NA 91 "IV " 1 30G CORT^TEtt UNIVERSITY LIBRARY FINE ARTS LIBRARY NA9127.W2A5yS'oT"''-«'"'y ^"iMIHIlK wSI.,?I *"* P'""" system of th 3 1924 015 767 290 »1 Cornell University Library The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924015767290 NO. 20.— BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF GENERAL PLAN, FROM POINT TAKEN 4,000 FEET ABOVE ARLINGTON. FIFTY-SEVEMTH CONGRESS, FIRST SESSION, SENATE REPORT NO. 166. THE IMPROVEMENT OF THE PARK SYSTEM OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. I.— REPORT OF THE SENATE COMMITTEE ON THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. 11. - REPORT OF THE PARK COMMISSION. THIKD EDITION. Id WASHINGTON; '^ —-fi f^ ' i GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE. I-C ' 1906. ^ A\ - /. NOTE TO THIRD EDITION. Since the report of the Park Comniission was made Congress has authorized the construction of the War College and the Engineer School of Application (p. 117); a building for the Department of Agriculture (p. 44); a building for the National Museum, to be located on the north side of the Mall (p. 44); the Union Railroad Station, to be located at the intersection of Massachusetts and Delaware avenues (p. 29) ; a building for the use of the Members of the House of Rep- resentatives, to be located on the square facing the Capitol grounds, east of New Jersey avenue (p. 38); a building for the use of the Members of the Senate, to be located on the square facing the Capitol grounds, east of Delaware avenue (p. 38); a Municipal Building for the District of Columbia, to be located on the south side of Pennsyl- vania avenue, between Thirteen-and-a-half and Fourteenth streets (p. 70); and a Hall of Records, to be located on E street, between Eighteenth and Nineteenth streets (p. 29). The restoration of the White House has been completed (p. 65) and the Daughters of the American Revolution have erected a building, known as Continental Hall, on the second square south of the Corcoran Museum of Art. John H. Walker, Olerk Senate Committee on District of Columbia. October, 1906. 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS. Page. JReport of the Senate Committee on the District of Columbia 7 Senate resolution ordering a report on the park system 7 Necessity of a comprehensive plan 7 Appointment of a Commission 8 The problem stated 10 The original plan of Washington 11 , Opinions of Government offleers on the Commission 13 The railroad problem 14 Character of the plans 16 Models and illustrations 17 Concentration of authority 18 Report of the Park Commission 23 Changes in the Mall 23 Improvements accomplished 24 Washington as a capital city 25 Climatic conditions of Washington 26 The necessity of fountains 27 Public baths and gymnasiums 28 Location of public buildings 28 A union railroaistation 29 The Mall system 35 The Capitol division 37 Union Square.". 41 The Mall 43 The Washington Monument division 47 The Washington Common 49 The Lincoln memorial 51 The Memorial Bridge, .\nalostan Island, and the National Cemetery at Arlington 55 The Memorial Bridge 55 The treatment of Arlington Cemetery 58 The grouping of the buildings of the Executive Departments 63 The area south of Pennsylvania avenue 69 The distribution of the parks 75 Topography of the District of Columbia 7i5 The need for additional parks 77. ■ Treatment of minor reservations 79 Playgrounds 81 The larger parks and their connections 83 Potomac quay 83 Rock Creek park way 85 Zoological Park 87 Rock Creek Park 88 The section west of Rock Creek 91 Fort Reno Park 91 Soapstone parkway 92 Receiving reservoir 94 Potomac drive 94 Fort Kemble Park 97 Battery Parrott 97 Georgetown parkway 97 3 4 TABLE OF COSTENIS. Page. The section east of Eock Creek 99 Soldiers' Home grounds 100 Howard Universiity reservoir 101 Eckington parkway , 101 Patterson Park 102 Mount Hamilton parkway 103 Mount Hamilton Park 103 Anacostia water park 105 The Fort drive HI The Anacostia section 113 Giesboro parkway 114 Anacostia embankment 115 Washington embankment and Potomac Park 117 The Mount Vernon road 121 Conclusion 123 Appendix A, public bathing places -. , 125 Public bath, Revere Beach, Massachusetts 127 Public bath, Brookline, Mass 128 Appendix B, relation of the Anacostia dam to tidal scour 131 Appendix C, a letter relative to the proposed treatment of Anacostia Park 133 Appendix D, a comparison of alternative plans for the treatment of Rock Creek valley 13T Appendix E, botanical collection 143 Appendix F, list of drawings, designs, and models illustrating the report of the Commission on the Improvement of the Park System of the District of Columbia 147 Appendix G, list of lands in the District of Columbia devoted to public use 155 Appendix H. list of proposed additional reservations 167 Appendix 1. proposed additions to existing parks 169 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. Note. — The iiumbers on the plates refer to the pictures in the exhibition: See Appendix F. Bird's-eye view of general plan, from point taken 4,000 feet above Arlington Frontispiece. Rock Creek, looking north from under M street bridge, showing possibility of seclusion from disagreeable surroundings 10 Rock Creek, looking south from P street, showing encroachments on the valk'v, by dumping, and agreeable tree growth still standing 10 Model of the Mall, showing present conditions, looking east 16 Model of the Mall, showing present conditions, looking west 16 Model of the Mall, showing treatment proposed, looking west 22 Model of the Mall, showing treatment proposed, looking east 22 Water jets of the great terrace, Vaux-lc-Vicomte, work of Lenfitre 25 Petite cascades, Vaux-le-Vicomte. work of Lenfitre 26 , "Fountain in front of Villa Medici, Rome, suggesting the public value of hilltops wisely treated . . 26 Fountain, Barbarini Palace, Rome 26 Fountain, Piazzi di Termini, Rome 26 Fountain, Farnese Palace, Rome 26 Fountain, Piazza del Quirinale, Rome 26 Palace and garden of the Luxembourg, Paris. A public garden enriched but not confused 26 Versailles — Avenue in the park, suggesting the shaded walks of the proposed monument grove. . 26 Basin of Neptune, Versailles 26 Basin of Apollo, Versailles, showing the tapis vert, with road on either side 26 Basin of Latona, Versailles, showing tapia vert, with side roads and general greensward, and great canal beyond 26 Basin and great canal, Fontalnebleau, suggestive of the treatment of the canals west of the mon- ument 26 Fountain, Vaux-le-Vicomte 27 Proposed new nnion station 28 Interior view of the prnnoscdnew union station 28 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 5 Page. Fountain, Vaux-le-Vioomte 30 On the Pincian Hill, Rome 31 View of the Capitol, as seen Irom the Mall 36 Section through Capitol, east and west 36 View showing proposed treatment of basin, terraces, and Capitol approaches, head of Mall 36 The Capitol, west elevation, showing proposed terrace, restoration of the Bulflnch gates and boundary fence, fountains, and approaches 36 Bulflnch Gatehouse, formerly on Capitol grounds 39 View showing the proposed treatment of Union Square, at the head of the Mall 40 View of the Mall from Sixth street 42 View of the Monument seen from the Mall at Fourteenth street, looking west 42 Avenue de Beaumont, Compiegne. The type of vista without a roadway 14 Avenue at Cirencester, England. A mail divided by a central roadway 44 Tentative design for the National Museum 44 Washington, looking south from the White House 46 Section through Monument gardens, on White House axis, showing proposed treatment of approaches and terraces, forming a setting for the Washington Monument 46 Section through Monument garden, on Capitol axis, looking toward White House 46 Section through Mall at Fifteenth street, looking west, showing Monument approaches and ter- races 46 Section through canal, looking east, on White Hou.se axis, showing proposed treatment of approaches and terraces, forming a setting for the Monument 46 Model of the Monument garden 47 Plan showing proposed treatment of the Monument garden 48 General view of the Monument garden and Mall, looking toward the Capitol 48 View in the Monument garden, main axis, showing proposed treatment of approaches and terraces, forming a setting for the Washington Monument, looking east 48 View of the Monument and terraces from the White House ■. 4« View from the Monument terrace, looking toward Arlington 48 View in Monument garden, main axis, showing proposed treatment of approaches and terraces, forming a setting for the Washington Monument 48 View of the terrace and Monument garden, looking east 48 View in the Monument garden, looking toward the White House 48 View of the proposed memorial structure on the axis of the White House, looking south 48 View of the Washington common and public playgrounds, showing proposed memorial building, baths, theater, gymnasium, and athletic buildings 48 One of the six pavilions in the Monument garden 49 View of terrace from base of Slonument 50 View showing the proposed development of the site for the Lincoln Memorial, seen from the Washington Monument 50 View of the Lincoln Memorial site from the old Naval Observatory 50 Plan showing proposed treatment of the Lincoln Memorial site 50 View showing the proposed development of the Lincoln Memorial site, seen from the canal 60 Section of Lincoln Memorial 52 Proposed development of Lincoln Memorial site, seen from Riverside drive 56 Memorial walk, Tbiergarten, Berlin 60 Bird's-eye view of general plan, from a point taken 4,000 feet above the Government Hospital for the Insane 62 Bulflnch Gatepost, formerly on Capitol grounds 71 Temple, Villa Borghese, Rome. The architectural accent of a shaded vista 74 . Riverside Park, wading pool, Hartford, Conn 78 Water basin at the Villa Medici, Rome 80 In the girl's gymnasium, Charles bank, Boston 80 Children's sand piles, Charles bank, Boston 80 Open-air restaurant in the Prater, Vienna 81 Open-air gymnasium, Charles River embankment, Boston 82 Le Pont Neuf and quays, Paris 82 Typical treatment of Potomac quay 84 Quays and Corso, Budapest 84 The boulevard of the Republic, Algiers, showing wide commercial quays and storage spaces below the boulevard 84 Typical section of Rock Creek parkway. Alternative project with covered channel 8B Typical section of Rock Creek parkway— Treatment recommended 86 Rock Creek, looking north from M street bridge, showing landscape value of the open-water sur- face and the foliage of the valley, and indicating the disagreeable character of the high-level surroundings - ^ 6 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. Page. Valley of Rock Creek Zoological Park '. - 86 Fort Reno. View to the northeast, showing the necessity for controlling adjacent prirate prop- erty it view is to be prfeserved 90 Typical section of one of the valley parkways, such as Piney Branch, Soapstone Creek, and Georgetown parkways 92 Fortl'eno. View to the west. The fence is the limit of the present public ownership 92 The Potomac above the Aqueduct Bridge, from the level of the proposed drive, showing necessity for public control of the slopes below the driveway 92 Terrace, Villa d'Este, Tivoli, showing how a declivity commanding a view is used and emphasized, not disguised , 93 Typical section of Potomac drive a short distance abo ve Aqueduct Bridge 94 Cabin John Bridge, a portion of the Washington Aqueduct system 94 Vi^ew from the terraces, St. Germain, Paris. Comparable with the view from the proposed ter- races near Tenley Circle 94 Typical section of Potomac drive below the Chain Bridge 95 The Great Falls of the Potomac at a low stage of the river 96 Section of Savannah parkway 100 Vista, Villa Albani, Rome 102 Anacostia marshes from Benning Bridge, looking north, showing malarial flats to be exca- vated 104 Anacostia marshes, showing islands of free growth to be saved by the proposed method of improvement, from Benning Bridge, looking north 104 Oxford— Racing on the Iris 107 Henley— A suggestion of Anacostia Park 109 Quays and bridges, Budapest. Buda side of the Danube . ; 112 Nantes, place of the Duchess Anne, showing quays and comprehensive treatment of approach to bridge 112 Terrace, Venice, illustrative of water-front treatment in connection with formal design 114 The quays at Venice ; 115 The Washington channel 116 Potomac Park, from the Washington Monument 116 Panorama of the city of Washington from Anacostia; typical of views from the proposed ridge parks ! 120 Revere Beach, near Boston. What the people think of its value 124 Swimming pool, Garfield Park, Chicago 126 Revere Beach public bath house, near Boston 126 Public bath, town of Brookline, Mass 127, 128 Bridge across the riverway. Boston park system 140 Piazza del Popolo, Rome, a commanding situation wisely treated for the enjoyment of the people. . 140 LIST OF MAPS AND PLANS. L'Enfant map of Washington (1791) 12 Diagram of a portion of the city, showing proposed sites for future public buildings 28 General plan of the Mall system 34 Key to Mall system 35 Plan of Capitol grounds, by L'Enfant (1791) 37 Plan of Capitol grounds, by Thornton, Architect of the Capitol (1803) 38 Plaii for Savannah parkway 100 Comparison between the present and proposed park areas of the District of Columbia and the park areas of Boston, New York, London, and Paris " 154 Map of the District of Columbia, showing public reservations and possessions and the permanent system of highways : 172 Map of the District of Columbia, showing areas recommended to be taken as necessary for new parks and park connections 172 Map of the District of Columbia, showing public reservations and possessions and areas recom- mended to be taken as necessary for new parks and park connections 172 REPORT OF THE SENATE COMMITTEE ON THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA ON THE IMPROVEMENT OF THE .PARK SYSTEM OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. M' R. McMillan, from the Committee on the District of Columbia, on the 15th day of January, 1902, presented the following report: The Committee on the District of Columbia, acting under instructions of the Senate embodied in the resolution adopted March 8, 1901 — Eesolved, That the Committee on the District of Columbia be, and it ia 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 ait during the recess of Congress, and may secure the services of auch experts as may be necessary for a proper con- sideration of the subject. The expenses of such investigation shall be paid from the contingent fund of the Senate — respectfullj'^ report: The desirability of a comprehensive plan for the development of the District of Columbia has long been felt by Congress. During the past Necessity of a com- ^®^ J^^'^'^ particularly questions have arisen as to the prehensire plan. location of public buildings, of preserving spaces for parks in the portions of the District beyond the limits of the city of Washington, of connecting and developing existing parks by attractive drives, and of providing for the recreation and health of a constantly growing population; and, in the absence of a well-considered plan, the solution of these grave problems has either been postponed or else has resulted in compromises that have marred the beauty and dignity of the national capital. I. The action of the Senate in ordering a comprehensive plan for the development of the entire park system of the District of Columbia is the resultant of two movements — one popular in char- The Senate orders , • , -, r^ j. i 1 ono xu the preparation of a acter, the Other technical. In (Jctober, 1898, the '''"°' citizens of the District of Columbia began to arrange for the celebration, two years later, of the one hundredth anniversary 8 PARK SYSTEM OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. of the removal of the seat of government to the District of Columbia. The project, being national in character rather than local, was brought to the attention of the President, and by him was laid before Congress, with the result that a joint committee of the two Houses was appointed to act with the citizen's committee in planning the celebration. In December, 1900, commemorative exercises, held at the White House and at the Capitol, were participated in by the Governors of the States as well as by the officials of the General Government and the representatives of foreign powers; and the celebration was brought to an appropriate end by a reception and banquet given by the Wash- ington Board of Trade in honor of the Congressional committee and the distinguished guests. The keynote of the celebration was the improvement of the District of Columbia in a manner and to an extent commensurate with the dig- nity and the resources of the American nation. Senators and Con- gressmen vied with Governor after Governor in commendation of the idea put forward by the local committee, that the time had come for the systematic and adequate improvement of the District of Columbia.' While the centennial exercises were in progress the American Insti- tute of Architects, in session in this city, was discussing the subject of improving Washington; and in a series of papers making sugges- tions for 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 put forward for discussion.^ As a result the Institute appointed a committee on legislation, and 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. II. On March 19, 1901, the subcommittee of the District committee hav- ing the matter in charge met the representatives of the American The appointment of Institute of Architects and agreed to the proposition a Commission. ^f tjjg Jitter that Mr. Daniel H. Burnham, of Chicago, Illinois, and Mr. Frederick Law Olmsted, jr., of Brookline, Massa- • Senate Document No. 210, Fifty-sixth Congress, second session. ^ Papers relating to the improvement of the city of Washington, December 19, 1900, ordered to be prmted by the Senate. THE PABK COMMISSION. 9 chusetts, be empioyed as expei-ts, with power to add to their number. These gentlemen accepted the task, and subsequently invited Mr. Charles F. McKim and Mr. Augustus St. Gaudens, of New York City, to act with them in the preparation of plans. ^ The committee con- siders itself most fortunate in having secured the services of men who had won the very highest places in their several professions. As Director of Works at the World's Columbian Exposition, held in the city of Chicago in the year 1893, Mr. Burnham was instru- mental in securing the adoption of a scheme of construction which placed that exhibition in the very front rank of international exposi- tions; and by the display of I'are 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. As the architect of the Boston Public Libi-ary, tne Rhode Island capitol, the new buildings and the fence at Harvard University, and other structures of monumental character, Mr. McKim is recognized in his profession as without a superior among American architects, his work being especially notable for its simplicity, directness, and scholarly qualities. Mr. St. Gaudens, by common consent, stands first among American sculptors; and among architects and artists his criticisms have the authority of law. Mr. Olmsted bears a name identified with what is best in modern land- scape architecture in the District of Columbia. He is the consulting landscape architect not only of the vast system of parks and boulevards which make up the metropolitan park system of Boston and its suburbs, but also of large parks in various cities. To inherited taste he adds the highest training, both practical and theoretical. At the call of their professional brethren and at the request of this committee these men virtually put aside their large and profitable pri- vate work and for nearly a year devoted their time, their experience, and their technical training to the service of the nation. These sacri- fices they have made without pecuniary reward, and at a time in the professional careers of the majority of them when success and fame were already secure. Not only is the nation fortunate in having obtained the ripest talents of three such distinguished men, but also ' The full report of this meeting is to be found in Park Improvement Papers, No. 3, printed for the use of the Senate Committee on the District of Columl>ia. 10 PAEK SYSTEM OF THE DISTRICT OF- OOJ^UMBIA. it is a matter for satisfaction that the fourth member of the Commis- sion enters upon the work at an age when he may be expected to have a part in directing and shaping the development of the nlans from the beginning to the end. III. At the first meeting between the experts — who for convenience have been named the Park; Commission — and the subcommittee of the Dis- trict committee' the problem was stated to the Commission by the chairman substantially as follows: The District of Columbia was created as the seat of government of the United States, and Washington was laid out as distinctively a capital city. The first consideration in its planning The problem stated. was the location of the public buildings and the grounds relating to them. In determining these locations each site was selected in reference to every other site; the lines of communi- cation between the various Departments were, studied, and care was taken to provide not alone for convenience but also for beauty and dignity. The original plan of the city of Washington, having stood the test of a century, has met universal approval. The departures from that plan are to be regretted and, wherever possible, remedied. The reclamation of the Potomac flats has added to the public grounds a considerable area, one portion of which must be treated as a con- tinuation of the Mall and the Monument grounds, while the section lying in the river opposite the Washington Channel is susceptible of individual treatment. In 1889 Congress provided for the purchase of one hundred and seventy acres of land in the valley of Rock Creek for the purpose of establishing the National Zoological Park; and the next year a special act was passed authorizing the purchase of two thousand addi- tional acres extending from the northern boundaries of the Zoological Park to the District line. The amount of land actually acquired under the provisions of this act was one thousand six hundred and five and nine-tenths acres. This territory, beautified by nature, is undevel- oped, save for a few roads, the location of which was obvious; and before the public can realize fully the advantages of the purchase Rock Creek Park must be improved according to a systematic plan prepared by landscape architects. 'This subfiommittee consisted of Senators McMillan, Gallinger, and Martin. See Park Improvement Papers, No. 3. ifiOKsal^H'H^FVflt^yi^ H Wm^^^^^^^^k ^radMjHj ^ ^m I-JmBmImEct RH H^^H 1 ^Kf.^^1 IK ^^^S 1 liiw^'^rfflKwnll I |H^^| f^B \ ^ilHHH SB 4 J^^^^^^'''^'^^''''' -^^P " SEiii^''--' ■ iJm '*' jeMBBbpH^^K ' -.iji 9 /^moi^^^^,^^ |HMHi^ PB0P08ED PAKKS AND PABKWAYS. 11 The Auacostia flats, comprising about eleven hundred acres, impera- tively demand reclamation, in order to free the eastern portion of the city from the malarial conditions which for years have seriously retarded the development of that section and have constantly impaired the health of those persons who have been compelled to live within the miasmal influences. Congress, recognizing the deplorable condi- tions to which thousands of people either in its employ or under its care are thus of necessity subjected, caused to be made a survey and estimates of cost of the reclamation of these flats,' and it is believed that the time has now come to enter upon this work with the view to create a water park. In this manner can the park needs of the District best be subserved, and at the smallest expense. The valley of Rock Creek from the mouth of that stream to the Zoo- logical Park is unsightly to the verge of ugliness. Congress has had the situation studied with a view to finding a solution of the difficulty, either by covering the creek entirely or by creating a parkway through the valley. The need of a definite plan of treatment is shown in a striking manner by the fact that on the line of Connecticut avenue a bridge is in course of construction; while on the line of Massachusetts avenue a culvert is building, the obvious intention being to fill the entire valley southward to the mouth of the creek. A decision should be reached as to whether the creek is to be covered or is to remain open, and also as to the treatment of the space in either case. The development of Potomac and Rock Creek parks, the creation of a park along the Anacostia, and the increasing use of the Soldiers' Home grounds for park purposes, all call for a study of connections among the parks, so as to bring into one system the diversified Attrac- tions which these public spaces will offer when adequately developed. The positive squalor which to-day mars the entrance to almost every public park is too apparent to need discussion. IV. Aside from the pleasure and the positive benefits to health that the people derive from public parks, in a capital city like Washington The original plan of there is a distinct use of public spaces as the indis- washington. pensable means of giving dignity to Government buildings and of making suitable connections between the great 'House of Representatives Executive Document No. 30, Fifty-second Congress, first session, report of Lieut. P. C. Hains, and House of Representatives Document No. 87, Fifty-fifth Congress, third session, report of Col. C. J. Allen. 12 PARK SYSTEM OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. departments. When the city of Washington was planned under the direct and minute supervision of Washington and Jefferson, the rela- tions that should subsist between the Capitol and the President's House were closely studied. Indeed the whole city was planned with a view to the reciprocal relations that should exist 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 essentials in the plans made by L'Enfant under the direction of the first President and his Secretary of State. Nor were these original plans prepared without due study of great models. The stately art of landscape architecture had been brought oversea by royal governors and wealthy planters; and both Wash- ington and Jefferson were familiar with the practice of that art. L'Enfant, a man of position and education, and an engineer of ability, must have been familiar with those great works of the master Len6tre which are still the admiration of the traveler and the constant pleasure of the French people. Moreover, from his well-stocked library Jeffer- son 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." The object of the present investigation is to prepare for the city of Washington such a plan as shall enable future development to proceed along the lines originally planned — namely, the treatment of the city as a work of civic art — and to develop the outlying parks as portions of a single well-considered system. The nature and scope of the work having been outlined to the Commission, they entered upon their task not without hesitation and misgivings. The problem was both difficult and com- The work broadens. -n *- i i i plex. Much had to be done; much, also, must be undone. Moreover, no sooner was the membership of the Commis- sion announced than their aid and advice was sought in relation to buildings and memorials under consideration, so that immediately the range of the work broadened. Thus the importance and usefulness of the Commission were enhanced. The cordial reception which the Commission have met from the ''*'^il!f!||?nj^|t!^^ m A i - ' ' 'in- If *¥ i . \ iiiiill ' ■-N il!i;iilill!) IB! OPINIONS OF CABINET 0FFICEE8. 13 highest officials of the Government and the opportunities of useful- ness that have been opened to its members are alike significant and gratifying. With the approval of the Secretary of Agriculture and the Secretary of the Treasury, the Supervising Architect consulted the Commission at every stage in the selection of an architect for and the location of the new building for the Department of Agriculture/ The Secretary of War, under whose supervision the public buildings and grounds of the city come, was moved to say in his latest annual report: The many duties of the "War Department in relation to the pubUc buildings and grounds of Washington and to the statues and memorials authorized or proposed by Congress have brought the Department into frequent conference with the Com- mission selected by the Senate Committee on the District of Columbia to prepare plans for the development of the park system of the District, consisting of Messrs. Daniel H. Burnham, Charles F. McKim, and Frederick Law Olmsted, jr., who have now associated with them Mr. Augustus St. Gaudens. In admirable spirit that Commission seeks to restore and develop the original designs of President Washing- ton and L' Enfant, and the plans which they are about to present for the work to be done hereafter in making the capital city more beautiful have the hearty approval and sympathy of the War Department, and will, if they shall happily be adopted, have that Department's cordial cooperation. The Attorney-General, in I'eferring to the proposed building for the Department of Justice, says in his annual report for 1901: No building should be constructed except such as will meet the just expectations not only of the present but of future generations. The building should be worthy . of the purpose to which it is to be devoted and of the Government whose dignity it in part represents. In this connection due regard should be had to the general plan for the adornment of Washington, which is now under consideration by a competent Commission. Washington has become a city not only of cosmopolitan dignity but of exceptional beauty, and no building should be so constructed or located as to mar the symmetry of its development. The Commissioners of the District of Columbia and the officials connected with their office have given repeated and cordial assurance of their interest in a systematic development of the park system of the District, not onlj^ by consultations, but also by placing the resources of their office at the disposal of the Commission. In their annual report the District Commissioners say: An important expression of the new feeling in Congress respecting the District of Columbia was the creation, at the extraordinary session of the Senate, in March last, 'The Park Commission, acting with the Supervising Architect of the Treasury Department, approved the programme of competition, named ten firms of architects who competed, and made the award, selecting the design submitted by Messrs. Lord & Hewlett, of New York City. S.Rep.lliC 2 14 PABK SYSTEM OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. under the authority of a Senate resolution, by the Committee on the District of Columbia, of a Commission of eminent architects and landscape engineers to prepare a general plan for improvement of the park system of the District of Columbia. The Commissioners of the District of Columbia have been glad to act in cooperation with this Commission, and trust that its project for beautifying of the national capital will be adopted by Congress as the working plan for the years to come. For years the Commissioners of the District of Columbia and other public officers, and the citizens of the District, have been hoping that such a comprehensive scheme of improvement of the park system, and therefore of the whole District, would be adopted, in order that its aesthetic development might be made harmonious and complete and in accordance with the best ideals. To the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, the Superintendent of the Coast Survey, the Officer in Charge of Public Buildings and Grounds, and the officers of the Corps of Engineers engaged on the improvement of the Potomac Eiver Front the Commission are under obligations for assistance and information without which their labors must have been prolonged indefinitely, if not entirely defeated. The representative bodies of the citizens of the District of Columbia and the press also have given encouragement and support to the work, and have furnished suggestions of great value because based on expe- rience of the needs of the people. VI. After a detailed examination of the topographical features of the District of Columbia, the Commission drew up preliminary plans. They were then forced to the conclusion that an ade- The railroad problem. quate treatment of the park system depends upon the exclusion of the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad from public grounds, so as to allow that dignified approach to the Capitol for which the Mall was originally designed. The occupation of the Mall by the railroad dates back to 1872, at which time, in order to secure competition in freight and pas- senger traffic, the then local government of the District of Columbia granted the lands, and subsequentlj^ Congress confirmed the grant. ^ In extenuation of the original occupation, it may be urged that the space was then no better than a common pasture and that the railroad ' The board of aldermen and the board of common council granted the Mall site to the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad on March 20, 1871. See Evening Star, March 21, 1871, for report of proceedings. This action by the District authorities was confirmed by act of Congress approved May 21, 1872; chapter 189, Statutes at Large, Forty-second Congress, second session. THE RAILROAD PROBLEM. 