring the improvement and develop- ment of the District of Columbia in a manner befitting it as the Capital of the American nation.
. By a fortunate co-incidence the American Institute of Architects was holding its session in the City of Washington at the time these centennial exercises were in progress and at this session the Institute engaged in an earnst discussion of the question of improving and developing the Capital City. A num- ber of prominent architects, sculptors and landscape architects of the country read papers advancing their ideas upon the different features involved in a scheme for the improvement of the District and in consequence of this discussion a committee on legislation was appointed to confer with the Committees of Congress on the District of Columbia relative to the adoption of definite measures looking to the carrying out of some com- prehensive scheme of public improvement.
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Conferences between this committee and the Senate Com. mittee on the District of Columbia resulted in a resolution adopted by the Senate on March 8, 1901, that the Committee on the District of Columbia be 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, and that for the purpose of preparing such plans the Committee might secure the services of such experts as should be found necessary for a proper consideration of the subject. On March 19, 1901, the sub-committee appointed to give immediate consideration to the purpose of this resolution met with the representatives of the American Institute of Architects and came to an agreement proposed by the latter to the effect that the services of a volun- tary expert commission to consist of Mr. Daniel H. Burnham, of Chicago, and Mr. Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr., of Brookline, Massachusetts, be accepted by the Senate Committee, these gen- tlemen having authority to invite others to assist them in their work. The gentlemen named associated with themselves Mr. Charles F. McKim and Mr. Augustus St. Gaudens of New York City, to act with them in the preparation of plans. Mr. Burn- ham had been director of works at the World's Columbian Exposition held in Chicago in 1893. Mr. McKim was the archi- tect of the Boston Public Library, the Rhode Island Capitol Building, the new buildings and fences at Harvard University and other structures of monumental character, and was recog- nized as one of the leading American architects. Mr. St. Gaudens was recognized as the premier of American sculptors, from whose criticisms on art subjects it was universally con- sidered there could be no appeal. Mr. Olmsted was probably the most prominent landscape architect in the country, being the consulting landscape architect of the extensive system of parks and boulevards of the city of Boston and its suburbs as well as of other large parking areas in other cities.
Commenting on the spirit with which these men undertook their task the report of the Senate Committee submitted by Mr. McMillan on January 15, 1902, says :
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"At the call of their professional brethren and at the request of this Committee, these men virtually put aside their large and profitable private work and for nearly a year devoted their time, their experience, and their tech- nical training to the service of the nation. These sacrifices they had made without pecuniary reward, and at a time in the professional careers of the majority of them when success and fame were already secured. Not only is the nation fortunate in having obtained the ripest talents of three such distinguished men, but also it is a matter for satisfaction that the fourth member of the Commission enters upon the work at an age when he may be expected to have a part in directing and shaping the development of the plans from the beginning to the end."
Speaking of the recommendations made by this Commis- sion in its report of the Senate Committee, Senator McMillan continues :
"The plans prepared by the Commission and submitted to the Senate with this report are the most comprehensive ever provided for the development of an American city. Every portion of the District of Columbia has been studied; in the outlying sections those spaces best adapted for parks, both small and large, have been marked; the most conven- ient and the most picturesque connections between the various parks have been mapped; the individual treatment which each particular important park should undergo is recommended; an extension of the park system to Great Falls and to Mt. Vernon is discussed; the development of the Mall receives detailed and elaborate treatment; the location of new public buildings, whether legislative, exec- utive or municipal in character, has been arranged according to a rational system of grouping; and those memorials which mark great epochs or great crises in our national history have been brought into harmonious relations with the general scheme of development."
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