15 but took the place of the canal which it paralleled; so that conditions were improved by the change, as undoubtedly proved to be the case. Be that as it may, the railroad holds the right to use the property by a title good in law and in equity; and by virtue of a recent act of Congress the railroad space has 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, is the architect of the Pennsylvania Railroad's new station at Pittsburg, and he had also drawn for the Pennsylvania Railroad the preliminary plans for the Baltimore and Potomac station in Washington. After consultation with the subcommittee, Mr. Burnham proposed to the president of the Pennsylvania Railroad that the station be built on the south side of the Mall and lands adjoining. The architectural and other advantages of the proposed site were set forth with such vigor as to command serious consideration. There the matter rested for a time. 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, European studies. i i . Budapest, Pans, London, and their suburbs. Atten- tion 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 will appear in the discussions that follow. 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 and Potomac station to the south side of the Mall, but of withdrawing altogether from that region and uniting with the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company in the erec- tion 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 propose to erect. Subsequent examination convinced the Commission that, from an Eesthetic standpoint, there are insuperable objections to the depot site provided by law. The chief objection is that were the station to front on C street a train shed eight hundred feet wide would be thrown across Massachusetts avenue, one of the 16 PARK SYSTEM OP - THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. great thoroughfares of the city. Not onlj' would the vistas be blocked by a commercial building, but also the street would be carried under- neath 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 again the officials of the railroad company consented to a change of location. The plans call for a station eight feet and eight inches longer than the Capitol, the building to be of white marble, the fapade to be Roman in stjde of architecture, and the construction and arrangements to be 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 edifice, the new station will front upon a plaza six hundred feet in width and twelve hundred feet in length, where bodies of troops or large organizations can be formed during inaugural times or on other like occasions. Thus located and constructed, the union depot will be in reality the great and impressive gateway to Washington. It should be said here that in considering the views of the Commis- sion, and in reaching his decision, the president of the Pennsjdvania Railroad looked at the matter from the standpoint of an American citizen, saying in substance that he appreciated the fact that if Con- gress 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 Pennsyl- vania Railroad.^ VII. This conditional consent on the part of the railroad removed the one great obstacle to the preparation of adequate plans for the improve- ment 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, have been surmounted. On the other hand, the work has been much lightened bj" the excellent topographical maps of the District outside of the city, prepared by the Coast and Geodetic Survey. The plans prepared by the Commission and submitted to the Senate with this report are the most comprehensive ever provided for the The character of the development of an American city. Every portion of p'"""*- the District of Columbia has been studied; in the out- lying sections those spaces best adapted for parks, both small and 1 See Senate bill No. 4825, Eeport No. 982, Fifty-sixth Congress. NO. 34.— MODEL OF THE MALL, SHOWING PRESENT CONDITIONS. LOOKING EAST. NO. 34— MODEL OF THE MALL, SHOWING PRESENT CONDITIONS. LOOKING WEST. COMPREHENSIVENESS OF THE PLAN. 17 large, have been marked; the most convenient and the most pictur- esque 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 Mount Vernon is discussed; the development of the Mall receives detailed and elaborate treatment; the location of new public buildings, whether legislative, executive, or municipal in char- acter, 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. As a result of this comprehensive treatment every considerable undertaking within the District may be brought into the general plan and made to contribute its part to enhancing value of the whole. More than this, no such undertaking should be allowed to invade, to mutilate, or to mar the symmetry, simplicity, and dignity of the one great composition designed to comprehend the entire District of Columbia. VIII. In working out the plans the Commission found it necessai'y to have prepared two models, one showing the existing disturbed condi- Modcis and luustra- tions in the scction 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, are accurate maps of the section they so graphically depict. Not only are they absolutely essential to the designers, but they are also the guides in carrying the plans to completion. So that, as the years pass, those persons who may be charged with the task of improvement will be under no uncertainty as to the particular treatment intended.' A third model, representing the Monument garden, shows with nice elaboration of detail the terraces, the buildings, the fountains, and the approaches designed to furnish that august structure its appropriate setting." In order to present in graphic fashion particular features of the plans, the accurate architectural drawings have been rendered in color by a number of the most famous illustrators of the day, and by means 1 These models were made under the direction of George Carroll Curtis, geograph- ical sculptor, of Boston. * The Monument garden was modeled by Mr. Merz, of New York City. 18 PAKK SYSTEM OF THE DISTEIOT OP COLUMBIA. of these pictures a clear and distinct idea of the appearance of the completed work can be obtained/ IX. The plans as prepared call for systematic, continuous work, which of necessity must be prolonged through a considerable number of Concentration of a«. Jears. The park system of the District of Columbia thority. ig placed by law under the control of the Chief of Engineers of the United States Army,^ but individual portions of the system are subject to separate control. It is essential to the harmoni- ous and successful development of the improvements that there shall be a greater concentration of authority, and the constant employment of professional advice. No work should be entered upon without the preparation of detailed plans, to be approved by the highest possible authority as being in accord with the general sj'stem. Obviously it is impossible to make even an approximate estimate of the cost of improvements which are to be completed in an indefinite The question of ex- f uturc; nor is such an estimate necessary. From time P'"^*- to time new buildings must be constructed to meet the constantly increasing needs of the Government, and as appropriations come to be made the buildings should be located so that each new structure will fit into its appropriate place in the great scheme. Year ' From January 15 to February 25, 1902, the models and pictures were exhibited at the Corcoran Museum of Art, the trustees of which institution very kindly having placed several rooms at the disposal of the committee for the purpose of the exhibi- tion. Later the entire exhibition was removed to the Library of Congress, where it now is displayed in the Division of Prints. For a Ust of the illustrations presented see Appendix K. ''See act of July 1, 1898, entitled "An act to vest in the Commissioners of the District of Columbia control of street parking in said District." Section 2 prdvides: "That the park system of the District of Columbia is hereby placed under the exclusive charge and control of the Chief of Engineers of the United States Army, under such regulations as may be prescribed by the President of the United States, through the Secretary of War. The said park system shall be held to comprise: (a) All public spaces laid down as reservations on the map of eighteen hundred and ninety-four accompanying the annual report for eighteen hundred and ninety-four of the oflBcer in charge of public buildings and grounds; (b) All portions of the space in the streets and avenues of the said District, after the same shall have been set aside by the Commissioners of the District of Columbia for park purposes: Provided, That no areas less than two hundred and fifty square feet between side walk lines shall be included within the said park system." THE NEED OF COOPERATION. 19 by yeai- lands must be secured for Grovernment or municipal institu- tions, and by foresight and good judgment these purposes can readily be made to enhance t'le beauty and utility of the park system. As the finances of the District will allow, the parks are bound to be developed and those facilities for enjoyment which civic life increasingly demands will be supplied. So fast as provision may be made for these improve- ments, let the work be done in accordance with plans at once simple, adequate, dignified, and comprehensive. By the patient and steadfast cooperation of all those persons charged with the upbuilding of the District of Columbia, a result may be Tiie need ot cooper- attained such as has been reached in no other capital city of the modern world. The task is indeed a stupendous one; it is much greater than any one generation can hope to accomplish. The very hearty and intelligent cooperation that the plans have been received by the oflScers of the Government, the com- mittees of Congress, and by the public generally makes it reasonably certain that the development of the National Capital will be prose- cuted along the general lines proposed; and that the city which Washington and Jefferson planned with so much care and with such prophetic vision will continue to expand, keeping pace with national advancement, until it becomes the visible expression of the power and taste of the people of the United. States. REPORT OF THE PARK COMMISSION. MEMBERS OF THE COMMISSION. DANIEL H. BURNHAM, Clialnmin. CHAELES F. McKIM. AUGUSTUS SAINT GAUDENS. FREDERICK LAW OLMSTED, Jr. Wrtshinijtnn Oinnunn. Lincoln MiMuorial ExtH'Utive jironp ot Lmililin.irs. T.oijisltitivo jrmnv of bnildintrs, NO. 35— MODEL OF THE MALL, SHOWING TREATMENT PROPOSED. LOOKING WEST. Union v^trttion. Executive group of buildings. Legislative group of buildings. Washington Common. Potomac Pari;. Lincoln Mcmorinl. NO. 35— MODEL OF THE MALL, SHOWING TREATMENT PROPOSED. LOOKING EAST. Memorial Bridge. REPORT OF THE PARK COMMISSION TO THE SENATE COMMITTEE ON THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. SIR: The Commission appointed by the Senate Committee on the District of Columbia to prepare a plan for the development and the improvement of the entire park system of the District of Columbia respectfully report* I. The city of Washington differs from all other American cities in the fact that in its original plan parks were laid out as settings for public buildings. Even its broad avenues were arranged so as to enhance the effect of the great edifices of the nation; and the squares at the intersection of the wide thoroughfares were set apart as sites for memorials to be erected by the various States. Parks, in the modern sense of large public recreation grounds, there were none; but small areas designed to beautify the connections between the various depart- ments of Government were numerous. During the nineteenth century, however, the development of urban life and the expansion of cities has brought into prominence the need, not recognized a hundred years ago, for large parks to preserve artificially in our cities passages of rural or sylvan scenery and for spaces adapted to various special forms of recreation. Moreover, dur- ing the century that has elapsed since the foundation of the city the great space known as the Mall, which was intended Changes In the Mall. to form a unified connection between the Capitol and the White House, and to furnish sites for a certain class of public buildings, has been diverted from its original purpose and cut into fragments, each portion receiving a separate and individual informal treatment, thus invading what was a single composition. Again, 23 24 PARK SYSTEM OF THE DISTRICT OB' COLUMBIA. many reservations have passed from public into private ownership, with the result that public buildings have lost their appropriate sur- roundings, and new structures have been built without that landscape setting which the founders of the city relied on to give them beauty and dignitj'. Happily, however, little has been lost that can not be regained at reasonable cost. Fortunately, also, during the years that have passed the Capitol has been enlarged and ennobled, and the Washington Monument, wonderful alike as an engineering feat and a work of art, Improvements ac- ^^^ ^Q&n constructed on a site that may be brought eompiisiied. if,to relations with the Capitol and the White House. Doublv fortunate, moreover, is the fact that the vast and successful work of the engineers in redeeming the Potomac banks from unhealth- ful conditions gives opportunitj^ for enlarging the scope of the earlier plans in a manner corresponding to the growth of the country. At the Slime time the development of Potomac Park both provides for a connection between the parks on the west and those on the east, and also it may readily furnish sites for those memorials which history has shown to be worthy a place in vital relation to the great buildings and monuments erected under the personal supervision of the founders of the Republic. Now that the demand for new public buildings and memorials has reached an acute stage, there has been hesitation and embarrassment in locating them because of the uncertainty in securing appropriate sites. The Commission were thus brought face to face with the prob- lem of devising such a plan as shall tend to restore that unity of design which was the fundamental conception of those who first laid out the cit\^ as a national capital, and of formulating definite principles for the placing of those future structures which, in order to become effective, demand both a landscape setting and a visible orderly relation one to another for their mutual support and enhancement. To the unique problem of devising a way of return to the original plan of the city of Washington, was added the task of suggesting lines The original plan of ^°^ ^he development of those large parks which have Washington. been obtained in recent years either by purchase or by reclamation; of advising the acquisition of such additional spaces as are deemed necessary to create a modern park system; and of select- ing for purchase and improvement suitable connections between the various park areas. EETUBN TO l'eNFANT PLAN. 25 II. If Washington were not a nation's capital, in which the location of public buildings is of the first importance, and if the city itself were not by its very plan tied to a historic past, the problem would be less complicated. The very fact that Washington and Jefferson, L'Enfant Washington as a ^^^ Ellicott, and their immediate successors, drew capital city. inspiration from the world's greatest works of land- scape architecture and of civic adornment made it imperative" to go back to the sources of their knowledge and taste in order to restore unity and harmony to their creations and to guide future development along appropriate lines. Indeed the more the Commission studied the first plans of the Fed- eral City, the more they became con- vinced that the greatest service they could perform would be done by carrying to a legitimate conclusion the compi'ehensive, intelligent, and yet simple and straightforward scheme devised by L'Enfant under the direction of Washington and Jefferson. ^ L'Enfant's plan ** shows that he was familiar with the work of Lendtre, 'Through the courtesy of the Hon. Lyman J. Gage, former Secretary of the Treas- ury, the Commission were enabled tci visit those historic towns and estates on the Potomac and James rivers and on Chesapeake Bay among which Washington passed his life, and which exemplify the principles of plan and design for which the seven- teenth century was famous. Jleager and slight as these examples of formal landscape treatment seem when compared with their European prototypes, they nevertheless possess a simple dignity and stateliness, and they evince an acquaintance on the part of their designers with the fundamental principles of art. ^ The L'Enfant's plan was in charge of the Commissioners of the District of Colum- bia from 1791 to 1802; of the Superintendent of Public Buildings from 1802 to 1815; of the Commissioner of Public Buildings from 1815 to 1850, and since 1850 to the present time, of the Commissioner of Public Buildings and Grounds. The map is largely illegible, but has been reproduced liy the Coast and Geodetic Survey. Nt.). 148. — Water jets of the great terrace, Vaux-le-Vicomte, work of Len6tre. 26 PARK SYSTEM OF THE DISTRICT OP COLtrMBIA. whose examples of landscape architecture, not only in France but also in Italy and England, are still the admiration of the world. We know, also, that L'Enfant had the advantage of those maps of foreign cities, ' ' drawn on a large and accurate scale," which Jefferson gathered during his public service abroad, and we learn from Jefferson's letters how he adjured L'Enfant not to depart from classical models, but to follow those examples which the world had agreed to admire. In order to restudy these same models and to take note of the great civic works of Europe, the Commission spent five weeks of the summer of 1901 in for- eign travel, visiting London. Paris, Rome, Venice, Vienna, Budapest, Frankfort, and Berlin. Among the many problems with which the Commission is called upon to deal there is not one which has not been dealt with in some one of the cities mentioned, and by way either of example or of warning the lessons of the past have been brought to bear upon the present work. III. On beginning work the Commission were confronted by the fact that while from the first of October till about the middle of May the climatic Climatic conditions Conditions of Washington are most salubrious, dur- ng on. .^g ^j^g remaining four and a half months the city is subject to extended periods of intense heat, during which all public business is conducted at an undue expenditure of physical force. Every second year Congress is in ses- sion usually until about the middle of July; and not infrequently it hap- pens that, by rea- son of prolonged or special sessions, during the hottest portion of the sum- mer the city is filled with the persons whose business makes necessary a more or less prolonged stay in Washington. Of course nothing can be done to change weather conditions, but very much can be No. 147.— Petite cascades, Vaux-le-Vlcomte, work of Len6tre. NO. 84.— FOUNTAIN, BARBARINI PALACE, ROME. NO. 63.— FOUNTAIN, FARNESE PALACE, ROME. THE NEED 01' FOUNTAINS. 27 accomplished to mitigate the physical strain caused by summer heat. Singularly enough, up "to the present time the abundant facilities which nature affords for healthful and pleasant recreation during heated terms have been neglected, and in this respect Washington is far behind other cities whose climatic conditions demand much less, and whose opportunities also are less favorable. In Rome throughout the centuries it has been the pride of emperor and of pope to build fountains to promote health and give pleasure. Mile after mile of aqueduct has been constructed to gather the water even from remote hills, and bring great living streams into every quarter of the citj^; so. that from the moment of entering the Eternal City until the time of departure the vis- itor is scarcely out of sight of beauti- ful jets of water, now flung upward in great columns to Fountain, Vaux-le-Vicomte.. add life and dignity even to St. Peter's, or again gushing in the form of cascades from some great work of architect or sculptor, or still again dripping refreshingly over the brim of a beautiful basin that was old when the Christian era began. The Forum is in ruins, basili- cas and baths have been transformed into churches,, palaces have been turned into museums; but the fountains of Rome are eternal. If all the fountains of Washington, instead of being left lifeless and inert as they are during a greater portion of the time, should be set Thenecessityoffoun- playing at their fuli Capacity, they would not use the tains- amount of water that bursts from the world-famous fountain of Trevi or splashes on the stones of the piazza of St. Peter's. At the Chateau de Vaux-le-Vicomte, near Paris, the great landscape architect Len6tre built cascades, canals, and fountains using one- twelfth of the daily water-supply of the District of Columbia. The fountains at Versailles are one of the most attractive spectacles enjoyed by the people of France. 28 PARK SYSTEM OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. The original plansof Washington show the high appreciation L'En- fant had for all forms of water decoration; and when the heats of a Washington summer are taken into consideration, further argument is unnecessary to prove that the first and greatest step in the matter of beautifying the District of Columbia is such an increase in the water supply as will make possible the copious and even lavish use of water in fountains.' IV. Scarcely secondary in importance to fountains are public baths. An Public baths and instructive lesson in this respect may be found in gymnasiums. ^ijg experience of the Metropolitan Park Commis- sion in taking over and equipping Revere Beach, immediately north of Boston. There the squalid conditions prevailing in former years have been changed radically; and a well-kept and well-policed beach, sufficient in extent to accommodate over 100,000 persons, is publicly maintained; no fewer than 1,700 separate rooms are provided for bathers, and bathing suits are furnished at a small expense. The receipts pay for maintenance and yield a surplus of several thousand dollars for repairs and extensions. In Washington the use of the present bathing beach shows how welcome would be the construction of modern buildings with ample facilities. Moreover, the opportunities offered by an extended river front should be utilized in furnishing opportunities for free public baths, especially for the people living in that section of the city between the Mall and the Potomac. V. The location of public buildings has received the very careful con- The location Of public sideration of the Commission. In general terms buildings. their conclusions are: First. That only public buildings should face the grounds of the Capitol. Second. That new Department buildings may well be located so as to face Lafayette square. 'The present daily consumption of water in the District of Columbia is about 62,000,000 gallons; the reservoirs now have a capacity of 75,000,000 gallons; and the filtration plant will have a capacity equal to that of the reservoirs. The Chief of Engineers estimates that even if the work of increasing the supply is begun imme- diately, the task can not be completed before the demand will exceed the available supply. MDHtf/ B CRiUuy CO. PMOTO-UTHOOfUnnfN. Wl,3H1HaT0N. 0. A UNION RAILROAD STATION. 29 Third. Buildings of a semi-public character may be located south of the present Corcoran Art Gallery, fronting on the White Lot and extending to the park limits. Fourth. That the northern side of the Mall may properly be used by museum and other buildings containing collections in which the public generally is interested, but not by Department buildings. Fifth. That the space between Pennsylvania avenue and the Mall should be occupied by the District building, the Hall of Records, a modern market, an armory for the District militia, and structures of like character. The location of public buildings is discussed in several portions of the report, under the appropriate subdivisions. VI. When the Commission was appointed the Baltimore and Ohio Rail- way was entitled, under an act of Congress passed on February 12, 1901, A union riiiiroad to Condemn and occupy a site for a depot fronting on ^*''*'""" C street; and the Pennsylvania Railway, under an act approved at the same time, was given a strip of land about four hundred feet wide crossing the Mall. The Commission found almost at once that unless the Pennsylvania Railway would leave the Mall and build its station elsewhere the improvement of that great park would be impossible. No one had any serious hope that the Pennsylvania Com- pany would withdraw. However, in the summer of 1901 the president of that company consented to do so, provided the Government would meet the company in a spirit which would enable him to justify the- move to the stockholders. It was then suggested that the Pennsyl- vania and Baltimore and Ohio companies should build a union station at the site on C street granted to the latter by Congress, the five South- ern roads reaching the location through a tunnel under Capitol Hill. But after careful consideration it was found that this site for a union station was not adequate, and also that it would result in a train shed extending over Massachusetts avenue; and therefore the Commission suggested that the station be located north of Massachusetts avenue, the center of the building beifag on the axis of Delaware avenue, about a quarter of a mile from the Capitol. This location has been accepted by the Engineer Commissioner, the Park Commission, and the railway companies, the latter consenting to 30 PAEK SYSTEM OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. make the moves provided the Grovernment will treat them in a reason- able manner. The attitude of the railways has been public spirited and most admirable in this matter. They have consented to give up a location eminently lit for their business, and for no other purpose than to help out the general conditions of convenience and beauty as laid down by the Park Commission. In front of the union station the Commission proposed a public plaza to be six hundred feet in width by twelve hundred feet in length, Park Commission's Ornamented with fitting terrace, basins, and fountains, suggestions. Facing this plaza, and a hundred feet north of the line of Massachusetts avenue will be the marble fagade of the station, seven hundred and sixty feet long. This great station forms the grand gateway to the capital, through which every one who comes to or goes from Wash- ington must pass; as there is no railroad entering the citj'^ that will not use the station, it becomes the vestibule of the capital. This being the fact, the importance of this station is greater than that of any other one in any city in the world. If there were several stations in the city each might be treated as a railway shed and the architectural expres- sion need not properly be of so high an order. But not so No. 149. — Fountain, Vaux-le-Vlcomte. . i • mi j.i j_ this one. ihe three great architectural features of a capital city being the halls of legislation, the executive buildings, and the vestibule, it is felt by the railroad companies that the style of this building should be equally as digni- fied as that of the public buildings themselves. Therefore it is that the design goes back to pure Roman motives, the central portion being derived directly from the triumphal arch of Constantine and the wings being brought into subordination to it. The central part, the vestibule of the station, is two hundred and ninety-three feet wide, containing three arches, each opening being MONUMENTAL DESIGN. 31 Slouumental design. about thirty by .sixty feet; with end pavilions for foot passengers. The waiting room will be one hundred and thirty by two hundred and fifty feet, its walls of masonry and its arched ceiling of glass and iron. The usual rooms of a grand station are added. Behind the head house is a lobby eightj' by five hundred and fifty feet, and an open space next the tracks runs beside this lobby, this space being forty feet in width. The lobby opens out upon the side streets and is perfectly accessible to the waiting rooms. The design of this station is intended to be monumental in every respect and to be in keeping with the dignity of the chief city of America and with its present and future beauty. No. 196.— On llle I'ineian Hill, Kome. S. Rep 166 4 THE MALL SYSTEM. 33 Analostan Islanii. Lincoln Memorial. Executive group. Legislative group. Memorial Bridge. Mitniiiiient (Jarden. ■\Vasliiiigton ('onimon. Union Square. NO. 19.— GENERAL PLAN OF THE MALL SYSTEM. ^ggaaLissanom ® J [ [ D mmm ID^OCSJZ -Capitol Division. -The Mall. ■Monument Section. -Lincoln Division. KEY TO THE MALL SYSTEM. E — White House Division. F — Washington Common GG — Park Spaces. H— Section south of Pennsylvania avenue K— Memorial Bridge. THE MALL SYSTEM. THE City of Washington, during the century since its founda- tion, has been developed in the main according to the plan made in 1791 by Major Peter Charles L'Enfant and approved by President Washington. That plan the Commission has aimed to restore, develop, and supplement. The ".Congress house" and the "President's palace,." as he termed them, were the cardinal features of L'Enf ant's plan; and these edifices he connected "by a grand avenue four hundred feet in breadth, and about a mile in length, bordered bj' gardens, ending in a slope from the houses on each side." At the point of intersection of two lines, one drawn through the center of the Capitol the other drawn through the center of the White House, L'Enfant fixed the site of an eques- trian statue of General Washington, one of the numerous statues voted by the Continental Congress but never erected. When, in 1848, the people began to build the Washington Monument,, the engineers despaired of securing on the proper site a foundation suf- ficient for so great a structure; and consequently the Monument was 35 36 PARK SYSTEM OF THE DISTBICT OF COLUMBIA. located out of all relations with the buildings which it was intended to tie together in a single composition. To create these relations as originalh' planned was one of the chief problems of the Commission. Again, the reclamation of the Potomac Flats, prosecuted since 1882, has added to the Monument grounds an area about one mile in length from east to west; so that where L'Enfant dealt with a composition one and a half miles in length, the Commission is called upon to deal with an area two and a half miles long, with a maximum breadth of about one mile. By the inclusion of the space between Pennsylvania and New York avenues on the north, and Maryland avenue and the Potomac River on the south, the new composition becomes a symmetrical, polygonal, or kite-shaped, figure bisected from east to west by the axis of the Capitol and from north to south by the White House axis. Regarding the Monument as the center, the Capitol as the base, and the White House as the extremity of one arm of a Latin cross, we have at the head of the composition on the banks of the Potomac a memorial site of the greatest possible dignity, with a second and only less commanding site at the extremity of the second arm. So extensive a composition, and one containing such important ele- ments, does not exist elsewhere; and it is essential that the plan for its treatment shall combine simplicity with dignity. ,.«A .•:r ^ ' -ffil'lf >•.. * Jll.f,.Jl .fe NO. 23.— THE CAPITOL, WE.ST ELEVATION, SHOWING PROPOSED TERRACE, RESTORATION OF THE BULFINCH GATES AND BOUNDARY FENCE. FOUNTAINS AND APPROACHES. No. 22.— Plan of the Capitol Grounds by KEnfant (1791). THE CAPITOL DIVISION. The Capitol. THE Capitol, located by Washington and L'Enfant on a site which seemed to the latter as "a pedestal waiting for a monu- ment," was constructed in accordance with plans prepared by Thornton and selected by the first President and his Secretary of State, because among the number of designs submitted Thornton's alone displayed the dignified "simplicity which should characterize the legislative halls of a nation. Under the personal direction of Presi- dent Fillmore, the Capitol was extended by the addi- tion of the Senate and the House wings, and the edifice was surmounted by a soaring dome, all designed by Thomas U. Walter.' Distinguished alike for its historic associations and for its architectural merits, the Capitol stands in the midst of ample grounds, indeed, but is surrounded in the .xnain by private build- ings, many of them of the most squalid character, or by neglected stretches of land used as dumping grounds. From the Mall system the grounds are ciit off by the Botanic Garden, walled and fenced so as to block the way. ' History of the United States Capitol, by Glenn Brown. 37 38 PARK SYSTEM OV THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. Facing the Capitol grounds on the east stands the Congressional Library, and it is contemplated that at, no distant day the Supreme Court of the United States shall be accommodated in a building con- structed for the exclusive use of that tribunal, on the square directly north of the Library ;^ and that the Senate and the House of Repre- sentatives will have constructed for the uses of their members build- ings respectively on the north and on the south of the grounds of the Capitol.^ The construction of the above-mentioned buildings as planned will make it in the highest degree appropriate that fronting the entire square LTr / '^--.^J '^~ — - ^''y 1 ," i\ --■' '■ L..-L- \ ! No. 22a.— Plan ot the Capitol Grounds by Thornton, Architect o£ the Capitol (1803). occupied by the Capitol grounds only public buildings bearing a common relation to legislative work shall be erected. If the recip- rocal relations of the new buildings shall be studied carefully, so as ' Bills contemplating such a building are regularly introduced. in Congress. See S. 4113, Fifty-seventh Congress. ' The sundry civil act of March 3, 1901, authorizes the preparation of plans for a structure to be erected "adjacent to the grounds of the Capitol building." Esti- mates have been prepared for the purchase of the lands on the south side of the Capitol grounds. INVASIONS OP THE l'eNFANT PLAN. 39 to produce harmony of design and uniformity of cornice line, the resulting architectural composition will be unequaled in magnitude and monumental character by any similar group of legislative build- ings in the modern world. The successful development of this proposed series of buildings inclosing the Capitol square is to be assured only by strict adherence to Invasions of the that System of radial avenues laid down by Washington i/Enfintpian. ^^^ L'Enfant, upon which the Capitol depends for its dominating character. Any invasion of these historic arteries repre- senting the original States and centering upon the Dome must be fatal, No. 38. — Bulflnch Gatehouse, formerly on Capitol Grounds. because inconsistent with the fundamental principles upon which the city is built. The location of the Library of Congress partly in Penn- s^'lvania avenue is a pei-petual mutilation of L'Enfant's plan, and inflicts incalculable injury to the Capitol, which the Library in part conceals. Other similar instances are the extension of the Treasury and the construction of tlie State, War, and Navy buildings so as to close forever carefully planned vistas of the White House. These 40 PARK SYSTEM OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. discordant notes should warn future generations that sites for public buildings are dearly purchased at the cost of those essential elements which give to Washington its unique advantage over all other Ameri- can cities. In 1803 Thornton marked the boundaries of the Capitol grounds to Treatment of the Correspond with the rectilinear system of streets, and Capitol gronnds. ^jj^gg jjjjgg ^^^^ maintained until the latest addition to the grounds brought about innovations, resulting in various curved projections, especially on the western side. This complication of the early plans banished the Bulfinch gates and fence which so strongly emphasized the frontage of sixteen hundred feet that corresponds to the width of the Mall. The recovery of this original feature of the Capitol design, supplernented by the construction of a central terrace one thousand feet in width, will give the broadest possible support to the Capitol, which, resting upon this base as on a plinth, will gain an additional height of forty feet. The western slope of the Capitol grounds should be relieved and enriched by basins and fountains in which the water, falling from one level to another, is poured finally into a great central pool at the level of First street. So L'Enfant intended in his plan for "a grand cascade formed of water from the sources of the Tiber," which was to mitigate the heat of the sun-baked hill. Several of the great radial avenues extending from the Capitol and the White House climb the hills encircling the city, and on the crests of these hills superb sites are found for shining The radial avennes. ^ ■ memorials standing out against the sky. Often these vistas terminate on some far-off hill, where a simple white shelter will prove the most effective treatment. In other instances the hill crests are in the midst of a populous region, and in these cases the treatment should be on a more comprehensive scale. For example, at the head of North Capitol street a monumental entrance to the Soldiers' Home should be built; and the sharp rise of Sixteenth street should carry an imposing arch, such as the one projected as a memorial to William McKinley. NO. 37.— VIEW SHOWING THE PROPOSED TREATMENT OF UNION SQUARE, AT THE HEAD OF THE MALL. UNION SQUARE. ON the western side of the Capitol grounds, where Pennsylvania and Maryland avenues converge, the L'Enfant plan shows "a public walk, through which carriages may ascend to the upper square of the Federal house." Having restored the true north and south line of the Capitol gi'ounds, it is proposed to treat the space now occupied by the Botanic Garden as a broad thoroughfare, so enriched with parterres of green as to form an organic connection between the Capitol and the Mall. The exceptional opportunities for monumental treatment offered by the commanding location of this area leads the Commission to suggest that the Grant memorial already provided for shall be the chief deco- oration of the square; and that associated with the Grant monument shall be the figures of his two great lieutenants, Sherman and Sheri- dan, standing independently, yet so as to form a single composition.' ^The location now fixed for the Sherman statue is directly south of the Treasury Department, where a granite pedestal has been constructed. This location suggests Secretary Sherman rather than General Sherman. A location for the Grant memo- rial was selected tentatively before the Park Commission made its report; and the competitors made designs for a site either south of the White House or south of the State, War, and Navy building. The commission on the Grant memorial (made up of Gen. Grenville M. Dodge, president of the Society of the Army of the Tennessee, chairman ; Senator George Peabody Wetmore, chairman of the Joint Committee on the Library; and Hon. Elihu Root, Secretary of War) appointed as a committee to judge the relative merits of the models submitted in the competition, Lieut. Gen. J. M. Schofield, Maj. Gen. Wesley M. Merritt, Daniel H. Burnham, Charles F. McKim, Augustus Saint Gaudens, and Daniel Chester French. This committee reported, on April 12, 1902, that it had selected unanimously t^e models of the following persons: Henry Merwin Shrady, Charles Henry Niehaus (associated with Henry Bacon, architect), J. Massey Rhind (with Bright & Bacon, architects), Charles A. Lopez and F. G. B. Roth (with Henry Hornbostel, architect), Waldo Story, and Burr C. Miller. Of the six the committee found the design submitted by Mr. Shrady the first in intrinsic merit and best adapted to the site indicated, on the axis 41 42 PARK SYSTEM OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. The placing of the defenders of the Union at this great point of ■ convergence doiibly justifies the name of "Union Square." Brilliantly illuminated, embellished with fountains, and commanded by terraces, this square would compare favorably, in both extent and treatment, with the Place de la Concorde in Paris. of the White House. They found the design submitted by Niehaus and Bacon second in intrinsic merit, and perfectly adapted to either site. They made further recommendations as follows: "The committee thinks it desirable, nothwithstanding the brilliant character of Mr. Shrady's composition, to be assured of his powers to execute a figure of Grant with the nobility and reserve power that it should possess. On the other hand, the qualities of Mr. Niehaus's work were of such high order and were so close in merit to those of Mr. Shrady's that the committee feels it would be unfair to Mr. Niehaus to reject his work without another trial. "Furthermore, in view of the fact that since the competition for the Grant monu- ment was instituted the proposition to place three equestrian statues together at the head of the Mall, in the center of Union Square, has been urged in the plan of the Park Commission, and also in view of the possibility of this equestrian figure of Grant becoming the central feature of this portion of the plan of the Park Commis- sion, the committee begs to suggest that, before finally making the award Messrs. Shrady and Niehaus be requested to execute another model of about four feet in height for the equestrian group of General Grant. As this enlarged model would involve a very serious expense to the sculptors, the committee suggests that an appropriate sum of money be offered in remuneration to the unsuccessful competitor. "Although outside of the instructions of your commission to this committee the committee begs leave to suggests that, while the central site, namely, the White Lot, is well adapted for the purpose of a monument to General Grant, the placing of any kind of a monument in the White Lot circle is extremely objectionable from an artistic standpoint and is an encroachment upon historic ground. "The four comers of the White Lot square are deemed highly appropriate places for subordinate military monuments, but neither one is suited in dignity for a site for a monument to General Grant. ' ' The report of the committee was adopted at the judgment of the commission. The following resolution was adopted as the sense of the commission: "Resolved, That in pursuanceof the recommendation of the advisory committee, Messrs. Shrady and Niehaus be requested each to execute another model of four feet in height for the equestrian group of General Grant, in order to enable the commis- sion to make final selection between the designs submitted by those gentlemen. Further resolved. That ?750.be paid to each of them upon the completion and sub- mission of said models." THE MALL. HAVING considered the Capitol grounds and the areas related thereto we come now to that long stretch of territory designed to furnish the park-like means of communication between the legislative and the executive departments. It is interest- ing to note that although this space has been cut into pieces, some of which have been highly developed according to the land- scape art of the day, as for example the grounds of the Smith- sonian Institution and the Agriculture Department, and while other portions have been diverted from their original purposes, as in the case of the sections given up to the Botanic Garden and the Balti- more and Potomac Railroad, still the L'Enfant idea of treating the entire space as a unit has never been entirely lost sight of. Indeed, during the very months of 1871, when the right of way across the Mall was bestowed upon a railroad, one branch of Congress agreed to a proposition to combine the scattered areas into a single park, but was deterred from so doing largely by the objection that such treatment would divide Washington into two parts. ' The gradual development of the city and its growth toward the north, together with the location in the Mall of public buildings for scientific purposes, have resulted in a steady improvement in the character of the Mall, which during the past thirty years has been changed from a common pasture into a series of park spaces unequally developed, indeed, and in places broken in upon by being put to commercial or other extraneous uses, but nevertheless becom- ing more and more appreciated from year to year. "With this gradual improvement has sprung up a general desire that the L'Enfant plans be reverted to, and that the entire space south of Pennsylvania avenue be set apart solely for public purposes. In order to realize this natural and most laudable desire, two things are essential: First, the railroad must be removed from the Mall, and, ^See editorials arid articles in the Washington Star during February and March, 1871. 43 44 PARK SYSTEM 01? THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. secondly, axial relations must be established between the Capitol, the Monument, and the White House. Happily, as has been explained elsewhere in these reports, the opportunity is presented to Congress to secure not only the exclusion of the railroad, but also the construc- tion of a union station, a consummation which, long agitated, has heretofore seemed beyond the possibility of accomplishment. Fortunately, also, the location of the Monument does not preclude the establishment of such relations as will bring that Axial relationship. , . . . , . structure into organic connection with the monu- mental buildings above mentioned, so that Capitol, White House, and Monument shall become constituent parts of one composition. The plan of the Commission contemplates the extension of B street northeastward to Pennsylvania avenue, whence it continues on the north side of the Capitol grounds, thus securing for the Mall a uni- form width of sixteen hundred feet throughout its entire extent. Within these boundaries it becomes possible to develop the Mall area in accordance with the general distribution of the L'Enfant plan, with such enlargements as the conditions of to-day have made possible and desirable. Thus areas adjoining B street north and south, averaging more than four hundred feet in width from the Capitol to the Monument, afford sites for certain spacious sitcs for buildings devoted to scientific pur- buiidings. poses and for the great museums. The structure to be erected for the Department of Agriculture on the site of the present building marks at once the building line and the type of architecture which should be adopted throughout the Mall system; while the build- ings of the National Museum and the Fisheries Commission building, both of which are inadequate and unsuited for their respective purposes, serve to show the class of the service that may well be accommodated with new structures located within a park area.^ The axis of the Capitol and Monument is clearly defined by an expanse of undulating green a mile and a half long and three hundred feet broad, walled on either side by elms, planted The tapls-rert. J i tr in formal procession four abreast. Bordering this green carpet, roads, park-like in character, stretch between Capitol ' The sundry civil act as reported tn the Senate in April, 1902, contains a provision for plans for a new building for the National Museum, to cost $2,000,000. It is expected that the entire building, or group of buildings, will cost not less than 14,000,000. TENTATIVE DESIGN FOR THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. HORNBLOWEH A. MARSHALL, WASHINGTON, D. C, ARCHITECTS. THE MALL. 45 and Monument, while beneath the elms one may walk or drive, pro- tected from the sun. Examples of this treatment abound in England and on the Continent of Europe, and also may be found in our own country in those towns, both North and South, which were laid out during the colonial era.^ Moreover, these two plantations of elms traversed by paths are similar in character to the Mall in Central JPark, New York, which is justly regarded as one of the most beautiful features of that park. The American elm was chosen not only because of the architectural character of its columnar trunk and the delicate traceries formed by its widespreading branches, but also because in the District of Colum- bia this tree is at its best, notable examples being found in the city parks and in the grounds of th« Capitol. The streets leading southward from Pennsylvania avenue are to cross the Mall at their present grades, no attempt being made either to exclude street car and other traiBc or to hide it. Indeed, the play of light and shade where the streets break through the columns of trees, and the passage of street cars and teams give needed life to the Mall, while at the same time those persons most interested in the area main- tained as a park will obtain the full enjoyment from it. As the Garden of the Tuilleries, besides performing its artistic function of uniting the palaces of the Louvre with the Arc de Triomphe, furnishes a pleasing passageway for tens of thousands of persons who cross it going to and from their work, so the Mall will afford variety and refreshment to those going and coming between the "Island" and the other sections of the city. By extending Ninth street through the Mall, an opportunity occurs to emphasize these very necessary north and south connections, and at the same time to relieve from monotony the meadow- A cross axis. , • like stretch a mile and a half long. The entire space between Seventh and Ninth streets should be treated in a manner similar to the proposed Union Square in front of the Capitol, with parterres of green and large basins of water, with frequent seats tempting the passer-by to linger for rest. * In France Versailles, Fontainebleau, Oompifigne, Vaux-le-Vicomte; in Austria the royal palace of Schonbrunn, near Vienna; in England Bushy Park, Windsor Great Park, and Hatfield House; in America Old Hadley in Massachusetts and Williamsburg in Virginia are noteworthy instances. No. 61a. — Model of the Monument Garden. THE WASHINGTON MONUMENT DIVISION. FROM this cross axis the carpet of greensward of the Mall stretches westward. The bordering columns of elms march to the Monument grounds, climb the slope, and, spreading them- selves to right and left on extended terraces, form a great body of green, strengthening the broad platform from which the obelisk rises in majestic serenity. The groves on the terraces become places of rest, from which one gets wide views of the busy city; of the White House, surrounded by its ample grounds; of the Capitol, crowning the heights at the end of the broad vista; of sunny stretches of river winding at the foot of the Virginia hills. Axial relations between the White House and the Monument are created by the construction of a sunken garden on the western side of the great shaft, the true line passing through the A sunken g:arden. i i i • i center of a great round pool, to which marble steps three hundred feet in width lead down forty feet from the Monu- ment platform. Surrounded by terraces bearing elms, laid out with formal paths lined by hedges and adorned with small trees, enriched by fountains and temple-like structures, this garden becomes the gem of the Mall system. Seen from the lower level, the Monument gains an additional height of nearly forty-five feet, while at the same time nothing is suffered to come so near as to disturb the isola- tion which the Monument demands. 47 48 PARK SYSTEM OF THE DISTRICT OP COLUMBIA. At present the immediate surroundings of the Monument are so inad- equate as to cause the beholder near at hand to lose that very sense of No. 26.— Plan showing proposed treatment of the Monument Garden. grandeur which it inspires when seen from a distance; and the lack of harmoniou.s relationship between it and the great structures with which it comes into juxtaposition disturbs one's sense of fitness. No portion of the task set before the Commission has required more study and extended consideration than has the solution of the problem of devis- ing an appropriate setting for the Monument; and the treatment here proposed is the one which seems best adapted to enhance the value of the Monument itself. Taken by itself, the Washington Monument stands not only as one of the most stupendous works of man, but also as one of the most beautiful of human creations. Indeed, it is at once so great and so simple that it seems to be almost a work of nature. Dominating the entire District of Columbia, it has taken its place with the Capitol and the White House as one of the three foremost national structures. NO. 58.— QENERAL VIEW OF THE MONUMENT GARDEN AND MALL. LOOKING TOWARD THE CAPITOL. NO. 4-4. -VIEW IN THE MONUMENT GARDEN, MAIN AXIS, SHOWING PROPOSED TREATMENT OF APPROACHES AND TERRACES, FORMING A SETTING FOR THE WASHINGTON MONUMENT. LOOKING EAST. %t .-IT ■ No. 43.— One of six pavilions in tlie Monument Garden. THE WASHINGTON COMMON. TAKING the Monument garden as a center, one looks north- ward over the White Lot, which is retained as the great drill grounds of the District. On the eaist and on the west, along Fifteenth and Seventeenth streets, walks shaded by four rows of lindens tempt one from the hot and busy streets of the city to the cool and quiet of the gardens or to the field of sports beyond. The space south of the Monument is to be devoted to the people as a place of recreation — the Washington Common it might be called. Here should be constructed a great stadium arranged for athletic con- tests of all kinds and for the display of fireworks on festal occasions. Ball grounds and tennis courts, open-air gymnasiums for youths, and sand piles and swings for children, all should be provided, as they are -now furnished in the progressive cities of this countrJ^ The tidal basin should have the most ample facilities for boating and for wad- ing and swimming in summer, as well as for skating in winter. To 49 50 PARK SYSTEM OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. this end boat pavilions, locker houses, and extensive bath houses should be constructed with all the conveniences known to the best-equipped institutions of like character. The positive dearth of means of innocent enjoyment for one's leisure hours is remarkable in Washington, the one city in this country where people have the most leisure. Where the axis of the White House intersects the axis of Maryland avenue a site is found for a great memorial. Whether this memorial shall take the form of a Pantheon, in which shall be grouped the statues of the illustrious men of the nation, or whether the memory of some individual shall be honored by a monument of the first rank may be left to the future; at least the site will be ready. No. 46.— View of Terrace from base of Monument. NO. 49.— VIEW SHOWING THE PROPOSED DEVELOPMENT OF THE LINCOLN MEMORIAL SITE, SEEN FROM THE CANAL. THE LINCOLN MEMORIAL. THE area extending westward for a mile from the Monument to the bank of the Potomac — land reclaimed from the river flats — remains to be considered. For the most part this area from New York avenue to the river should be treated as a wood, planted informally, but marked by formal roads and paths, much as the Bois de Bologne at Paris is treated. If the plans as laid down by this Commission shall be observed by the army engineers in the remaining work of flats reclamation, and by the District engineers when they come to complete the sewage-disposal system, this portion of Potomac Park can be made ready for planting without appreciable expense. The central portion of this area, still adhering to the Mall width of sixteen hundred feet, has a special and particular treatment. From the Monument garden westward a canal three thousand six hundred feet long and two hundred 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 platform, this canal, similar in char- acter and general treatment to the canals at Versailles and Fontaine- ble9,u, in France, and at 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 forty feet the Memorial Bridge leads across the Potomac directly to the base of the hill crowned by the Mansion-house of Arlington. Crowning the rond point, as the Arc de Triomphe crowns the Place de I'Etoile at Paris, should stand a memorial erected to the memory of 51 52 PARK SYSTEM OF THE DISTRICT OP COLUMBIA. that one man in oui' history as a nation who is worthy to be named with George Washington — Abraham Lincoln. Whatever may be the exact form selected for the memoi-ial to Lincoln, in type it should possess the quality of universality, and also it should have a character essentially distinct from that of any monument either now existing in the District or hereafter to be Type of the Lincoln erected. The type which the Commission has in mind Memorial. jy ^ great portico of Doric columns rising from an unbroken stylobate. This portico, while affording a point of vantage No. 32. — Section of Lincoln Memorial. from which one obtains a commanding outlook, both upon the river and eastward to the Capitol, has for its chief function to support a panel bearing an inscription taken either from the Gettysburg speech or from some one of the immortal messages of the savior of the Union. The portico contemplated in the plans, consisting of columns forty feet in height, occupies a space of two hundred and fifty feet in length and two hundred and twenty feet in width; it is approached by flights of stairs on the east and the west, is embellished with appropriate groups of sculpture, and is surmounted by a central crowning group of statuary. At the head of the canal, at the eastern approach to the memorial, it is proposed to place a statue of Abraham Lincoln, while surrounding the memorial and framing it are linden trees, planted four rows deep, to form a peristyle of green, from which radiate various avenues centering upon the memorial itself.' 'On June 16, 1902, the House of Representatives passed the Senate bill, introduced by Mr. Oullom, of Illinois, as follows: Se it enacted, etc., That the chairman of the Committee on the Library of the Senate, the chairman of the Committee on the Library of the House of Representa- tives, the Secretary of State, and the Secretary of War, and James D. Richardson, a member of the House of Representatives, be, and they are hereby, created a com- mission to secure plans and designs for a monument or memorial to the memory of Abraham Lincoln, late President of the United States. Sec. 2. That the sum of $25,000, or so much thereof as may be necessary, is hereby appropriated, out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, to carry out the provisions of this act. Sbc. 3. That the said commission shall report the result of their action to Congress as soon as practicable after a decision has been reached. THE MEMOEIAL BRIDGE, AI^ALOSTAN ISLA:^D, AND THE NATIONAL CEMETERY AT ARLINGTON. 53 THE MEMORIAL BRIDGE, ANALOSTAN ISLAND, AND THE NATIONAL CEMETERY AT ARLINGTON. ON the occasion of layings the corner stone for the extension of the Capitol, on the Fourth of July, 1851, Daniel Webster, in the course of an impassioned plea for preservation of the Union, which in his prophetic vision seemed even then on the verge of dissolution, exclaimed: 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. The struggle which the orator and the statesman were powerless to avert brought about the perpetuation of the Union; and to-day the survivors of that war, both those of the North and those of the South, using the words of President McKinley, urge the building of the Memorial Bridge as a monument to American valor. For the past seventeen years the Memorial Bridge project has been before Congress constantly. In response to the Senate resolution of May 24, 1886, Major Hains, of the Corps of Engineers, reported in favor of a bridge of four spans, each about three hundred feet in length, to extend from the Washington bank of the Potomac to Analostan Island, the island itself and the bed of Little River to be crossed partly by an embankment and partly by an open trestle, the cost for the entire work to be about $650,000. About the same time Captain Symons submitted a plan for a more elaborate structure, to extend from Observatory Hill to the National Cemetery and Govern- ment estate at Arlington, at a cost of $1,500,000. On February 20, 1890, the Senate again called for a study of the subject, and in response Colonel Hains proposed a bridge four thousand five hundred and eighty feet in length, extending irom New York avenue to the Arlington estate, at a cost of 13,591,000. S. Rep. 166 7 55 56 PAEK SYSTEM OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. Subsequently several reports were made on bills to provide for a Memorial Bridge, but the first legislation on the subject is found in the sundry civil act approved March 3, 1899, which appropriated $5,000 "to enable the Chief of Engineers of the Army to continue the examination of the subject and to make or secure designs, calculations, and estimates for a Memorial Bridge from the most convenient point of the Naval Observatory grounds, or adjacent thereto, across the Potomac River to the most convenient point of the Arlington estate property." Acting under the authority so conferred, four bridge engineers, Messrs. L. L. Buck, William H. Burr, William R. Hutton, and George Bridge designs sub. §• Morrison, wcre invited to prepare plans. These mitted. plans were submitted to a jury composed of Lieutenant- Colonel Charles J. Allen, Major Thomas W. Symons, Captain D. D. Gaillard, of the Corps of Engineers, and Mr. Stanford White and Mr. James G. Hill, architects, who reported in favor of a combination of the designs submitted by Professor Burr. The cost was estimated at $4,860,000, and the structure proposed was a highly decorated bridge eighty-four feet in width, adapted for street-railway tracks, and fitted with a steel bascule draw. These plans were submitted to Congress by the Secretary of War on April 9, 1900, but thus far no action upon them has been taken. ^ Up to the time this report was submitted no study had been made for the development of the Potomac Park, and for this reason, doubtless, favorable consideration was given to bridge plans which contained in themselves features unusuallj'^ elaborate. The studies which the Park Commission has made for the improvement of Potomac Park, and the introduction in the park proper of memorials of the largest type, have led the Commission to recommend certain modifications in both the location and the character of the Memorial Bridge. The proposed Lincoln memorial, located on the bank of the Potomac, on the axis of the Capitol and the Washington Monument, and occupy- ing an elevation forty feet above the level of the water, makes a start- ing point for the bridge that becomes especially convenient when this rond point is considered as the point of divergence and reunion of the driveways leading to the Rock Creek park system on the northwest and the Potomac system on the southeast. Moreover, the establish- 'House of Representatives Document No. 578, Fifty-sixth Congress, first session. NO. 50. — PROPOSED DEVELOPMENT OF LINCOLN MEMORIAL SITE, SEEN FROM RIVERSIDE DRIVE. MEMORIAL BRIDGE, ANALOSTAN ISLAND, NATIONAL CEMETERY. 57 mentof this concourse allows the bridge to cross the river at the angle most convenient, taking into consideration both the channel of the river and the main objective point — the mansion house at Arlington. , Inasmuch as the comparatively flat topography of the country makes undesirable a high bridge under which vessels could pass, the decreased Length of bridge length of bridge required under the new plans is in desirable. itself a weighty consideration. At the same time the necessity of placing a draw in the bridge calls for such a treatment of the spans as shall not result in an apparent weakening of the structure at its central and vital point. All these things considered, the Commission recommends that the Memorial Bridge proper begin at the proposed Lincoln memorial and extend to Analostan Island; that the supports be masonry piers of monumental character; that the spans be so arranged as to prevent a • uniform appearance, the character of the draw used being such as to bring about this result. Also, that a concourse suited to memorial treatment be established on Analostan Island, and that the extension of the passageway from the island to the Virginia shore be distinctly subordinate to the bridge proper. The competition already mentioned having resulted in the selection of one of the leading bridge builders of the country, it is not con- sidered necessary to do more than to have the subject restudied in the light of the new conditions and to have such modifications made in the plans as shall adapt them to the principles above laid down, all of which may be accomplished under the direction of the Secretary of War when the necessary appropriations shall be made. Such modifi- cations would call for the removal of the central ornamental towers, which would conflict with the proposed Lincoln memorial, and which are not considered as in themselves desirable features for the central portion of a bridge structure. In connection with the Memorial Bridge, the acquisition and devel- opment of Analostan Island becomes an important consideration. The DeTeiopmentofin- inland proper is about eighty-eight acres in extent; aiostan Island. ^nd to this should be added the flats at the eastern end, which must be reclaimed eventually. The western portion, sep- arated from Georgetown by the narrow channel of the river, is in part covered by trees and in part by sedges and water plants. Form- ing an important and beautiful part of all the views over the Poto- 58 PARK SYSTEM OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. mac, the island should not be permitted to come into disagreeable -occupancy, but at the earliest convenient opportunity it should be purchased and developed as a river park for the use of that por- tion of Georgetown which is now entirelj^ without park facilities. Inasmuch as the island will be crossed by the Memorial Bridge, it will be accessible, and at its present offered price it would form a very desirable and inexpensive addition to the park system. The broader and simpler the treatment of the bridge to Arlington, the closer will be the connection between the reservations now sepa- Treatment of Ar- I'^ted by the Potomac, and the more vital will be the unston. relation between the Potomac Park and the Arling- ton estate. Such a result becomes desirable in the highest degree when one considers the immense numbers of people who resort not only to Fort Myer, but also to the Arlington Cemetery. The interest excited by the drills at the cavalry post, the superb view from the heights, and the feelings of patriotism awakened by the vast field of the hero dead, known or unnamed, all call for such a treatment of the entire resei'vation as shall not diminish but rather enhance the effect produced on the visitor. There is nothing that needs proper supervision and planning more than the modern cemetery, for there is certainly nothing that suffers more from vulgarity, ignorance, and pretentiousness on the one side, and grasping unscrupulousness on the other; and instead of being a place to which one may go with a sentiment of respect and peace, as into a church or sacred place, the eye and the feelings are constantly shocked by the monstrosities which dominate in all modern cemeteries. There is no doubt that the feeling which pervades the majority of people who erect monuments to their dead is one of the tenderest; a sincere desire to do nothing even in the simplest form which is not fitting and in entire harmony with the feeling that prompts the erec- tion of the memorials. This feeling, if properly protected and guarded, would lead to the harmonious and sober treatment so necessary for such places. A great example of the effectiveness of such restraint and guidance is the extraordinary dignity, impressiveness, and nobility of the Soldiei's' Cemetery at the Soldiers' Home in this city, and also in that part of the Arlington Cemetery set apart for the privates and unknown dead. This is not attained by any large monuments, but by the very simplicity and uniformity of the whole. MEMOBIAL BRIDGE, ANALOSTAN ISLAND, NATIONAL CEMETERY. 59 The trouble is that the majority of monuments now in the ceme- teries are produced by firms who make it merely a business affair, the Cemetery menu- greater portiou of them having not the slightest idea ""*"**• of what is good or bad, and possessing not even an elementary knowledge of architecture or even good taste. To remedy this it is absolutely necessary that the designs for all the monuments in all the cemeteries, from the most modest to the most costly, should be made by or subject to the approval of a commission composed of two or three architects and a landscape architect of the highest pos- sible standing. They should lay out and design the cemeteries and establish rules for their proper supervision, and should control the designs for future monuments in the cemeteries already existing. Nothing could be more impressive than the rank after rank of white stones, inconspicuous in themselves, covering the gentle, wooded slopes, and producing the desired effect of a vast army The soldier dead. f i r o j in its last resting place. Those spaces reserved for burials of officers and their families, however, exhibit all the hetero- geneous forms which disturb those very ideas of peace and quiet which should characterize a spot sacred to the tenderest feelings of the human heart. In particular, the noble slopes toward the river should be rigorously protected against the invasion of monuments which utterly annihilate the sense of beauty and repose. This is one of the most beautiful spots in the vicinity of Washington; it should not be defaced or touched in any way, and a law or rule should at once be passed forbidding the placing of any monument on this hill. THE GEOUPING OF THE BUILDINGS OF THE EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENTS. 61 Memorial Bridge. Executfve group. .^^?:^^ "^^■^'»'- .-7 .:-X>'-. .^^^V4;; § '^^ Highway Bridge. Kailroad Bridge. Potomac Park. Wasliington Channel. War College and Engineers School. Union Square. NO. 21.-6IRD'S-EYE VIEW OF GENERAL PLAN, FROM A POINT TAKEN 4,000 FEET ABOVE THE GOVERNMENT HOSPITAL FOR THE INSANE. THE GROUPING OF THE BUILDINGS OF THE EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENTS. THE location of the buildings connected with the Legislative and Judicial Departments of the Government having been dis- cussed in another portion of this report, attention should be given to the buildings of the Executive Department. Of these the first to be considered is the White House, the corner stone of which was laid on October 13, 1792, and which was first occupied by Presi- dent and Mrs. John Adams in 1800. The building was burned by the British in 1814, and both its construction and reconstruction were superintended by its architect, James Hoban. For a number of years past the White House has been overcrowded by reason of the rapid increase in public business, which has encroached seriously upon the private apartments of the President. The larger receptions and other social functions are now so inadequately provided for as to cause serious discomforts to the guests, and a consequent loss of that order and dignity which should characterize them. State dinners can not be served adequately; and all the conditions surrounding the home life of the President are primitive to the last degree. Three methods of overcoming the present unfortunate conditions have been suggested: First, the enlargement of the White House by additions on the east and west of the present building. The plans and model prepared for such enlargement prove conclusively that the historic White House can not be enlarged without destroying its individuality, thus causing the loss of those characteristic features which endear the edifice to the American people.^ Second, it has been urged that the White House be given up entirely to public business, and that a residence for the President be built on one of the command- ing hills overlooking the city. This plan, however, has not as yet ' Celebration of the One Hundredth Anniversary of the Establishment of the Seat of Government in the District of Columbia, compiled by William V.Cox; address of Col. Theodore A. Bingham, pp. 61-71. 63 64 PARK SYSTEM OF THE DISTRICT OP COLUMBIA. commended itself to popular opinion. The third alternative is that the Executive offices be removed from the White House, and that the Presidents House (as the White House was termed officially until about 1860) be devoted entirely to residence purposes. This latter plan is favored by the present Chief Executive; and to the Commission it seems to be the best solution of the problem possible at this time. The location of the building to contain the Executive offices is a more difficult matter; but the Commission are of the opinion that while temporary quarters may well be constructed in the grounds of the White House, a building sufficient in size to accommodate those offices may best be located in the center of Lafayette Square. This suggestion must be taken in connection with the full development of the plan outlined below. There is a present and pressing need for new buildings for existing Departments. The Department of Justice is without a home, and the site selected for a new building (a portion of the square opposite the Treasury Department) is admitted to be inadequate for the erection of a suitable structure. The State, War, and Navy Departments, now housed in a single building, are in so crowded a condition that they are occupying additional rented quarters. For the sake of convenience these Departments should be accessible to the White House, which is their common center. The proper solution of the problem of the grouping of the Executive Departments undoubtedly is to be found in the construction of a series of edifices facing Ijafayette Square, thus repeating for those Departments the group of buildings for the Legis- lative and Judicial Departments planned to the Capitol grounds. Certainly both dignity and beauty can best be attained by such a dis- position of public edifices. The execution of this plan may best begin by erecting on the entire square bounded by Pennsylvania avenue, Jackson place, H, and Seven- teenth streets a building for the use of the Departments of State and of Justice. The square opposite the Treasury Department will be required before many years by the Post-Office Department, now most unworthily and inadequately housed in rooms over the local post- office; and by the Department of Commerce, soon to be created. It is quite possible also that the Interior Department may find it most con- venient to give up to the growing needs of the Patent Office its present noble building, and to come into closer physical relations with the other GROUPING OF BUILDINGS OF EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENTS. 65 Executive Departments. The Agricultural Department, however, being the nucleus of a great number of laboratories requiring a maxi- mum of light and air, may properly have its new building located, as at present proposed, on the grounds in the Mall, now set apart for its uses. Such a group of buildings, with the Executive offices for a center, as the Capitol is the center of the Legislative group, will result in a composition of the greatest possible dignity and impressiveness. ' ' Since this report was made the President has placed Mr. McKim in charge of the reinstatement of the White House; and plans have been prepared for the construc- tion of a temporary office building in the White House grounds on the west; and for the restoration of the President's house in such a manner as to increase the available space therein by about one-half. THE AREA SOUTH OF PENNSYLVANIA AVENUE. 67 THE AREA SOUTH OF PENNSYLVANIA AVENUE. DURING the past two decades a sentiment has develope'd both among the residents of the District and also in Congress, that the area between Pennsylvania avenue and the Mall should be reclaimed from its present uses by locating within that section important public buildings. The avenue itself is one of the historic thoroughfares of the world, a preeminence attained by reason of the fact that it connects the Executive Department with the Legisla- tive and Judicial Departments of Government, and so has become the route of those processions which celebrate great occasions in peace and war, or which from time to time mark the change of Adminis- trations. Although within recent years imposing buildings devoted to business purposes have been erected on the north side of the ave- nue, nevertheless, for the most part, the thoroughfare, spacious as it is in itself considered, is lined by structures entirely unworthy of the conspicuous positions they occupy. The upbuilding of Pennsyl- vania avenue, therefore, must of necessity have consideration in any comprehensive plan for the treatment of Washington. The extension of B street north eastward to Pennsylvania avenue, and the inclusion within the Mall of the space south of that street, as extended, will in part solve the problem. Furthermore, the present location of the city post-office and of the great central market, together with the fact that the business of the city, is concentrated largely along this avenue, both suggest that within this area the public buildings of the municipality, as distinct from the General Government, may well be located. The Commission have the more confidence in making this recommendation for the reason that, by common consent and by positive action as well, a site for a District building was set apart in front of the present Center Market, and for nearly thirty years the District of Columbia virtually has been paying an annual rental for that site, in the 69 70 PARK SYSTEM OF THE DISTKICT OP COLUMBIA. decreased rents charged the market company in consideration of the relinquishment of a portion of their property to be used as the site of a municipal building. Inadequate as to size, the location of the site is especially adapted to the end sought. Occupying a position midway between the White House and the Capitol, situated at the point of convergence of wide avenues, located in the very center of business activity, placed on a line with the dignified building of the Department of the Interior and of the new Carnegie Library, the site selected would give to the Dis- trict building and to the municipality it represents a distinction and a dignity all its own. No other site would so assert the individuality of the District of Columbia. This individuality would be still further enhanced by grouping within the same general area other buildings municipal or semi-municipal in character. In this connection the axial relation existing between the proposed site and the present loca- tion of the District courts should not be overlooked.^ The location of the District building at the point named would bring about a much-needed change in market conditions. As at present con- ducted, a large portion of the market business is conducted in public thoroughfares, to the inconvenience of travel and to the disturbance of municipal good order. Congress having retained an option of pur- chase, the market may well be removed to a location west of the present one, where could be provided a sufficient area, within which territory the business could be conducted within the market itself without encroaching upon the public thoroughfares. This new market should be constructed with streets running through it, as is the case in the admirable examples at Paris, Budapest, and other cities of continental Europe. Within the same general area should be constructed an amory suf- ficient in size to accommodate the brigade of District militia; and since the inauguration of the President of the United States is regarded as a municipal and not as a national function, the armory should be of a character to accommodate the inaugural balls now, given in the Pension Bureau, to the disturbance of public business. Also the much-needed new police court, the police and fire head- quarters, an enlarged emergency hospital, and other like divisions ' The omnibus public buildings act of 1902 locates the munidipal building on the site between Thirteen-and-a-half and Fourteenth streets south of Pennsylvania avenue. THE AREA SOUTH OF PENNSYLVANIA AVENUE. ' 7l of civic administration should find local habitations in immediate proximity to the District building. In such manner, gradually, and as municipal needs become insistent, the entire space should be occupied, transformed from its present unworthy conditions into a section having a distinct character, and also being closely related to its environment. Bulflnch Gatepost, formerly on Capitol grounds. S. Rep. 166 s OUTLYING PARKS Al^B PAEK COI^NECTIONS. 73 THE DISTRIBUTION OF THE PARKS. ENCIRCLING the city of Washington on the west, north, east, and, if the Potomac River be included, on the south also, ai'e situated the areas in which are the parks of the District as dis- tinguished from the city squares and grounds appertaining to public buildings. For the most part these areas are in their natural state, with hills and valleys, plateaus and ravines, as yet untouched by the pick and shovel of the improver; but along main lines thebuilding is advancing at such a rate as to make it certain that within a few decades city blocks and asphalt paving will occupy the areas already marked out on the permanent system of highways. Whatever of natural beauty is to be preserved and whatever park spaces are still to be acquired must be provided for during the next few years or it will be forever too late. Fortunately the larger areas necessary for an adequate park system have either been acquired or are awaiting reclamation. What remains to be done is to select and acquire those areas which are best fitted for connections between existing parks; to provide for the preserva- tion and improvement of certain spots of exceptional beauty, like the chain of abandoned forts encircling the District; to bring into use for pleasure purposes the wild and picturesque banks of the Potomac, and to secure many smaller spaces in order to extend the park sj^stem of the city to keep pace with the extension of the streets and avenues. In order to make clear how the above-mentioned tracts relate to the city and to each other it is necessary to explain the topography of the region in which they lie. The District of Columbia, extending for ten miles along the left bank of the Potomac, is divided into three distinct parts by two tributary Natnrai conditions st^ams, the Anacostia River to the southeast of the of the District. center, and Rock Creek to the northwest. Both val- leys are deep and are flanked by high hills; but the valley of the Ana- costia is broad while that of Rock Creek is narrow and abrupt. The 75 76 PARK SYSTEM OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. southeasterly section, beyond the Anacostia Eiver, consists of a series of long connecting ridges, ranging from 160 to 300 feet in height above the river, comparatively flat on top, but cut up by small valleys on their flanks into innumerable projecting points and minor sloping ridges. The northwestern section is a more solid mass, rising abruptly from the Potomac to a height of 100 feet or more, sloping up to an eleva- tion of 300 feet within half or three-quarters of a mile and reaching to over 400 feet in the middle of the area. The mass is dissected, like the Anacostia ridges, by numerous steep-sided valleys, some flowing east into Rock Creek and some south into the Potomac. The steep- ness of the declivities and the considerable height of the hills in both of these sections constantlj^ present extensive and impressive views. The central section is subdivided into a northern, outer, hilly part, similar to the sections already described, although not so abrupt in its topography, and a southern or inner part, forming the point between the two main valleys, of gently undulating surface and occupied by the main body of the city of Washington. It was this inner portion, admirably adapted to urban development, that was originally selected and laid out as the Federal city, with an area as large as the areas of densely built European capitals of a hundred years ago, but quite insufficient for a modern city of large population. The three outer sections of the district, healthful and charming as country, are very ill adapted for ordinary urban occupation, and their use for such pur- poses involves many difficult problems which have not all been suc- cessfully solved as yet. The most important feature of the Washington climate, so far as it affects the park problem, is the oppressive summer heat which the Government officials and employees and other residents must for the most part undergo — a factor which seems to call strongly for several palliatives: the maintenance of shade, the preservation of many hilltops where breezes may be caught, the preservation of many of the deep, shady valleys in which the cooler air appears to settle on summer afternoons, and the liberal use of fresh running water all about the city and its parks, whether in the form of springs and brooks or of fountains and basins. If the present distribution of park lands within the boundary of the old city of Washington is, as we believe, no more than reasonable, and if the distribution of parks in and around the capitals of other great EXISTING LARGE PARKS AND PROPOSED ADDITIONS. 77 nations and our own large cities is not unreasonable, it is evident from a glance at the accompanying diagrams that a considerable increase in The need for iiddi- ^^^ number of parks in the outer part of the District tioiiai parks. jg absolutely requisite if provision is to be made for the needs of the immediate future. It is true that the resident popu- lation of Washington at the present time is much smaller than the population of such capitals as London and Pai-is, or such American cities as New York and Boston, with which its park area is compared in these diagrams, but even in proportion to its present population it would not compare very favorably with Paris as to park area; and it is to be remembered, first, that Washington is growing very rapidly with the growth of the nation in numbers and prosperity, and, second, that its parks, like its public buildings, are not to be considered merely in reference to its resident population, but in relation to the millions of citizens from far and near who come to Washington expecting, and having a right to expect, that here, at the seat of government, they shall find not merely what is considered "good enough " in their work- aday home cities, where most of the citizens' energy must perforce be spent on commercial struggles, but the very best that is to be had. In considering what might wisely be added to the park system, we have not fixed upon any arbitrary proportion to area or to estimated population, but have selected only those places which from their natural conditions, whether because of steepness, inaccessibility, or difficulties of drainage, or from their peculiar and exceptional natural beauty, seemed likely to bring a smaller return to the community if used for the ordinary purposes of private occupancy than if used for pai'ks. In order to have a sound basis for our conclusions, we have made careful personal examinations of nearly all parts of the District. This examination has been guided and supplemented by the use of the admirable topographical map of the District made by the Coast and Geodetic Survey. When our general conclusions were reached, the proposed additions were plotted on the map; and, after carefully con- sidering their relations to the highway extension system and other proposed improvements, we examined the lines on the ground with map in hand. Before coming to definite conclusions, and, indeed, throughout our investigation, we consulted with the District Commis- sioners and their assistants, with the officer in charge of the Potomac Flats improvements, and with other officials, all of whom were most con- siderate in giving information and advising with us. TREATMENT OF THE MINOR RESERVATIONS. WITHIN the old city limits no additional small resei'vations are needed, but in the remaining four-fifths of the District there are practicallj' none, as against 275 in the city. Distributed with the same wise foresight as was shown by the founders of the city, and with equal liheralitj% there should be some ten or twelve hundred in the outlying district. Without adopting any such arbitrary rule, we can say that considerable numbers of these minor spaces ought now to be secured while much of the land is selling at acre prices. In many cases there is no strong ground of choice among several good areas in one neighborhood, and the final determination must depend very largely upon the prices at which the several parcels are offered by their owners. Aside from a few particularly agreeable groves, the points that are singled out by natural conditions as especially worthy of preservation are mainly hilltops from which extensive views may be obtained. It so happens that most of these hilltops from their commanding positions were occupied by forts during the civil war as part of the defenses of Washington, thus adding historical associations to the reasons which would otherwise suggest their acquisition. As the small areas thus specifically recommended for purchase are shown on map No. D-288 and are enumerated in detail in Appendix I, it will suffice to say here that they number 17 and amount to a total area of 364 acres. To these should be added a much greater number of small pieces, which can be selected more wisely bj' a board authorized to negotiate with the landowners and obtain options. One other point to be borne in mind in choosing these reservations is that the future will call for schoolhouses in all parts of the District, and that it will be of the utmost value to secure in advance well-distributed schoolhouse sites having adequate area suitable for playgrounds. 79 80 PARK SYSTEM OF THE DISTRICT OP COLUMBIA. There are within the city 26 squares, circles, etc., between one acre and 25 acres in extent, and 275 ranging from one acre down to i05 square feet, making a total of 301, with a total acreage of 166.93.^ Most of the larger of these areas occupy well-chosen and important positions suggested by the lay of the land, and the original street sys- tem of the city was adapted to them so as to recognize anJ emphasize their importance, while most of the smaller areas are pieces left at the intersections of the streets thus determined. They are distributed quite uniformly throughout the original city, but practically none have yet been provided for the remaining four-fifths of the District. With the exception of one, temporarily fitted for use as a play- ground, those that have been improved^ have been treated in accord- ance with one general ideal, although exhibiting some variety in arrangement and de- tail. The treatment adopted aims to pro- vide an agreeable appearance to pass- ers- by, and shade and pleasant surround- ings for those who resort to the squares foi' recreation. To these ends they are generally planted with trees, turfed, more or less deco- rated with shrubs, flowers, and sculptural monuments, often defined and protected by curbing or fences, and when of sufficient size provided with paths and benches. Unfortunately for the general effect, the sculptural decorations have seldom been treated as a part of the design, but have been inserted as independent objects valued for their historic or memo- rial qualities or sometimes for their individual beauty, regardless of the effect on their surroundings. Treated as they are, these well-distributed areas are of the utmost Water basin at the Villa Medici, Home. 'A detailed list will be found in Appendix G. Tables I and II, page 153. ^About 35 per cent of the total number have been "improved," and 24 per cent "partially improved." TREATMENT OF THE MINOR RESERVATIONS. 81 value to the city, conti'ibuting largely to the cheerful and comfortable character by which all visitors are struck and attracted; but we believe that without the sacrifice of this effect it would be possible to intro- duce a greater variety of treatment, giving each area a more distinct individuality and providing for more special forms of recreation chosen with a view to the surroundings and capabilities of each particular area. One such special use to which several squares should be devoted in different parts of the city is that of playgrounds; and these, too, should be considered individually and not in any wholesale or uniform way. In some cases they should provide especially aygroun s.. ^^^ little children, with smooth protected lawns, with swings and teeter boards, with sand courts, and with safe and shallow wading pools in view of sheltered seats for the mothers or nurses. In some there should be regular outdoor gymnasia, with apparatus for jumping, vaulting, climbing, swinging, and the like, with tracks for running and spaces for the lesser athletic con- tests, such as put- ting the shot and quoits and bowling; in others there should be provision for the larger games, whether the schoolboys' games of tag and pris- oners-base and scrub, or the organized games of baseball and football between regular teams. But even within the limits of more passive recreation there might well be some specialization; some areas, for instance, arranged as shady con- cert groves, with little or no turf, for the comfortable accommodation of large crowds at band concerts; one oi' more places arranged for night illuminations with electric fountains, and for the display of fire- works on the occasion of national celebrations; one or more squares treated with a series of basins for the display of the brilliant aquatic No. 166. — Open-air restaurant in the Prater, Vienna. 82 PABK SYSTEM OP THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. flowers; some devoted especially to evergreen winter effects; and verj'- many arranged in all their details with a view to giving the maximum refreshment in the hot summer weather by means of shade well dis- tributed and by means of gushing, rippling, sparkling, living water — not in a series of repeated commonplace forms, but infinite in its varia- tions, and when wisely used always full of a new charm and refreshment. The amount invested in the land of these squares at current prices amounts to several million dollars, and to secure a fair rate of interest in recreative value requires the application of as much purposeful ingenuity and well-trained judgment in design and management as is needed in the conduct of any business enterprise of similar magnitude.^ 'The existing parks are shown on map No. D-287; the proposed additions are shown on map No. D-288; the positions and boundaries of the several areas dis- cussed in this report can be followed most readily on the combined map No. D-289. THE LARGER PARKS AND THEIR CONNECTIONS. IN discussing- the larger parks and tiieir connections we shall begin at the western end of the Mall, and take the western, central, and eastern sections of the District in order, ending with the Potonaac Park on the south. Beginning at the site of the Lincoln memorial, at the westerly extremity of the Mall as extended to the Potomac, a parkway should skirt the bank of the Potomac to the mouth of Rock Creek. A broad, paved quay or landing place should extend the shore line out to the deep main channel and present to the river a smooth, con- tinuous wall, instead of iutting piers which retard the Potomnc (Jnay. j n r current and tend to cause shoaling. This quay should be on a level with the adjacent land, which is likely to be occupied in the futixre, as at present, by various industries using bulky water- borne freight — such as coal yards, gas works, paving concerns, and the like — to which the material can be transferred from the quay by wagons, tram cars, or belt conveyors, much as it is now handled by the more enterprising abutters. The park drive and promenade should be carried through at the landward side of the quay proper, between it and the commercial establishments, but at a higher level with frequent arched openings underneath for the transfer of goods, and possibly, also, for storage purposes. Separated by the diflPerence in level from actual conflict with the pleasure travel, the activity of the water front would really add to the interest of the parkway and give a character to it possessed by no other in this country. In several European river cities, notably Paris, Vienna, and Budapest, there are such combinations of a com- mercial quay with a promenade at a higher level, and they form, in many cases, the most popular and delightful resorts for the people; but in no case, we believe, are the conditions so favorable as at Wash- S.Rep.X66 9 g3 84 PARK SY-STEM OF THE DISTRICT OF COLTJMBIA. ington, for elsewhere the abutting private land and streets are invari- ably at the higher level, thus necessitating the transfer of goods up occasional inclines and across the promenade at grade, whereas, in this instance, merchandise can be readily transferred at any point without the least interference between business and pleasure. This quay treatment is proposed for the entire stretch between Potomac Park and the Pennsylvania avenue bridge across Book Creek, as the lower portion of the creek is a part of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, and is as much a part of the commercial water front as the ^4^! No. 10.— Typical treatment of Potomac Quay. Potomac itself; but above Pennsylvania a-\-enue entirely different con- ditions prevail, and another treatment must be adopted. Moreover, it is to be understood that the accompanying section for the quay is merely typical, and would be modified at various points to meet local conditions — at places by the omission of the street on the inner side of the drive, at places by different arrangements of the levels, at places, perhaps, by the omission of the inner retaining wall and the substitution of a bank. The precise line, moreover, of the quay front and of the taking line can be fixed only after a detailed survey, with soundings and foundation tests; but in the main the project here set forth is unquestionably practicable, and would provide at once the most convenient and the most agreeable treatment for the connection between the parks and for the commercial water front. It would be possible, if it should ultimately be thought wise, to sontinue a similar treatment along the whole frontage of Georgetown Harbor, and thus to arrange a continuous dri^e along the river from Potomac Park past the Aqueduct Bridge and by a rising grade to the upper Potomac drive, but such a construction would be so costly that it has not been seriously contemplated, the more so as the diffi- culties in the way of' such an undertaking are not likely to increase with the passage of time. THE LARGER PARKS AND THEIR CONNECTIONS. 85 Two radically different plans have been suggested as alternatives in the treatment of Rock Creek and its accompanying Rock Cr«ek Pnrkniiy. -n i parkway between Pennsylvania avenue and Massa- chusetts avenue: First. To build a large covered masonry culvert or sewer for the creek, and to fill around and over this structure so as to obliterate the valley and raise it to the level of the adjacent lands, constructing a parkway or boulevard upon a portion of the filled land and subdivid- ing the remainder into streets and lots for sale." Second. To improve the present open channel of the creek, regrade its banks, and improve them for park purposes, and to construct roads and paths within the park thus foi'med, spanning the vallej'^ by fre- quent street bridges to provide close connection with Georgetown." IL •1 i^ mSM ^^ A^ ^^.' HuZOr"' ' ^^ 1- :■;*""'*"' , '"-, '"■^^ N._ No. 12.-^Typical section of Eock Creek Parkway— Alternative project with covered channel. The general character of the two projects is indicated by the accom- panying sections. The Massachusetts avenue ci'ossing over Eock Creek has been designed and is under construction as a culvert and fill upon the assumption that the first plan will be carried out, but although this fill will interfere with the perfect execution of the open valley plan, we feel compelled to recommend the definite adoption of the latter on grounds of economy, convenience, and beauty. An explicit state- ment of the steps which led to this conclusion would burden the report needlessly and is therefore confined to Appendix D, page 135. 'Discussed, except as to construction of parkway, in Senate Mis. Doc. No. 21, Fifty-second Congress, second session. ' Proposed by committee of Washington Board of Trade, December 15, 1899. See Park Improvement Papers, No. 7. 86 PARK SYSTEM OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. We may point out, however, that the park drives and paths under the open-vallej' plan would be separated by grade, like those of the Georgetown Harbor quay, from conflict with the commercial traffic of a busy district; but while the activity of the water front is inter- esting to look down upon, the sights, of the inland region between Pennsylvania avenue and Q street are for the most part merely shabby, sordid, and disagreeable. It is therefore a very fortunate opportunity that permits the seclusion of the parkway in a valley the immediate sides of which can be controlled and can bo made to limit the view to a self-contained landscape, which may be beautiful even though restricted. North of Q street the valley becomes very attract- ive and takes on something of the sylvan character which it has in its upper poi'tion. A branch drive should lead to Sheridan circle, and the main drive should rise along the easterly side of the valley so as to No. 11. — ^Typical section of Rock Creek Parkway — Treatment recommended, get a plunging view and so as to pass just under Massachusetts avenue, permitting an eas}' connection with it. From this point to the Zoo- logical Park there are no serious difiiculties, and the problem reduces itself to one of careful and judicious detailed adjustment of the con- struction to the topograph}^ and vegetation of the valley. The boundaries shown on the map are determined below Q street so as to include only what is needed for the proper regrading of the val- ley sides and other essential construction. Above that point they are determined partly for those reasons, but in places so as to include some exceptionally fine hillside woods that now form an important part of the valley landscape, and if cut down and replaced by houses would utterly change its character. In so far as it was practicable, without essential injury to the parkway, wo have followed lines already fixed for streets on the highwaj^ plans and elsewhere have provided for new boundary streets. THE LAKGER PARKS AND THEIR CONNECTIONS. 87 The Zoological Park, 170 acres in extent, lies along Rock Creek about 2 miles from its mouth and directly northwest from the central part of the city. Although regularly open to the Zoological Park. i ,. . i "o ii i public as a place of recreation, the purpose or the park is distinctly specialized, namely,- to preserve and exhibit a collection of living animals under agreeable and natural surroundings. The health of the animals and the convenience of the public in seeing them must be the controlling considerations here, and the natural landscape of the park, although of recognized importance, must necessarily be modified and adapted to the provision of numerous buildings, fences, roads, and paths, and the need of bare ground or pavement that is caused by crowds of people and herds of animals. The natural condi- tion of rugged sylvan wildness could not, therefore, consistently be maintained in this park, but the steep topography and the passages of untouched woods suggest a picturesqueness in the style and arrange- ment of the artificial constructions which has been followed for the most part successfullJ^ In the future development of the park there are two dangers to be guarded against — the introduction, on the one hand, of buildings or other constructions or plantations of a highly organized and formal character, out of harmony with the character already adopted; and on the other, the confusion due to the scattering of numerous structures and features without any method or massing. There is always the danger, too, in attempting picturesque and rugged effects in a place resorted to by large crowds that the accommodation for the crowds will be made insufficient' through fear of making the paths, roads, steps, and the like, too conspicuous, with the result that the crowds overflow the places made for 'them and reduce the whole park to shabbiness. One of the most important points, therefore, in the continued improve- ment of the Zoological Park is to watch its use carefully; to forecast its future use by larger crowds, and to provide such accommodations that the people will be led always to concentrate their wear and tear on the places prepared to withstand it, leaving the remainder fresh and wild looking, to give character to the whole. Certain additions are very essential to the proper treatment and maintenance of the park, and we can not urge too strongly that these be made without delay. A statement of them, with the reason for each, is to be found in Appendix I. 88 PAKK SYSTEM OF THE DISTEICT OF COLUMBIA. Rock Creek Park occupies the valley of the creek from the Zoolog- ical Park northward to the District line, including an area of 1,606.9 acres varying in width from less than 300 yards to a Uock Creek Park. ,. , ., .,, , ^ i ^ ,^ ^ ^ , , .i little over a mile, with a total length oi about 4 miles. The vallej' is crooked and narrow and flanked by steep, high, and thickly wooded hills. In the southern portion of the park some of the hill tops are comparativelj^ level, but with the exception of these limited plateaus and a few narrow strips of bottom land along the creek the whole area is hill}' in the extreme. Most of the land is tim- bered and much of the wood is of considerable age and beauty, espe- cially' in the narrow and gorge-liJse portions of the valley, offering some very beautiful sjdvan scenery. This has recently been made accessible by a macadamized road, known as Beach Drive, along the creek from the Zoological Park halfway to the northern end, connect- ing with the Military road at that point, and continued by an earth road along the remainder of the creek. This road, which was very skillfully laid out, has brought a large numbei- of visitors into the valley to enioy the beauty of its scenery, and, as the road is of limited width, there is danger that it may soon become overcrowded; if so, a very serious problem in the development of the park will arise at once. Narrow as the present road is, and skillfully as it was built, there are several points where it has very appreciably injured the scenerj', and to widen it by any considerable amount would be a calamity. It is true that the value of the park scenery depends absolutely upon making it conveniently accessible to the people, but nothing can be gained if the means of access destroys the scenery which it is meant to exhibit, and we believe that as wide a road as the future population is likely to demand would injure the character of the valley irreme- diabl}'. Possibly the solution is to be found in the ultimate construc- tion of another and wider drive, or drives, high enough on the vallej' sides to, leave the wild sylvan character of the stream at the bottom of the gorge uninjured, but yet within sight and sound of the water and seeming to be of the valley. Such a road would doubtless require more grading, would cost more, and would destroy more trees and more square yards of pretty undergrowth than a road of equal width in the bottom of the gorge, but the damage of the latter would be done at the vital spot. It would be the pound of flesh from nearest the heart, while the former would compare with the amputation of a leg. We discuss this point, not because we wish to urge this par- THE LARGER PARKS AND THEIR OONNECTIONS. 89 ticular treatment, but in order to make clear that the peculiar topog- raphy of Rock Creek Park, while giving a great share of beaut j', renders its development as the principal park of a populous city a matter of great perplexity, requiring the most careful study. After the completion at its present width of the road along the creek, we would advise most urgently that no further work of development be attempted until careful studies have been made for the comprehen- sive treatment of the whole park, and, if the park is to be made avail- able, such studies should be promptly undertaken. This applies not onljr to matters of construction, but to the treatment of the vegetation. Should certain open areas be planted in order to block certain unde- sirable outlooks? Should certain other areas now growing up with young trees be cleared out for the sake of the views, or, if not, which are the trees to be encouraged in each instance? Hundreds of such questions ought to be asked and answered before the maintenance and improvement of the park can be directed intelligently and economicallj' toward the best future results. As a rule, the boundary should be upon such a line as to permit the construction of a border street, which will separate the park from the adjacent property, causing the neighboring buildings to face upon it, making it easier to police, and in general adding to its dignity. Partly in order to provide for boundary streets on reasonable grades and partlj' that the crests of the overlooking hills may be under the control of the park authorities so as to prevent objectionable structures fi'om being obtruded into the landscape, a considerable number of additional purchases are requisite, as set forth seriatim with specific reasons in Appendix I. These additions are of varying degrees of importance, but several of them are more essential to the future value of the park than adjacent land alreadj^ acquired, and provision for their purchase is one of the most pressing needs of the park system. THE SECTION WEST OF EOCK CREEK. A S an important entrance to Rock Creek Park and in connection ■ LX with the high western section of the District, we propose that a parkway be formed in the valley of Broad Branch, which enters the park at its most western point. The valley is in part gentle and open, with scattered trees, and in part steep sided and heavily wooded. The treatment would be in effect that of an elongated park contained between two boundary streets and including a sufficient width of natural valley scenery to give agreeable surroundings for the main dri\^e, bridle path, footpaths, etc. In the rough portion next the park the character would be somewhat as indicated by the section on page 92, but in general it would be more open and gentle. The width between boundary streets would vary from 200 to 700 feet. The course would be a little north of west to Connecticut avenue, a distance of about three-quarters of a mile. The main drive would pass under the avenue, but a branch road would connect with it at grade, thus putting the parkway in touch with Chevy Chase and the main line of transportation. Beyond Connecticut avenue the branch of the valley followed by the parkway turns to the southwest and reaches Fort Reno. The site of Fort Reno, now occupied by a reservoir, is the highest point in the District, 426 feet above tide level, and commands remark- ably wide views in all directions. It is highly desir- Fort Beno Park. able that this summit be preserved from exclusive private occupation, and we recommend the acquirement of a sufficient area to protect the view against obstruction by houses of ordinary height on the adjacent slopes. A circle 2,000 feet in diameter would attain this end and its boundary would permit the construction of a border street at good grades. A short link of parkway would connect Fort Reno along the ridge to the south with Tenley Circle 91 92 PARK SYSTEM OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. at the junction of Nebraska avenue and the Tenleytown road. This circle is the point of junction with another important line of parkway. To the west of Rock Creek the onlj-^ considerable tract of public open land is that at the receiving reservoir, in the extreme corner of the District overlooking the goi'ge of the Potomac. This has therefore been taken as the main objective point of the principal pai'kway on the west, which follows almost the shortest line between the two reservations. The Soapstone Branch, which enters Broad Branch where the latter joins Rock Creek, about a mile below the end of Broad Branch Park- way, flows through a rather narrow, well-timbered, Soapstone Parkway. and beautiful vallej^ heading in open land near Fort Reno and Tenleytown. This valley is crossed by Connecticut avenue at a point where it is flanked by two high wooded peaks or knuckles No. 13.— Typical section ol one ol the Valley Parkways, such as Piney Branch, Soapstone Creek, and Georgetown Parkways. rising to an elevation of over 300 feet. Simply as a western entrance to Rock Creek Park from Connecticut avenue the lower portion of this valley seems quite essential. It is so steep sided that it would be costly of development for building purposes, while nothing could be better adapted to use as a park entrance, as it affords an easy grade and pleasant scenery within narrow limits. The two knuckles immediately west of the avenue ought also to be preserved, on their own account, as interesting topographical features rising high above the streets, and affording to those who will climb them extended views toward the east and toward the Monument. As part of a through parkway, the valley offers an opportunity for the drive to pass under Connecticut avenue with its heavy and swift suburban electric cars, and to rise through the opener and broader stretch to the west, reaching by a slight turn on an easy grade one of THE SECTION WEST OP ROCK CREEK. 93 the spurs of the high ridge in which the western portion of the Dis- trict culminates. From this point, at an elevation of 340 feet, is to be obtained another extensive eastern view down the vallej' and over Rock Creek Park to Soldiers' Home, a view that might well be marked 1 >y a terrace or concourse, especiallj" as the character of the parkwajr would change at this point from the informal type appropriate in the wooded vallej^ to a formal avenue across the high plateau, the terrace thus making a strong terminus for the latter and emphasizing the drop into the valle3^ The formal section would be a widening of Yuma street, laid out but not constructed, and would lead directly to a circle at the junction of Ne- braska avenue and Wisconsin avenue, commonly known as Tenley Road, within 2,000 feet of the proposed Fort Reno Park, the highest point in the District of Columbia. In con- nection with Nebraska avenue extended, a branch drive on easy grades can easily be pro- vided to Fort Reno, thus bring- ing it within easy reach of Rock Creek Park and the city. From the Tenley circle, con- tinuing on the widened Yuma street, a distance of about 1,000 feet brings the line to the western escarpment of the narrow plateau, where the land falls rap- idlj' and steadily from its elevation of 410 feet, disclosing a view that sweeps due west over mile after mile of rolling countrj' in Maryland and across the river to Virginia. To descend from this height it would be possible, by cutting at the top of the escarpment and filling heavily as the bottom, to avoid excessive grades, but to do so would be to ignore the opportunity here offered by the topographic conditions. Instead of so doing, we should advise carrying the park- way level out to the very brink, there ending it in a projecting con- course commanding in its perfection the sunset view, preserved from the intrusion of future buildings by the acquisition of the slope in S. Rep. 166 10 No. 154.— Terrace, Villa d'Este, Tivoli, showing how a declivity commanding a view is iised and empha- sized, not disguised. 94 PARK SYSTEM OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. view below; then, turning the road, it can be carried down upon a very easy grade by means of two reverses on the hillside, giving the opportunity at some future time of developing a splendid series of terraces facing the view and the mile-long continuation of the park- way to the reservoir and the District line. The receiving reservoir grounds, 281.75 acres in extent, situated at the westerly edge of the District, close to the Potomac River, lie partly in the State of Maryland. That portion in Receiving reservoir. ^^^ District is heavily wooded and the land is of a basin-like formation. No views of any importance are to be had from this land except that portion which touches the palisades of the Poto- mac. From this portion, however, views up and down the river are to be had, and in the remainder time and care will develop some very beautiful woodland scenerj^ to which the large pond-like reservoir will give great interest. This land should, therefore, be treated consist- ently with a view to its ultimate development as a park. An adjacent block of land, including the site of Battery Vermont, purchased by the District for a girls' reform school is no longer needed for its origi- nal purpose, and may be grouped with the receiving reservoir for park purposes. At the receiving-reservoir grounds is reached the gorge of the Potomac and the popular Conduit road, which provides the only way, except by trolley cars, to see the gorge from above. FutomiKi Drive. ..." As its construction was a mere incident to the installa- tion of the water supply, the location of the Conduit road was not fixed with regard to aesthetic effect, but from the fact that in many parts of No. 14. — Typical section of Potomac Drive, a short distance above Aqueduct Bridge. its course it follows near the edge of the declivity, presenting very fine views, and because its grades are generally good, it is more resorted THE SECTION WEST OF BOCK OREEK. 95 to than any dri\'e leading Oat of the District, except the one to Arling- ton. We believe that permanent provision should be made for the ends that are filled in a temporary and partial manner by the Conduit road and that this provision should take the form of what might be called a cliff drive along the Potomac, including in the holdings, in order to prevent objectionable occupancy, all the unoccupied steep land from the top of bluff down to the river. At the upper or landward edge would run a street for traffic and for house frontage, next below would run the trolley line, altered in places from its present location, and then, in the best position to present the changing panorama of the river, would come the pleasure drive and the promenade, fitted to the steep and irregular hillside by well-adjusted slope and wall. Still farther down comes the picturesque canal and its bordering roadway, and in places there might be call for a road No. 16. — Typical section of Potomac Drive below the Chain Bridge. close down bj' the river's edge. The arrangement of these several parts would vary with the varying conditions of the bluflf, as is sug- gested in the accompanying typical sections, but always the effect would be picturesque and alway^ the plunging views from the upper lines would be fine. Merely to provide for a street at the top of the slope is not enough, for, although the land is for the most part too steep to have much commercial value, yet here and there ugly and offensive buildings are likely to creep in, as they have done somewhat in the past, unless the slope is all acquired with a view to a consistent treatment. Years ago New York showed the way in the Riverside drive, and it is high time that the example should be followed here, at least so far as concerns the acquisition of the land. But such a treatment of the river side logically ought not to stop at the District line. Indeed, the best of the scenery lies beyond, espe- cially in the neighborhood of Cabin John Bridge and in the region 96 PARK SYSTEM OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. just about and below the Great Falls. The Great Falls of the Potomac, considering their proximity to the capital, are quite as well worth pres- ervation for their grandeur and natural beautj^ as the greater passages of scenery in the national parks of the West. Even at present, when the only means of approach is by canal or over the hill3' detour bj' which the road is carried around the most interesting scenery, the Washington public goes to the Great Falls in sufficient numbers to maintain the pay bridge to the islands, erected by private enterprise, and with increased facilities of access the place is likely to become a deservedly popular resort. The falls form one of the greatest cataracts of our Atlantic watershed, and while they themselves can not be injured, yet the great trees that once clothed their banks have been cut, and in private hands the surroundings may be so injured as to detract greatly fiom the beauty and grandeur of the scene. Without interfering with the future utilization of the water power, the sur- roundings of the Great Falls on both sides of the river should, in our opinion, be converted into a national park, to be connected with the city by a continuous river drive. The beauty of the scenery along the route of this proposed noble river-side improvement is so rare and, in the minds of the Commission, of so great value not only to all Washington, but to all visitors, Ameri- can and foreign, that it should be safeguarded in every way. No build- ing should be allowed between the drives and the river, and no change should come to pass in the character of the canal that will tend to transform its primitive character and quaint beauty. The canal has a charm of its own, as, half disclosed and half revealed, it winds among the trees; and not the least part of this charm, so desirable to be pre- served, is the slow, old-fashioned m®vement of the boats and of the people on and near this ancient waterway. Already the canal is used, aside from the navigation of commerce, by pleasure seekers in canoes, and by excursion parties in various craft. More and more will the canal be thus used as an attractive route between the populous city and the natural charms of the picturesque region between Cabin John Bridge and Great Falls. The preservation and continuance of the canal in its original character will thus add elements of gayety and life to a scene much to be enjoyed by the passers-by on the neighboring and upper roadways. Beyond the canal lies an area of lowlands, here and there bowlder-strewn and set with clumps of trees. It is now available in part for pasture. As a whole it is in keeping with the THE SECTION WEST OF ROOK CREEK. 97 uncultivated hilltops of the Virginia Palisades, and would best be left ■without formal treatment. One of the boldest of the hills rising to the north of the Potomac Palisades is that occupied by Fort Kemble. On account of the extent of its view to the southward, and still more on account Fort Kcniblc Park. of the beautiful valley sloping toward the Potomac over which this view is to be seen, we I'ecomraend the acquirement of a park of about 17i acres, serving as a southern terminus of Nebraska avenue and connecting it by a park drive in the valley with the road along the Palisades. The boundaries are fixed rather closely by the need of preserving the views intact and securing border streets on reasonable grade without excessive cut and fill. On a neighboring hill, the site of Battery Parrott is but little less important as a view point and local park. Its boundaries, including an area of about 1.82 acres, are fixed by the streets Battery Parrott. of the highway plan and include what is needful to preserve the best views. To bring the upper Potomac into direct connection with the city and to provide an approach from Georgetown to the Zoological Park Georgetown Park- ^^^ Rock Creek, a parkway is proposed from the end ™5'- of Potomac drive at the valley of Foundi-y Branch, half a mile above the Aqueduct Bridge, to Rock Creek parkway near Massachusetts avenue. The valley of Foundry Branch must be spanned by a viaduct a little north of the present electric railway trestle, and as the valley is deep, narrow, and picturesque, it would be well to preserve it as a part of the parkway between the New Cut road and the river. From this valley the line would cross the ridge upon the end of which stands the Georgetown observatory, and run on a direct line by eas}^ grades to the gap south of the Naval Observatory. In passing through the lands of Georgetown College, which are likely to remain always agreeable and park-like, the width might be i-educed to the minimum requisite for a single drive and paths. Beyond New Cut road the arrangement should be similar to that indicated on the alternative section for Rock Creek parkway on page 85. In crossing the ridge at Thirty-fifth street and the Tenleytown road the central drive would be depressed below the side streets, both for the sake of an easy gradient and in order to pass beneath those two busy streets. East of this ridge the takings should widen out so as to pre- 98 PARK SYSTEM OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. serve the charming valley scenery which extends from this point to Rock Creek. Here the parkway would be of the type indicated in section on page 86. A branch similar in treatment should connect with the Naval Observatory grounds. The boundaries are so fixed as to provide for border streets on rea- sonable grades, including the best of the valley scenery and permitting the construction of a central drive, paths, and so forth, without destroying its beauty; b.ut, in addition to these absolute requirements, a projecting piece of land of about 13.5 acres is included in order to provide a dignified and convenient entrance to the park system from U street, Georgetown, and at the same time to afford a much-needed local park and playground. THE SECTION EAST OF ROCK CREEK. TURNING from the western to the central section, it is of the utmost importance to secure an agreeable park-like connec- tion between Rock Creek Park and Soldiers' Home as bringing into organic relation two of the largest and most beautiful places of recreation lying within reach of the principal residence district of the city, and considered in relation to the proposed new holdings such a connection would form one of the links binding the eastern and the westei'n parks into a comprehensive system. Starting from the Piney Branch entrance of Rock Creek Park at Six- teenth street, the line would continue for some distance in the valley of Piney Branch, thus taking advantage of one of the most charming passages of natural vallej'^ scenery in the District. This leads to the grounds of the Municipal Hospital, which will always be maintained in a park-like and attractive fashion. Rising from the valley by an easy grade along the southerly side of the hospital grounds, which the parkway takings would round out and complete, the route would enter a formal plaza to be created at the Seventh street entrance to the hospital, where there wiU be a convergence of streets, according to the adopted highway plan, from eight different directions. Between this point and the Soldiers' Home it would be easy to form, by widening Savannah street, a magnificent formal boulevard 4,000 feet in length, terminated on the west by the new hospital buildings and on the east by the Soldiers' Home itself. While the present buildings of the latter do not lie exactly on the axis of Savannah street, the projected new building, if placed so as to complete the quadrangle already par- tially formed, would come precisely at the head of the proposed boule- vard, forming, with the hospital, a composition of great dignity. Swinging around the new building of the Soldiers' Home to the north, the continuation of the parkway would pass south of the two 99 100 PARK SYSTEM OP THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. cemeteries and would follow the valley along the boundary of the Home to Harewood road. To secure good grades and preserve the beauty of the valley certain additional lands would have to be acquired and thrown into the grounds, compensating for some of the boundary strips that would elsewhere have to be taken from them. Following' Harewood road the parkway would skirt the beautiful open valley to the west, and near the southeastern corner of the grounds would turn within the edge of the woods into the valley and follow its course, No. 17, — Section of Savannah Parkway. thus avoiding a grade crossing of the electric cars and surface traffic of Michigan avenue, which- now crosses the vallej^ in fill and would pass over the parkway by a suitable bridge. The Soldiers' Home grounds are a highly developed tract of land, 503 acres in extent, heavily treed in some sections, and in others hav- soidiers' Home ^^S '^^ Open meadow-like appearance. An extensive Grounds. j^,qjj(J system is already constructed, and there are a number of large buildings. These grounds are set apart as a home for old soldiers of the Regular Army, and are maintained out of the pro- ceeds of fines imposed for breaches of discipline; but by courtesy are usually thrown open to the public, forming in effect a most beautiful park. If they were to be considered simply from the point of view of the casual visiting public, the grounds might be improved by some rearrangement of the road system, lessening the grades and doing away with some of the abrupt turns on certain main lines which would then attract the greater part of the travel and thus relieve the other roads, many of which, for use by large numbers, are crooked, narrow and steep, although in themselves very picturesque and attractive. It is to be hoped that the future will see the continuation P1_>KIM SHOWING PROPOSED M M .A. H T=>y\ R K Vv^^X Y, FORMING THAT F^ORTIOlVf OR THE :BETWEENi MUNICIPAL HOSP>IT/\l_ PROPOSED P>ARK AWD SOLDIERS 1000 SYST'J M COMMISSION ON SC/*.l_e IN FEET IMPROVEMENT OF THE DANIEL M CHARLES 3URNHAM, CMICAGO M«KIM , NEW VORK PARK aVSTEM GAUDENS , NEW VORK AaUSTUS FREDERICK LAW OLMSTED, JR., BROOKLINE N I SOLDIERS HOME a. Pw S2.&. XV Oot^ ^ dal. L eauHH CO, WOTftLlTiWOMPtlESS, WiiHMfiTOK fr C THE SECTION EAST OF ROCK CREEK. 101 of the policy Avhich has been wisely followed in the past of concen- trating- the buildings at a limited number of points, and of keeping the greater part of the landscape perfectly simple and not disturbed by attempts at ornamentation. At the head of North Capitol street there is opportunity for a \er3' grand formal entrance, which should take the form of a triumphal arch commemorative of a great soldier and statesman. On account of its situation between the Soldiers' Home grounds and Howard Park, in the growing section of the District, and on account Howard University ^^ ^^^ Considerable expanse of water, forming an Keservoir element in the Soldiers' Home landscape, the new reservoir can be made an important supplement to the park system. To that end a small strip of land should be acquired on its western side next Howard University, to provide for a drive and to afford at least a fringe of landscape under public control. The present acreage is 67.7, or with the adjacent filter grounds 101.7. The proposed addition would be about 3 acres in extent. The purchase of another block of land about 320 feet square would be desirable, in order to connect Howard Park with the reservoir, and thus with the Soldiers' Home grounds. Howard Park has a beautiful grove of large oak trees, and if thus connected and if provided with a wider entrance from the neighboring Seventh street, would not only be more accessible and useful in itself, but would form part of a most desirable southwestern approach to the Soldiers' Home. The connection from Soldiers' Home to the proposed park on the Patterson property should follow at first the valley extending south from Michigan avenue toward Eckington. This val- Eclflngton Parkway. , it h t t ■ i lej', now crossed diagonally by Liincoln avenue, is charmingly wooded for a distance of half a mile, and it should be the aim in fixing the boundaries to preserve this charm. The boundary streets should be so adjusted to the surface as not to mar what lies within them, and the width of taking should be such that the construction of the central drive, if carefully planned, would leave considerable breadth of the natural park-like effect undis- turbed. While the width would vary, the typical arrangement would be somewhat as indicated in the cross section on page 92, although less rugged in character. Beyond the wooded portion of the valley, the width would be somewhat reduced and a formal arrangement would be adopted, although following curved lines in order to avoid 102 PARK SYSTEM OF THE DISTBICT OF COLUMBIA. Piitterson Park. abrupt angles and in order to secure good grades without great expense for construction. The Metropolitan Branch Railroad would be crossed by an overhead bridge and the parkway would join the wooded portion of the Patterson property at a high level, so that the continuation of the drive through the park woods would not be complicated by the new location of the Baltimore and Ohio tracks, which should pass under this part of the park by a short tunnel. About a mile and a quarter northeast of the Capitol, just beyond Florida avenue and west of the large tract of finely wooded land occupied by the Columbia Institution for Deaf and Dumb, is a beautiful piece of land, formerly the Patterson estate. It is on the edge of the hilly section overlooking the city proper, and its northern part, high and undulating, is covered with a grove of large old trees, from the edge of which there is an inspiring outlook over the open south- erly slope leading down to a broad gentle pasture enlivened by a very few outstanding trees. There is probably no better example in the whole District of the "park-like" type of landscape, using the word in its stricter sense, and its acquisition is desirable not only for the sake of its great natural beautj^, but because its stretch of nearly level greensward, lying between Eckington and Northeast Washington, would be of the utmost value to the future population of the surrounding region. The grove about the old mansion and to the north of it would be hardly less valuable, for it is of such a character and upon such comparatively gentle slopes as to adapt it to use by large numbers of people better than any other large piece of woodland available for park purposes. The wooded portion is crossed Ijy the line fixed by act of Congress for the Baltimore and Ohio tracks, which would here be 55 feet below Vista, Villa Albani, Kome. THE SECTION EAST OF BOCK CBEEK. 103 grade, and it is very desirable, if the region is to become a park, that the hill should be tunneled rather than gashed by a wide, open cut. Parallel to the track and about 200 feet from it is the line of New York avenue, as shown on the highway-extension plans. If the tracks are placed in a tunnel the avenue might be diverted slightly to the north around the hill and made the limit of the park, or it might be carried straight through as a traffic street below grade in a compara- tively nari'ow cut crossed by the park drives and paths upon masonry arches, as is done in the case of the transverse streets in Central Park, New York. In the development of the Pattei'son property as a public park the first aims should be to keep the open meadow and hillside landscape simple and undisturbed, to preserve the charming frame of woods upon the east and north, to create, by planting, a similar margin on the west and south, and to preserve the sylvan character of the rest of the estate, but would be well to set apart, in the grove and in the margin of the open, certain limited areas for popular amusements other than mere enjoyment of scenery. It might be well to convert the interesting old mansion into a sort of casino for the sale of refreshments and for other public uses. Between the Patterson property and Mount Hamilton there are no natural features of much attractiveness and a formal type of parkway Mount Hamutoii would sccm to meet the requirements of the case. Parkway. ^wo routes are open^to the north or to the south of Mount Olivet Cemetery, Either would be convenient and agreeable, but on the whole that to the north seems the better, chiefly because of easier grades in passing the base of Mount Hamilton and con- tinuing on to Anacostia Park. Here again considerations of land cost as ascertained by negotiations with the owners should largely influence the final selection of route. Mount Hamilton, one of the highest hills between the Anacostia and Rock Creek, rises above the general level as a steep, isolated summit. Mount Hamuton I'eacMng an elevation of 225 feet, at a pomt just east P'"'''- of the Bladensburg road and about three-quarters of a mile west of the Anacostia flats, over which it commands very extensive projects. In other dii'ections, also, the views are remark- ably good, especiallj^ across the citj^ in the direction of the Capitol, to which it is nearer than any other hill of such considerable height. It is correspondingly conspicuous in the views from a large part of the 104 PARK SYSTEM OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. District. It is heavily timbered with a growth quite typical of Southern mountain scenery, which gives it, together with its very steep slopes, a distinct character, to be found so perfectly nowhere else in the District. In addition to these reasons for presei'ving it as a park, the cost of grading streets and cutting the land down to a level practicable for ordinary uses would be very excessive. In other words, the place is admirably adapted for park purposes and very ill adapted for any- thing else. The area which it is proposed to take is indicated on map No. D-288, and amounts to about 119 acres. The boundaries shown are adapted for the construction of streets on good grades. In the development of Mount Hamilton the leading motive should be to preserve and accentuate its peculiarly mountain-like character of vegetation and surface, and to that end paths and other artificial con- structions should be reduced to the minimum compatible with its con- venient use by the public. It will probabl}' be desirable, however, to build a single drive on a good grade, winding its way through the woods to a concourse at the summit, where a single white marble pavilion might be erected to serve as a shelter and to accentuate the peak as seen fi'om a distance. A short link of informal parkway should be provided to connect Mount Hamilton Park with the area to be reclaimed along the banks of the Anacostia Uiver. THE ANACOSTIA WATER PARK. THE present outrageous condition of the Anacostia River has been so fully discussed before Congress in various reports dur- ing several years that there is no occasion for us to describe it in detail again. ^ Suffice it to say that within the District of Columbia the Anacostia is a fresh-water estuary with a normal tide of about 3 feet, which alternately covers and exposes to the sun a great area of reeking mud flats upon which the aquatic plants constantly entangle additional deposits of mud, slime, and putrifying organic matter. Those parts of the bottom not exposed at low water are for the most part shallow and support a vegetable growth that prevents a rapid and cleansing movement of the tide, while above ordinary high- water level there are broad marshes and meadows which are flooded at varying intervals, whenever the water of the Potomac is raised by flood or con- trary winds above its normal level, and which retain after each flooding innumerable stagnant pools. No conditions could be more favorable to the development of malaria, and because of these conditions the disease has made ha\'oc with the inmates and officers of the Govern- ment Hospital for the Insane, of the jail, and of the workhouse, and with those occupied at the navy-yard and Washington Barracks, all of whom (several thousand in number) are compelled by the action of the Government to subject themselves constantly to its influence — not to mention, in addition, those unfortunate private citizens who, for one reason of another, must live within the great area affected by these deplorable conditions. The pressing sanitary problem is simply to do away with the low, amphibious areas which are alternately flooded and exposed, and to convert them either into deep water or into dry land; but incidentally the improvements may be made to provide increased commercial water frontage, while a part of the reclaimed lands may be used as a park. 'See report of Colonel Allen with references to previous reports. 105 106 PARK SYSTEM OF THE DISTKICT OF COLUMBIA. Plans and estimates for the improvement of the river, with a view to commercial occupanc\' below Bennings Bridge, were prepared by Colonel Allen and submitted to Congress in 1898. For the portion above Bennings Bridge the time and the appropriation did not suffice for complete surveys and estimates, and the possibility that this sec- tion would ever be used for commercial frontage, even if improved, was thought to be so slight as not to be worth considering. The plans contemplated the dredging of an adequate channel and the tilling of the remaining flats and low land to a level above the highest freshets, 14 feet above low water. An alternative provided for filling to a level merely above ordinar}' high tide and for excluding the higher floods by dikes. In the upper section, above Bennings Bridge, a similar treatment was proposed, but with the channel widened into tidal basins, the shores of which Avere to be parked. As to this section the report did not go into detail. Coming to the study of the problem from a different point of view, with the benefit of Colonel Allen's investigation, we have devised a slight modification of his project which seems to have several advantages. For the commercial section of the liver we should adopt Colonel Allen's project bodily, except for certain possible changes in the lines of the channel to meet altered conditions, and to throw more of the made land on the valuable Washington side. But for the treat- ment above the commercial channel, in the park section, it is necessary to give a sepai-ate explanation. Pending a public discussion of the subject, we have assumed the line of Massachusetts avenue as the upper limit of commercial development. Coming at almost the same point as the Pennsylvania Railroad bridge, its draw would be the fourth in the way of river traffic, and the development of the less restricted river below those two bridges would increase the water front of the citj' by 143 per cent; or, if the Anacosta side be included, by 301 per cent — enough to pi-ovide for any probable development without further extension. The principle of treatment, however, which we propose for the park section remains the same whether the section begins at Massachusetts avenue or at Bennings Bridge. That principle is to exclude the Poto- mac floods by a dam at the head of the commercial channel, thus avoid- ing the necessity for raising the large area of meadows now subject to occasional overflow. The proposed dam would have a permanent sill either at half tide THE ANACOSTIA WATER PARK. 107 level (el. — 0.61 city datum), or at high tide level (el. +0.89 city datum). In the liTst case the ordinary tides would flow back aiid forth across the dam, rising at high tide to el. +0.89, but never falling behind the dam, below el. —0.61. In the second case the water behind the dam would have a constant level and would be renewed by the flow of the Anacostia River alone. Upon this permanent sill in either case would be erected movable gates or sections, by means of which in time of flood in the Potomac the dam would be raised in effect to elevation Oxford— Kaeing on the Iris. 11.89, completely excluding the Potomac floods from the Anacostia basin. The watershed of the Anacostia itself is so comparative!}^ small that its outflow could accumulate behind the dam for several days during such floods without raising the level of the ponded water enough to give trouble. Between the dam and the District line practicallj- all the flats now covered at ordinary high water would be dredged out to a depth of 12 feet, providing a great basin or series of basins of deep, clean water, the dredged material going to supply the additional filling needed on the commercial section. Such fragments of flats as were not thus exca- 108 PARK SYSTEM OF THE DISTRICT OF OOLITMBIA. vated would be raised by filling above ordinary high-water mark, but the greater part of the meadows, with their numerous and beautiful clumps of trees, would not be raised, thus avoiding about 500,000 cubic yards of filling and preserving a great deal of charming natural scenerj'. If the summer flow of the Anacostia proves upon closer investigation suffi- cient to replenish and renew the water of these basins, the tide would be excluded completely ; ^ but, if not, the half -tide dam would be adopted and the water would be refreshed by the regular ebb and flow. With a constant water level, or with a tidal rise and fall of only a foot and a half, the shores could be treated with a natural looking gravel beach or low stone shore in place of a sea wall showing more than 12 feet high above the ordinary water level, such as would be called for if the floods are not excluded by a dam. Such a wall, dignified and effective in a formal urban embankment, would not only be tedious and dreary in appearance about a park lake having 7 miles of shore, but would add enormously to the cost of construction. The result of the pi'oposed treatment would be a great lake, deep enough to be clean and free from vegetation, refreshed by a sufficient flow of water, kept free from mosquitoes and malaria by its. depth, by the unobstructed sweep of the wind, and by its clean shores, and sur- rounded by natural meadows and groves that need only to be culti- vated and protected from inundation to become a charming park. The lake would provide opportunities for boating, such as are eagerly seized upon where they exist near other great cities, and the meadows, besides their landscape beauty, would provide the best of playing fields. To protect and inclose this landscape and to give points from which it could be adequately commanded, we should propose to include the faces and crests of some of the borderihg hills on the Washington side, one of which is already owned by the District Reform School, while a large part of the marsh land is claimed by the Government. The total area of the proposed park is 1,143 acres, of which 535 would be occupied bj' water. The proposed boundaries, which are indicated on the map to face page — , are such as to permit the construction of border streets, and, in fact, coincide for the most part with the lines of streets already laid down upon the highway extension plan. In addition to the border streets, there would be a main drive within the park on each side of the water, generally near the boundary, in order to leave the central area unobstructed, and in order to keep upon higher ground overlooking ' iSee report o£ Colonel Allen with references to previous reports. THE ANAOOSTIA WATER PARK. 109 the meadows and the lake, l)iit sometimes nmning close along the shore. Secondary drixes and cross connections would be required in places, and, of course, a series of paths. Boathouses, arranged so as to accom- modate skaters in winter, should be important features at the points where the park is i-eaohed ))y main lines of transportation, and bathing facilities should be freely provided.' At the north^vesterly corner of the proposed Anacostia park is a group of commanding hills occupied by the Boys' Reform School. A portion of this land should be transferred to the control of the park Henley — A suggestion of Anacostia Park. authorities, both on iiccount of the importance of the hill in the land- scape of the park and because of the view which can be obtained from it down the Anacostia Valley. At the southwesterlj^ corner a similar transfer should be made of a portion of the city farm, which is occu- pied by the jail and temporarily by the almshouse. The buildings of the Reform School and of the jail are few in proportion to the area of their grounds, and if treated with due regard to their appearance from the park will supplement its landscape materiallj'. ' See Appendix A on public bathing places. THE FORT DRIVE. WHILE for the reasons already discussed no S3'stetnatic series of minor reservations has been selected for the outlying dis- tricts, it is necessary to mention the chain of forts whlsh occupied the higher summits in the northern part of the central section, extending from Fort Stevens, near Rock Creek Park, to Fort Thayer, near the Reform School. The views from these points ai'e impressive in proportion to their commanding militarj^ positions, and they are well worth acquirement as future local parks, in addition to any claim their historical and military interest may afford. The boundaries, shown upon map No. D-288, are fixed mainlj- with respect to the character of the views from each fort and the possibility and impor- tance of keeping them permanently open. The areas of the proposed parks' are therefore somewhat adjustable, depending upon the atti- tude of the landowners. To connect the series advantage is taken of the street laid out for the purpose in the highway plans, but it should be increased to a more libei'al width than now provided, which is only 90 The Eastern Forts. feet between houses, the same as H street in the city. With the forts indicated on the map — Stevens, Totten, Slemmer, Bunker Hill, and Thayer — and with such other small parks and view points as may be selected later, a northern park circuit of great interest would thus be formed, having views off into the country in contrast with the principal inner circuit of larger parks, presenting views chiefly south toward the city. In the section east of the Anacostia a similar chain of hilltop forts marks the points of most commanding view. With the Anacostia and the Potomac below and the city of Washington spread out beyond and the hills of Virginia in the distance, these are the most beautiful ^ Given in Appendix I, p. 167. Ill 112 PARK SYSTEM OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. of the broad views to be had in the District. Forts Mahan, Chaplin, Sedgwick, Uu Pont, Davis, Balser, Stanton ,-Greble, and Battery Rick- etts can be linked together readily by means of the permanent system of highways with a few modifications and some widening into a' drive comparable in beauty with that along the Potomac Palisades, but utterly different in character. In connection with this hill-crest circuit, starting from the north- eastern end of Anacostia Park and returning to the shore of the Poto- mac at the southern corner of the District, it is important to secure four other areas of considerable extent in the eastern section. THE ANACOSTIA SECTION. DIRECTLY on the axis of Massachusetts avenue, extending from the lowland near the river to the ridge occupied by the fort drive, is an area of successive plateaus and ridges falling into a curiously balanced relation about the line of the avenue. It seems hardlj^ likely that another large park would be needed so near the pro- posed Anacostia park, but the land is so admirably adapted as a site for a large public institution that it would be a wasteful use of land to cover it with private houses for which the adjacent ridges are just as good. The area which seems particularly adapted to such a public purpose, as shown upon map No. D-288, is defined b^' symmetrical boundary' streets upon good grades, with comparatively little cut or fill, and amounts to about 270 acres — about the same size as the Reform School, the Government Hospital for the Insane, or the new Poor Farm, somewhat larger than the Columbia Institution for Deaf and Dumb, and smaller than the Soldiers' Home. It is to be hoped that this land will be purchased by the Government while it remains undeveloped and the opportunit}' exists. About 2 miles southwest of the proposed Hillside Reservation the valley of Stickfoot Creek runs down from the Fort Drive on the stickfoot Creek ™ain ridge to the river at a point opposite the navy- Parkway. yard and near Anacostia Bridge. The upper third of the vallej'^ is included in the grounds of the Government Hospital for the Insane, in the middle third runs Sheridan avenue, following the right bank of the creek and boi'dered by open land, and the lower third runs through open lowland and flats. A parkway should be provided for in this valley to give convenient and agreeable access to the Fort Drive from the Anacostia Bridge. The lower third, where there are no topographic features to determine its character, should be a formal affair, with a central drive, parkings, and two side streets. The central drive would pass under Nichols avenue and in the middle 113 114 PAEK SYSTEM OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. tilesboro Parkway, third of the valle}- would follow the brook, with a narrow irregular border of A-alley scenery. Sheridan avenue would form one side street and the opposite boundary, as drawn, would provide for another, rising gradually along the hillside so as to reach the edge of the plateau in the upper third of the valley on the Government hospital land. The main drive should connect with the Fort Drive. The land taken from the hospital is for the most part entirely unavailable for build- ing or for cultivation, while, with its good tree growth, it would provide a most agreeable ajjproach to the drive along the ridge, divid- ing it into a northern and southern circuit of convenient length. South of the Government Hospital for the Insane the ridge continues nearly level to Fort Preble and Bald Eagle Point, with a steep slope all along to the lowland along' the Potomac. The views from this ridge are so remarkably fine, and the steep slope is so ill adapted to ordinary city subdivision, that a wide parkway, running nearly parallel with the present Giesboro road, is much to be desired. It should provide at the edge of the nar- row plateau a street for house frontage, together with a park drive and paths commanding the view, and it should include the whole slope below, in order to control the outlook by pre- \'onting the erec- tion of obstructive buildings and the too continuous growth of tall trees. The bounda- ries shown on map No. D-288 not only provide for these require- ments, but include a very beautiful oak grove upon the plateau, on land otherwise as well adapted for building as for park purposes. At the southern end a small portion of the land recently acquired for the almshouse should be transferred to the parkway, to provide for a connection between the ridge and the shore of the Potomac. A ± ^ .iViiMiiiiiii |Wfwiiiii^.^iei^:£^J §t.^mimdt [ff liiilfti ^twi Ifll" ip^*" ^^ f ^--^;.**a*iii " ■ ■ ■■ 1 l^^^^^^^^^^^^^Kr^^ - I^^^^^^^^HJHl^His^-- -. . -?gE»-.-i No. 183. — Terrace, Venice, illustrative of water-front trcalment in connection with a formal design. THE ANACOSTIA SECTION. 115 Provision should be made for the public i-ontrol of the entire water front from the Government property at the southern end of the Di^- Anaoosua embank- ti'ict to Anacostiii Park at :Massaehusetts avenue. ■"*"*■ Along the Potomac, from Shepherds Landing to Gies- boro Point, the shores are nearly level agricultural land 10 or 20 feet above the river. A margin about 200 feet in width should here be acquired, with a view to the construction of a road and such other means of making the water front available as the development of the back country may ultimately require. Along the Anacostia, from Giesboro Point to ]\lassachusetts avenue, there is a wide margin of flats which must be reclaimed as discussed in connection with the Anacostia Park. The greater part of the reclaimed lands will best serve the interests of the community if utilized for com- mercial purposes under private ownei-ship, but the portion in front of the Government hos- pital should be added to the grounds of that institution. Whatever disposition may be made of the reclaimed land, however, the embankment it- self and its iumiediate margin should remain under public control. The final character of its improvement can well await the future development of the conditions which are to surround it, but it is not unlikely that the arrangement proposed for Georgetown Harbor (page 84), with a commercial quay and a separate high le\-el drive and esplanade, will prove desirable in the future here. No. 198.— The Quays at Venice. WASHINGTON EMBANKMENT AND POTOMAC PARK. ON the Washington side of the Anacostia Kiver it is equally important that the permanent public control of the water front should be made a part of the channel improvement and that a consistent comprehensive project should be adopted for its treat- ment in connection with the improvement of the western water front . along Washington channel,, recently brought under public control by the decision of the coui-ts. A decision upon the method of improve- ment involves, in addition to questions of appearance and expense, the careful consideration of so many interests, private property rights, the needs of the navy-j'ard and of the school of engineers and war college' at the Washington Barracks, and, above all, the convenience of commerce, that the Commission is not prepared to make a definite recommendation; but it seems highly important that the water-front improvement should be utilized to the utmost in providing a southern parkway connection between the Anacostia section of the Distiict and Potomac Park, against which the Washington embankment would terminate at the northwestern end of Washington channel on the line of Long Bridge. Potomac Park is a low-lying tract of la.nd and water about 739 acres in extent, between Washington Channel and the Potomac River. It is crossed at about its center by Lone: Bridere, carrv- Potomnc Park. "^ " " ' ing the. tracks of the Alexandria and Washington Railway, and also a carriage drive. It was formed on a shoal in the river by the deposit of material dredged in the ordinary operations of preserving and improving the channel. Its surface is a few feet above ordinary water level, but it is submerged at times of flood, ^The Secretary of War has caused plans to be prepared for an army war college and an engineer post and engineer school of application, all to be located at the Washington Barracks, at the junction of the Potomac and Anacostia rivers and bor- dering on the Washington channel. The contemplated expenditure for the war college is $400,000, and for the engineer post and school of application $860,000. (See House Doc. No. 90, Fifty-seventh Congress, first session.) 118 PARK SYSTEM OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. and the engineer's plans contemplate additional filling. The greater part of the park is surrounded b}^ a low stone wall, the primary object of which is to retain the mud dredged from the channel. This gives the shore a rather formal appearance, emphasized by rows of poplar and willow trees, planted to bind the earth together. Dredging operations are still carried on, and material is being deposited on the park area. The form and situation of the land suggest at once the landscape of natural river bottoms — a suggestion that can hardly be improved upon as a guide in the development of the park. Of the many types of river-bottom scenery, the one which seems best adapted to the condi- tions is that of great, open meadows, fringed bj'^ trees along the water side and divei'sified by occasional outstanding masses and single trees serving to focus the meadow area into a series of connecting compo- sitions without completely obscuring its extent. On account of the view of the water and the sweep of breezes through the Potomac Valley, the pleasantest portion of the park is bound to be the strip along the river side. Here should be carried the principal drive and paths, running almost continually within a long and narrow grove of tall-stemmed river trees, which will afford shade without seriously obstructing the summer breeze, which is said to blow here with more frequency than at any point within the city. The central part of the area should be kept as simple as possible, in meadows unbroken by paths and roads, except for a few cross connections devised to fit in with such occasional trees as the landscape calls for, while on the side toward Washington Channel would be another nearly continuous mass of foliage. If such a treatment is adopted it will be unnecessary to fill the whole area of the park above the level of the extreme floods, for if the sides were raised to that level they would serve as dikes, and their slight elevation above the central meadow would enhance the effect of the landscape, especially if the inner slopes are made very gradual.- A similar treatment in respect to the dikes is to be seen at Budapest, in the park of Margaretten-Insel, in the Danube, where the views from the paths that run along the dike are very beautiful, both inward toward the meadow and outward toward the river. Not the least advantage of such an extremely simple and absolutely informal landscape for Potomac Park is due to its position next to the strongly formal and elaborate scheme of the central group, to which it would serve as a very happy foil and contrast. WASHINGTON EMBANKMENT AND POTOMAC PARK. 119 Except for a portion of the shore growth, where young willows and poplars are already growing, the trees for Potomac Park will all have to be planted, and because of the richness of the soil and other favorable conditions the idea suggests itself that in selecting these trees a collection should be got together that would form a living museum of the greatest interest; in short, a National Arboretum. In considering this idea we have felt that as the land has been set apart as a park, the first importance must be given to its perfection as a beautiful place of recreation; and it is obvious that the miscellaneous introduction of a great variety of trees of all colors, forms, and sizes would utterly destroy the restful simplicity of the landscape which we have described. Nevertheless, we believe that it would be possible, by a wise choice and arrangement of species, to group in the planted area along the easterly side of the park a great series of trees and shrubs and herbs which should represent in a synoptic manner all the important types of vegetable life capable of growing at Washington, and to do so, by the exercise of sufficient care and skill, without in an}' degree injuring the character of the dominant park landscape. Such a collection would bear the same relation to a theoretically complete botanical series that the various collections exhibited to the public in the National Museum bear to the working collections stored away in drawers and boxes for the use of specialists, and it would contain the most beautiful and interesting species of each important group. It would add a feature of great interest and value to the park with- out interfering with its essential qualities of landscape, and we can recommend this treatment as the best provision for the systematic botanical collections which this Government is sure sooner or later to maintain, if we may judge from the experience of other countries.' Omitting the northern portion, which is required for the completion of the Mall and its connections, the whole area of Potomac Park should at once be carefulh^ laid out in accordance with the above general scheme, the proportions and forms of its different open and planted areas carefully studied, and the lines and grades of roads and paths worked out in detail in conformity with these masses and with the necessary approaches to the new Long Bridge and railroad bridge, in order that the filling now going on may be economically applied toward a definite result. ' Appendix E on a Botanical Collection. I'tMimmi' \\\\ k. \Vnr ColloKt' Mini lOiKiiu'cis Schnul. \\ iis|un,i;(tm Mnmiim'iil. PANORAMA OF THE CITY OF WASHINGTON FROM ANACOSTtA. TYPICAL OF VIEWS FROM THE PROPOSED Washington Monument. PANORAMA OF THE CITY OF WASHINGTON FROM ANAC03TIA. TYPICAL OF VIEWS FROM THE PROPOSED RIDGE PARKS. Capitol. Librarj' n[ (."undress. THE MOUNT VERNON KOAD. THE great desirablility of connecting Mount Vernon with the capital by an agreeable and dignified approach was recognized by Congress in 1889, when the Chief of Engineers was called upon for a survey and estimate for such a national road; and the resulting report of Colonel Hains (S. Ex. Doc. 106, Fifty-first Con- gress, first session) sets forth very clearly the various routes studied at that time. Although such a road would lie wholly beyond the limits of the Dis- trict, its importance as supplementing the park system of Washington requires that we should mention it and again urge upon Congress its great value. If it were desirable merely on account of the historic associations with Mount Vernon we might hesitate to refer to it in this connection, but as a matter of fact it would present such a series of beautiful views of the broad portion of the Potomac Valley as would give it a priceless recreative value for the future population of the District in addition to its sentimental value as linking the nation's capital with the home of its founder. After a personal examination of the territory traversed by the routes discussed in Colonel Hains's report, we have no hesitation in recom- mending his line No. 6, with a few minor modifications, as affording opportunity for the most refreshing and delightful drive to be had in any direction from Washington, and not to be equaled at any gi'eat capital in the world. No one who has not climbed laboriously by steep hills, bad roads, and crooked, untraveled lanes to the crests along which this line sweeps can fully realize the grandeur of the views, but thej' may be suggested by those to be had from Arlington, from the ridge road beyond Fort Albany, and from Mount Vernon itself. As stated in Colonel Hains's report, the lines were laid down subject to revision, and we have noted several points, especially near Shuters Hill, near Spring Bank Run, and at the two ends, where upon more 121 122 PARfe SYSTEM OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. detailed study marked improved improvements could be secured. At the northern end the route would, of course, connect with the Memo- rial Bridge. The latter, crossing from the Washington side of the Potomac on a straight line for the Arlington mansion, would lead to a circle or plaza near the base of the hill, whence to the right would lead a drive curving up the wooded valley to the mansion on the height and to the left would reach off the Mount Vernon road. The terminus of such a great national road at Mount Vernon ought to have the most careful and sympathetic study, for with all its tre- mendous historical associations Mount Vernon is not designed on the scale of a great public monument, but on the more delicate, domestic scale of a gentleman's country place, a character which has been most skillfully preserved bj^ the Mount Vernon Association, and which does far more to bring to the visitor a feeling of the personal presence of Washington than the bald historical fact of his residence there. It will be no easy problem to design a terminus dignified and adequate for a broad national road of pilgrimage some 15 miles in length and to relate this terminus frankly to the Mount Vernon mansion as the main object of the pilgrimage without intruding a discordant public note into that place which should speak not of the statesman, but of the private gentleman of Virginia who there made his home. At the time Colonel Hains's estimates were made the necessary land was reckoned at $100 an acre, and formed a trifling part of the cost. Although in eleven years the land has risen4 somewhat in value it is still moderate in price, and we should therefore recommend that in those places where the line follows a hill crest commanding an excep- tionally beautiful view suflicient land be taken upon the lower slopes, in addition to the regular width of the road, to preserve the view per- manentlj^ from obstruction. The building of the electric railway since the submission of Colonel Hains's report has somewhat altered the situation, making it extremelj'^ probable that there will be further increases in the value of lands along the route and possible interference with it by new improvements in case all action is delayed for several years. It therefore seems to us that while the construction of a great and costly highway might well be postponed till the population of Wash- ington comes to feel its need more keenly, it would be the part of wisdom to secure the land for such a route without further delay. CONCLUSION. IN submitting^ their report the Commission desires to malse acknowledgment of their indebtedness to those pei'sons who have assisted in the work of preparing the plans and illustra- tions, and who have responded with enthusiasm to the unusual demands on their time in order to finish the task within the appointed time. To Mr. William T. Partridge, under whose able direction the drawings were .prepared, and to Messrs. Baer, Butler, Chapman, Crow, de Gersdorff, Elliott, Githens, Harmon, Johnson, Kaiser, Merz, Morris, Mundy, Shephard, Trueblood, Walker, and Weekes, who were associated with him in this work, the Commission desires to express its sense of obligation, not only for the skillful manner in which the work was executed, but for the interest and untiring devotion which brought it to successful completion within a very limited period. The Commission also desires to make grateful acknowledgment to the artists, Messrs. Bacher, Bacon, Blum, Curtis, Hoppin, Graham, Guerin, McCarter, Rddeman, Ross, Sears Gallagher, and Percival Gallager, whose graphic rendering of the designs contributes so largely to an intelligent understanding of the work of the Commission. In the compilation of maps, plans, and other data in regard to parks and the existing conditions throughout the District, in the study of the ground for the selection of proposed park areas, in preliminarj' studies for the treatment of all the areas considered, and in the preparation of its plans for publication, the Commission has had the invaluable help of Mr. James G. Langdon, assisted in part by Mr. R. A. Outhet and Mr. E. A. Douglas. Very respectfully, Daniel H. Burnham. Charles F. McKim. Augustus Saint Gaudens. Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr. To Hon. James McMillan, Chairman Senate Committee on the District of Columbia. 123 APPENDICES. NO. 176.— REVERE BEACH, NEAR BOSTON. WHAT THE PEOPLE THINK OF ITS VALUE. APPENDIX A.— PUBLIC BATHING PLACES. ONE of the most enjoyable and health-giving recreations for the people in a place with a hot summer climate is bathing, espe- cially open-air swimming; but the natural facilities for it in Washington are not good. Sea bathing is unattainable within a rea- sonable distance, while the shallowness of the small streams and the muddiness and disagreeable banks of the Potomac and Anacostia do not make the fresh-water bathing attractive. In spite of these difficul- ties there is a good deal of unregulated bathing in retired places out of sight of the police, and the entirely inadequate temporary provision for bathing in the basin of Potomac Park is very largely used. When a city has any place on sea or lake or river that is naturally well fitted for bathing, the popular appreciation of it quickly builds up some means of using it conveniently. Private enterprise erects bath houses and supplies bathing suits and towels in order to profit by the obvious public demand. But when, as at Washington, there are no natural facilities for bathing, the public demand is seldom sufficiently apparent to lead private enterprise into the large investment necessary to create good bathing arrangements. At Richmond, Va., recently, a private company built as a business venture a large open-air swimming basin, lined with concrete, supplied with filtered water purchased from the city, and surrounded by dressing rooms and shelters; but usually such undertakings are too uncertain in their financial outcome to attract private capital, and therefore when a city lacks natural advan- tages for bathing, it usually becomes necessary for the municipality to deal with the problem. The public bathing establishments which abound in European cities and in many of our own may be divided roughly into three classes. The first, and perhaps the most .important, includes those intended for the poorer people, who suffer most from the summer heat, who most 125 126 PARK SYSTEM OF THK DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. need the healthful refreshment of the bathing, who can not go out of the city to get it, and who can afford to pay little or nothing for it. The establishments of this class are free or open upon an almost nom- inal charge — 1 cent, 2 cents, or at the most sometimes 5 cents. The commonest type is the floating bath, a great, wooden, scow-like affair, built around four sides of an oblong space, which has a perforated flooring a few feet below the surface of the water. The scow serves as a platform round the bath and supports the dx'essing rooms or lock- ers, which with a high board fence inclose the whole affair. The water . space is sometimes roofed over and sometimes open. These floating baths are anchored next the shore in river or harbor at convenient points during the summer months. Another form differs only in being built on piles or on permanent piers running out from the shore, and is sometimes open on the outer side when the opposite shore is distant and no near passing vessels would be annoyed fey the sight of the bathing; for in establishments of this class, in which the sexes are always separated; the bathers are commonly nude, to their own greater comfort and enjoyment as well as for economy and simplicit3' of operation and maintenance. The bathers bring their own towels and bathing suits, if they wish them, and are only provided with small dressing closets or mere lockers in which to place their clothes. The running expenses are very low and the value to the people is such as to justify the ostablishment of such bathing places at several points along the water front where they can be conveniently reached from different quai'ters of the city. The con- struction of bathing places of this type should be very simple and inexpensive, but the arrangements should be carefully thought out so as to make them absolutely convenient, and the regulations should be kept as simple as possible and contrived with a studious regard for the habits, tastes, and prejudices of the bathers in order to encourage the use of the baths at the season when no one is inclined to exert himself to overcome difficulties. The second class of establishments, which have usually grown up at beaches where the bathing is naturally good, afford more convenient dressing arrangements, supply towels and bathing suits, and provide for open-air bathing of what might be called a social sort under pleas- ant surroundings, in view of the public, for large numbers of both sexes. The bathers are charged an amount which generally varies between 10 and 25 cents, according to the iucommodations furnished. ■■■, .11 '- 'rv:cl :1^ ^ 1 APPENDIX A. -PUBLIC BATHING PLACES. 127 and although the locution is often somewhat remote from the cen- ter of population the patronage is always large and profitable upon Sundays and holidays in hot weather. It is only under \'er3'- favorable circumstances, however, that private enterprise can afford to provide thoroughlj^ adequate, convenient, and sanitary arrangements, because the attendance is extremely irregular and will not pay interest on a costly plant at moderate rates of chai'ge. For these reasons, and because of the difficulty of regulating the sanitary and moral conditions of such, private places, municipalities Public hath Bcvere l^^ve in many instances provided their own public bath Beach, Massachusetts, jiouscs of this class. The best example is probably that at Revere Beach near Boston, under the control of the Metro- politan Park Commission of that city, shown in the accompanying Public Bath, Town of Bropkliiie, Mass. illustrations. Since the date of the illustrations the accommodations have been considerably enlarged to meet public demand, and now include 1,700 separate dressing rooms within inclosed yards for men and for women, flanking a central brick administration building. This contains offices where keys, suits, and towels are given out and valuables stored, toilet arrangements, an emergency room, and the like. It is supplemented by a building containing a police station and a laundry, where the suits and towels are washed, sterilized, and repaired. To economize space additional provision is now being S. Rep. 16 13 1'28 PARK SYSTEM OF THE DISTRICT OE COLUMBIA. made for a general locker room, for boys who do not care for sepa- rate dressing rooms, where, the charge will be 10 cents, instead of 25 as for adults having private rooms. During the summer of 1900 the bath house was used by 153,299 bathers, with a maximum number in one day of 7,529. The running expenses were 122,381.17, and the receipts were $34,374.30, leaving a surplus of $11,993.13 applicable to repairs and extensions. The total cost of land takings for control of the beach has been $1,117,778.29, and the total cost of buildings, roads, and other constructions and mis- cellaneous expenses during five years has been §564,055.62. It is uni- versally conceded that these large sums have been well invested and Public Bath, Town of Brookline, Mass. are bringing adequate returns to the people in relief and refreshment during the heated term; but if this is true in Boston, where the sum- mer heat is greatly mitigated by the cool ocean breezes and where there are numerous seashore resorts within easy reach, it is manifest that the benefit to Washington of similar facilities would be in propor- tion to its population immeasurably greater. A third class of public bathing places, as yet not very greatly developed in this country, is that of inclosed swimming pools and other Public bath, Brook- baths for winter use. These have been provided for 1I..C, Mass. „Q„jg y^^j.^ ^^ ,^ limited scale in the larger cities by private enterprise and are to be found in a number of athletic clubs APPENDIX A. PUBLIC BATHING PLACES. 129 and gymnasia, but it is only recently that municipalities on this side of the water, recognizing the value of such baths to the health of the community, have begun to erect them as public institutions. New York led the way, and a few other places have already followed the example. The accompanying illustrations- show the public bath erected in 1896 by the town of Brookline, Mass., at a cost of |50,000. Besides other baths and dressing rooms it contains a swimming basin,' 80 feet by 26 feet, supplied with a steady flow of fresh water and kept at a uniform temperature. It is used on different days of the week by men and by women at a charge of 5 to 15 cents for residents and 26 cents for nonresidents, and one day is reserved for the use of a swimming club of limited membership. The running expenses during 1900 were 17,994.10; the receipts, $6,151.50, and the number of bathers, 61,453. As mentioned in the body of the report, we believe that open-air bathing places of the second class, although on a much smaller scale than at Kevere Beach, should be provided in the improvement of the Anacostia, and we believe that there will be ample justification before long for an important establishment of this sort near the present bath- ing place in Potomac Park, in connection with the development of the central group of parks. Ultimately there might be good opportunity to develop at the same point a winter bathing place of the third class. APPENDIX B.— RELATION OF THE ANACOSTIA DAM TO TIDAL SCOUR. \ SIDE from the question as to whether the summer current of l—\ the Anacostia, unassisted by a tidal ebb and flow, is sufficient to maintain the basins above the proposed dain without dan- ger of stagnation, there is another objection which might be raised against any interference with the normal tidal movement by a dam, namely, that it would reduce the scouring current, which would other- wise tend to prevent silting in the commercial channel lower down. The general theory of tidal scour has been made a subject of special studj"^ by the United States engineer officers in charge of harbor and river improvements, and its application to the problem of the Anacos- tia can be most safelj' worked out by them; but without assuming anj' intimate technical knowledge of the matter we will state the special facts bearing on this case: The water of the Potomac alwa3's carries a large amount of silt, which begins to settle on the bottom whenever the current ceases to move rapidly. The slower the current the more silt is deposited. AVhen at the head of any channel there is a large basin, over the whole area of which the water must rise and fall at every tide, a corre- spondingly large volume of water must pass in and out through the channel at every tide, and the amount of water passing in or out through a limited opening during the few hours that the tide runs in one direction obviously determines the speed of the current. If the basin be doubled, about twice as much water must pass through the opening in a given time and it must move about twice as fast to do it. If the proposed basins on the Anacostia above Massachusetts avenue could be made of sufficient area and the tide were allowed to flow freely in and out, it is clear that the current could be made swift enough in the lower channel, first up and then down, to keep the silt always stirred up so that none of it would settle on the bottom and no dredging would be required to maintain the channel. That is the theoretically perfect condition of tidal scour, as we understand it. But, while the conditions would be perfect in the channel, in the 131 132 PARK SYSTEM OF THE DISTBICT OF COLUMBIA. broad basin above there would be practically no current and the depo- sition of silt would take place there very rapidly. If, on the other hand, by the construction of a dam at Massachusetts avenue, the channel were brought practically to a dead end at that point its upper portion would be in substantially the same condition as the whole basin under the first arrangement, that is, without current, and the deposition of silt would take place there very rapidly. The lower end of the channel would have some current, though much less than before. On the average, then, the channel would have a com- paratively sluggish current, and silt would be deposited throughout its length only a little less rapidljj^ than in the basin under the first arrangement. As the area of the channel, however, is very small as compared with that of the basin, the total amount of silt deposited within it must be but a small fraction of that deposited upon the exten- sive bottom of the basin under the first plan. When, as often happens, a tidal basin can be cheaply provided and no important intei'ests are affected if it becomes gradually shoaled, it is obviously wise to avoid the necessitj^ for constant channel dredg- ing by its use; but where, as on the Anacostia, the basin must be first dredged out and then, for sanitary reasons, maintained by dredg- ing at a constant depth, it would appear to be more economical in the long run to keep the silt from flowing into the basin at all and to confine the future maintenance dredging to the much smaller area of the channel, where it will be assisted by at least some tidal current. So far as the silt of the Anacostia River itself is concerned, although for its size a very turbid stream, the material which it carries in sus- pension is not large in total amount and is comparatively coarse, and it would therefore be deposited in the first still water at the head of the basin, whence it could be removed from time to time as necessary. Thus, if the muddy tide of the Potomac should be excluded com- pletely from the basin, not only would the total maintenance dredging for the system be less and the park lakes be free from the objection- able and inconvenient tidal fluctuation, but the water would be clear and clean instead of constantly muddy. The possibility of attaining this result appears to depend, as stated in the body of the report, upon whether the summer flow of the Anacostia is sufficient to supply the evaporation from the large lake surface and furnish a surplus for the renewal of the water. On this point the Commission has been unable to obtain sufficiently reliable data upon which to base a conclusion. APPENDIX C— A LETTER RELATIVE TO THE PROPOSED TREATMENT OF ANACOSTIA PARK. 35 Fairview Avenue, South Orange, N. J., November 29, 1901. DEAR SIR: Referring to the questions relative to the proposed establishment of a water park at Washington, D, C, which were under discussion at the interview with the Park Com- mission at the Capitol in October, 1 beg leave to state that Colonel Allen requested me (inasmuch as the surveys and the preparation of the plans for the Anacostia River improvement had been placed by him in my immediate charge) to take up the consideration of the ques- tions in i"eference to which you desired suggestions and to write you in regard to the same. The desirability of the establishment of a water park in the upper partof the Anacostia basin seems to me to be beyond question. When the project for the proposed Anacostia improvement was under con- sideration in 1898 we were confronted with the problem of reclaiming or utilizing in some way the wide area of flats and mai-shes lying between the Pennsylvania Railroad Bridge and the District line. The extreme upper limit of commercial development of the river desirable seemed, at that time, to be Benning Bridge, on a main line of travel, but even then I was very doubtful about the practicability or advisa- bility of using any part of the wide flats just below Benning Bridge and west of the river channel, when reclaimed, for residential purposes, for they consist of the lightest alluvium and are saturated with sewage. Between Benning Bridge and the District line conditions seemed to require some form of park development, and with this view I made studies for lakes with curved shore lines, which we termed tidal reser- voirs, working on the basis of balancing the cut and fill, the reservoirs to be so arranged that they might be utilized in any possible future park development and at the same thne serve to impound tidal water 134 PARK SYSTEM OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. to aid in the maintenance of the navigation channels of the river below. Owing largely to the lack of funds and available time, it was found impracticable to develop this part of the project at that time, and therefore it was left open and referred to only in a brief and general way on page 12 of the report. The plan of the Commission for the establishment of a water park on this part of the Anacostia will, there- fore, not only not conflict in an3'' way with the proposed river im- provement, but, on the contrary, furnishes a most happy solution of the difficulty in the treatment of the wide area of flats here found. The channel improvement proposed for the Anacostia had two objects in view — (1) a channel sufficient to meet the needs of naval ves- sels from the mouth to Navy-Yard Bridge, and (2) a sufficient channel for commercial vessels loaded with lumber, building materials, coal, etc., destined for the northeastern section of the city. Washington is not a manufacturing city, however, and so much heavy freight is now carried by rail that the needs of this part of the city, in the matter of water transportation, would probably be sufficiently met if the 16-foot channel proposed above the Navy-Yard Bridge had its upper terminus at the line of Massachusetts avenue extended, which, as I recall, is the proposed lower limit of the water park. This arrangement would have the advantage that the proposed bridge on the line of Massa- chusetts avenue extended, could be made much simpler in character and less expensive. The question as to whether the tide should be allowed to ebb and flow in the lakes of the water park is one of considerable importance. All the authorities agree that the tidal prism of such a river should be preserved in order to maintain the integrit}' of the channels below. I made computations on this point and found that with the improve- ment proposed in the report of 1898 the tidal prism would be inade- quate to maintain, in the channels proposed below Navy-Yard Bridge, a velocity sufficient to prevent silt deposit, and if the tidal flow be excluded from the water park these adverse conditions would, of course, be increased. At the same time I am aware that from a land- scape point of view the rise and fall of the tide presents practical diffi- culties in the maintenance of a neat shore line. In the tidal reservoir of Potomac Park we built a masonry wall with a considerable batter, which served well, a slope wall having been found unsatisfactory. With Potomac River water, a sand or gravel beach would soon become covered with silt and be unsightly. To my mind, however, there is APPENDIX C. PROPOSED TREATMENT OF ANACOSTIA PARK. 135 nothing comparable to a clean-cut line of contact between the water surface of the lake and the grass slopes of the shore, which can, of course, only be secured by inapounding the water at a fixed level. This, however, would probably be impracticable, b^' reason of the probable contamination of the fluvial waters of the Anacostia above the District limits by the discharge into the stream of its tributaries of raw or partially treated sewage, which conditions would undoubtedly render the impounded water unhealthful, if not offensive. It would, probabU', be needful, therefore, to provide for the ebb and flow of the tide, at least between half tide and high tide, in order to secure a suiB- cient circulation of water. The channels below can, of course, be maintained by dredging, which would probabh' be needed to some extent even if no part of the tidal prism were impounded. It is suggested that a level of high tide (3 feet above low tide) would be most conven- ient for the maximum water line of the lakes. As the tides in the Potomac often rise to a height of 4 to 5 feet under the influence of easterly winds, provision would need to be made for excluding these higher tides as well as freshets, for which purpose an earthen embankment or dam, with suitable sluiceways and gates, would suffice. Such an embankment might be built along the line of Massa- chusetts avenue, and serve also as a roadway in lieu of the proposed bridge, the sluicewaj's passing under the roadway. The top of the embankment would need to have a minimum grade of 14 feet above low tide to be secure against the backwater of freshets, but the park areas might, it is suggested, have a general level of 6 feet above low tide and be efficientlj'^ drained, inasmuch as the Potomac freshets do not reach their maximum height until some two or three days after the local rains have ceased. During my connection with the Potomac River improvement, dating from the inception of the work in 1882 and continuing to 1899, I made a special study of the various physical conditions appertaining to the river and the reclamation of its flats, and it may be that there are other points on which I can give you information or make some suggestion. If this should be the case, I shall be glad to be of service to you. Very truly, yours, John B. Duncklee, Civil Engineer. Mr. Frederick Law Olmstkd, Jr. APPENDIX D.— A COMPARISON OF ALTERNATIVE PLANS FOR THE TREATMENT OF ROCK CREEK VALLEY. FIRST. To build a large covered masonry culvert or sewer for the creek, and to fill around and over this, structure so as to oblit- erate the valley and raise it to the level of the adjacent lands; constructing a parkway or boulevard upon a portion of the filled land and subdividing the remainder into streets and lots for sale.' Second. To improve the present open channel of the creek, regrade its banks, and improve them for park purposes, and to construct roads and paths within the park thus formed, spanning the valley by fre- quent street bridges to provide close connection with Greorgetown. ' The arguments for and against each of these plans may be divided into considerations of expense and considerations of direct benefit to the community. As the question of cost is mereh^ comparative we need not discuss those items which would be substantially the same in either case. The most important of these are the cost of land taken,' the cost of intercepting sewers,* and the cost of roads and other surface features of the parkway. The great expense of the first plan lies in the covered waterway, which is estimated in Captain Rossell's report at $2,358,925, and the ^ Discussed, except as to construction of parkway, in Sen. Mis. Doc. No. 21, Fifty- second Congress, second session. * Proposed by committee of Washington Board of Trade, December 15, 1899. See Park Improvement Papers No. 7, Appendix I. ' The valley area which would have to be taken for carrying out the improvement would be about the same in either case, but in the case of the covered channel a portion of it could afterwards be sold, as allowed for later. * Whether the channel is open or covered, intercepters must be built to take the sewage. Senate Mis. Doc. No. 21, 52:2, p. 10. These are now built in part. 137 138 PARK SYSTEM OP THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. filling and grading at $1,752,424, amounting, with proportionate con- tingencies of f 411,134, to a total of $4,522,483.' The corresponding expenses under the open-valley plan have been approximately estimated at $100,000^ for the improvement of the channel, $230,000 ' for excavation and grading, and $200,000 for retain- ing walls, etc., amounting, with $53,000 contingencies, to a total of $583,000. To these preliminary expenses must be added, in the case of the sec- ond plan, the cost of building additional bridges across the valley and renewing some of the existing bridges, which, according to their num- ber and character, might amount to from $1,000,000 to $1,500,000, to be expended from time to time as occasion may demand, while from the cost of the first plan is to be deducted the net salable value of the land not occupied by streets and parkways, amounting to about 1,160,000 feet.* While any estimate of this salable value can be little moi-e than a gues8, we may accept as a basis the estimates given in Captain Ros- sell's report, taking as the minimum 86 cents and as the maximum $2.58 per foot." This would give maximum gross returns of $2,992,800, and mini- mum gross returns of $997,600; or, after deducting the cost of neces- 1 Senate Mis. Doc. No. 21, 52:2, p. 3. '' This figure of $100,000 provides for the removal of minor irregularities and the protection of the banks from wash. ' An approximate estimate by this Commission gives — 450,000 cubic yards of earth to be moved within the valley itself, at 40 cents $180, 000 100,000 cubic yards of earth to be excavated and removed to Potomac Flats or elsewhere, at 50 cents 50, 000 230, 000 *This area is less than that given in Senate Mis. Doc. No. 21, because of the addi- tional land required for a wide boulevard. *The estimated value of these lands under condemnation in 1892 averaged 86 cents per foot, and the estimated value under sale was given as twice that amount. Senate Mis. Doc. No. 21, p. 7. The minimum value under sale assumed in this report is equal to the previously estimated value under condemnation, and the maximum value assumed is three times that amount. The maximum value is from nine to twelve times the present average assessed valuation of improved upland property in neighborins parts of Georgetown, and between three and four times the valuation of similar improved upland property in Washington. APPENDIX D. TREATMENT OF BOOK CREEK VALLET. 139 sary streets, $130,000.' net gross returns not less than $870,000 nor more than $2,860,000. From the above figures it would appear that under favorable cir- cumstances the profit on land sales under the first plan might make its total cost some $400,000 less than that of the second plan, but that otherwise its cost might exceed that of the second plan by some §2,000,000. This is not, however, quite a sound comparison, because, on account of the magnitude of the work and the length of time required for the settlement of the enoi-mous fill under the first plan, it would be not less than fifteen and probabh' twenty years from the beginning of the work before the land or the boulevard would become available for use," while the less costly second plan would be completed within five years. The interest charges, at 2 per cent, on the sums invested in land holdings and in consti"uction under the second plan, would be nearly $400,000; but under the first plan during fifteen j-ears they would amount to over $2,000,000, and, should they run for five years more, would amount to more than three and a quarter millions. It is evident, after all due allowance is made for the imperfect data upon which the comparison is based, that the first plan would under any circumstances be far more costly than the second plan with its open ralley. The parkway provided under either plan would be in itself agreeable and dignified. Under the first, or culvert plan, there would be a broad, central roadway, flanked by four rows of trees Relative adrautages. . . " -, "^ y-\ > -i in turi parkings, with promenades. Outside of these parkings would be wide streets for house frontage and for traffic, with the usual sidewalks and narrow parkings. The grades would be easy, the alignment agreeable, and the general effect, regardless of the quality of ":he abutting private property, would be similar to that of many of the notable boulevards of European capitals. But it is impossible so to disregard the appearance of the surrounding and inclosing buildings, for in boulevards of this formal urban type it is the buildings that fix the character, while the trees are merely a decorative adjunct. The portion of Georgetown and Washington through which the line '8 550 linear feet of 90-foot street, estimated at $13.75 per foot by District Com- missioners' office, $117,562.50, plus 10 per cent for contingencies, equal $129,318.75. 2 Senate Mis; Doc. No. 21, 52d Cong., 2d seas., p. 6. 140 PARK SYSTEM OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. passes is now given over partly to manufacturing and partly to a poor class of residences. It is very far from agreeable in appearance, and it is hardly to be expected that it will become a first-class part of the city, because natural growth exerts no pressure in that direction. The tide of development can often be deflected by park and street improvements, but it can very seldom be reversed. A parkway, there- fore, built according to the first plan would probably be lined by fac- tories, tenement houses, and the like, on a level with the drive and separated from it only by the width of a street and four rows of tree trunks. A formal urban boulevard is very dignified, impressive, and interesting when it presents an agreeble aspect of city life, but when it presents a disagreeable aspect of city life and remains, as it must, just as intimately a part of that life it ceases to be satisfactory. Under the second or open-valley plan the broad main drive accom- panied by paths would run along a little above the creek, somewhat as does the new drive through Rock Creek Park. The present valley, which has been narrowed b}^ the constant dumping of earth over its edge, would be widened by excavation at the restricted points to a semblance of its original form and clothed with turf and trees, while the necessaiy provision for business traffic and for building frontage would be made by border roads on a level with the existing streets. Along these border roads the same factories, tenements, and the like would doubtless be built as in the other case, but with the traffic roadways from 30 to 40 feet above the park drive such occupation would not intrude itself forcibly upon the attention, even if it wei'e not entirely cut ofl'. from view. Besides secluding the parkway from direct and intimate association with an unattractive part of the city, the higher elevation of the regu- lar streets would permit them to cross the parkway above grade by bridges spanning the valley, so that the busy and growing traffic of pedestrians, wagons, carriages, and especially electric cars would not be brought into conflict with the pleasure travel. From every point of view this is to be desired. For the driver of a spirited horse, for the wheelman, even for one strolling afoot along the parkway, the necessity for crossing a busy thoroughfare at every block, together with several electric-car lines, would seriously mar the ease and com- fort of a pleasure excursion, while the obstruction to business traffic by grade crossings of a thronged parkway is not to be ignored. In the city of Boston recently the objections to a long diagonal crossing APPENDIX D. TREATMENT OP ROCK CREEK VALLEY. 141 of a traffic street with the principal parkway were felt to be so great that the city went to a large expense to provide a second street for traffic and electric cars, less direct, but passing under the park drive. An advantage of the street-level boulevard that would offset, at least in part, the obstruction which it might offer to cross traffic is, that it would permit more connecting streets across the valley than would be reasonable or feasible with the open valley plan, where each cross street would have to be carx-ied on a bridge. But with half the streets carried across on bridges, as is perfectly feasible, the inter- ference of the valley with cross-town travel would be very slight. It is not a question of a uniform tide of travel from one side of the valle}' to the other; it is a question of travel between various regions somewhat remote on either side — travel which naturally tends into a few main arteries. If the vallev were converted into a uniform plain the bulk of the travel would still continue to flow on a few principal lines, and if these be well provided for by bridges the absence of a few intermediate crossings will be of little consequence. Objection has been made to a valley parkway secluded in any degree from the streets by difference in level — particularly if the seclusion be increased by trees and bushes — on the ground that it would be very difficult to police in such a region as that bordering upon Lower Rock Creek. This raises a problem not to be lightly pushed aside; but if carried to its logical conclusion, it means that we are to have in the poorer quarters of the cit_v no parks in the least degree retired from the streets or materially differing in treatment from their bald and sordid surroundings; for any park is more liable to abuse than is a street. The answer to the objection is that we can not have good things in this world without paying for them and that part of the price of parks is the policing of them. The attempt to secure the policing of parks as a mere incident of street policing is not a wise policy and must in any large city give way to a regular and system- atic policing of the pai'ks. Moreover, in this particular case the difficulty majr easily be exaggerated, for the fact that the sides of the valley cut off the sight of adjacent streets and houses from the main drive and paths does not necessarily mean that the valley itself is to be filled with dense thickets and somber groves. It may, indeed, be open and sunny, with but enough trees to give desirable shade. It would appear, then, that the open-valley project would afford the more satisfactory parkway and that its cost would certainly be much S. Rep. 166 H 142 PARK SYSTEM OF THE DI8TBICT OF COLUMBIA. less than that of the culvert plan; but there are still other points to be taken into consideration, of which the most important is, perhaps, that the culvert plan would add a considerable area to the building land of the city, from which in time a large income would be derived in taxes. The same argument may be raised against the withdrawal of any park land from commercial occupancy, and it is merely a ques- tion whether in this case the value of the park-like borders to the drive and its partial seclusion from disagreeable surroundings would be worth the loss in taxes. In our opinion it would be, especially when it is considered that the potential purchasers of this land are not likely to be lost to the District as taxpayers, but will simply pur- chase other private land, inc^reasing its value by improvements and paying the same taxes upon it. This raises the question, too, whether it is a wise policy and in accordance with our principles of govern- ment for the public authorities to go into real-estate business in com- petition with the citizens. There appears 'to be at present no lack of land for sale in Washington, but rather a lack of sufficient market, and for the Government to put additional land upon that market would seem a questionable blessing. If the Government is not to go heavily into real-estate speculation in competition with the landowners of the District, the cost of the culvert project becomes so enormous as to be utterly out of the question. It is our conclusion, then, that the Rock Creek parkway should be treated as an open valley, crossed as often as may be necessary by handsome and substantial bridges, flanked by traffic roads connecting on a level with the adjacent city streets, and including at a lower level near the stream a drive or drives and such paths as may be needed. APPENDIX E.— BOTANICAL COLLECTION. r'r"> HE advantages to botanical science, to horticulture, to forestry, I and to landscape architecture, of a great systematic collection of living plants under the direction of the Department of Agri- culture, are too great to need argument. The Department has already found itself compelled to make partial collections for study and experi- ment in special fields; but from lack of funds and because of the limited purposes in view in each case, these collections have been quite unrelated one to another, and have been unavailable for general purposes. The investigations of the Department and others who have occasion to study large groups of plants for any purpose, have no such collection of living and growing specimens at their disposal as have been got together by the Government authorities of England, France, Holland, Germany, and Russia. They have been compelled to rely mainly upon the dried specimens of herbaria, supplemented by a very few collections of living plants maintained by educational institutions. Although of immense value to the purely scientific, systematic bot- anist, the dried herbarium specimens are of very limited use in studying the general character, appearance, and habits of the plants in nature; and it is in order to meet the practical requirements of the people at large, who want to use the plants intelligently in farming, gardening, forestry, and ornamental planting, that the living plants should be brought together so that they can be examined with economy of time and travel. The existing collections, of which the Arnold Arboretum at Boston, the Shaw Botanical Garden at St. Louis, and the New York Botanical Garden are the most important, are limited in their ability to supply this need, not only by reason of the space required for a com- plete collection and the cost of the work, but because of local climatic 143 144 PARK SYSTEM OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. conditions, for in the climate of Boston, New York, and St. Louis thou- sands of plants of the utmost value and interest to large sections of the country can not be grown at all. A great and adequate national botanical collection will necessarily be a slow growth, and its organization and arrangement must be the outcome of long study and gradual development; but as suggestions to guide the steps that may first be taken toward its establishment, the following conclusions of the Commission may be helpful. They are the result of some familiarity with the present arboreta and botanic gardens and of discussion with several botanists of eminence. It is obvious that all the plants native to the territory of the United States, to say nothing of desirable exotics, can not possibly be gathered together in a single place and grown there. Their climatic require- ments range from the arctic to the tropical ; and even within the main continental territory of the United States there are differences quite as radical, if not so striking, as between Alaska and our tropical islands. We should therefore look forward to the ultimate establishment of several working collections, probably in connection with certain of the invaluable experiment stations of the Department of Agriculture, in a few localities having typical climatic conditions fairly representing the whole range of United States territor3\ It would doubtless be possible to arrange for utilizing such valuable existing collections as those of the Arnold Arboretum, the Shaw Botanical Garden, and the New York Botanical Garden as the stations for their respective sections, supplementing their present activities and resources by governmental cooperation, bringing them into closer touch with one another, so organizing their aims and efforts as to avoid needless repetition and waste of energy, and providing for the prompt and full publication of the results of study at the various cen- ters. This branch of the undertaking would require but little expend- iture in proportion to the results, for it would in the main but pro- vide for the wise and orderly direction of the existing local activity of wealthy communities; but it is quite as important to the welfare of the country that there should be similar working collections for study and experiment in less developed sections, where local activity can not be expected for very many years to establish them, where far less is known as to the possibilities of plant life, and where such knowledge would be of immense advantage to the development of the country. APPENDIX E. BOTANICAL OOLLECTION. 145 Washington i.s; the appropriate place for the station representing the climatic region of the Middle Atlantic States, and southward to the beginning of the subtropical section, and it should be provided with a large working collection of the flora, both native and introduced, of the region which it represents. Like the other working collections that at Washington should be placed and arranged with a view, first, to the successful growth of the plants under fairly normal conditions, second, to convenience in caring for them, and studying them as indi- viduals and botanical series, and only third, to the appearance of the collection as a whole. It is a business proposition, and not a matter primaril}' of public recreation. ; As stated, however, in the body of the report, it is desirable, as a matter of popular instruction and enjoyment, and also for the sake of presenting in a clear and forcible manner the greater and more funda- mental aspects of systematic botan}^ that there should be in addition to this large working museum, a synoptic collection representing all the more important botanical divisions by those species of each gi'oup having the greatest interest, whether economic, artistic, or purely scientific. Su<.'h a collection as this, which might well be placed in Potomac Park, should be selected and arranged not only with a view to the successful growth of each species of tree, bush, and herb, and to their conven- ient inspection, but with the most scrupulous regard to the pleasing character of the resulting landscape, a motive that could not be fol- lowed with great success in the unlimited miscellaneous collection for experimental purposes. In such a synoptic series, for example, the seventy or eighty species of oaks of the United states would be represented onlv by the kinds of greatest importance, which are certain to grow at Washington into great and beautiful specimens of an aspect that will fit in harmoniously with the proposed landscape of the park; the sixty or seventy species of hawthorn would be represented by a few of the commonest and most beautiful varieties, upon whose appearance when grown it is possible to count with reasonable certainty, and which therefore can be so placed as to produce a pleasing result; and similarly with the smaller brushes and herbaceous plants. With the two latter especialh' the results of cultivation can be indicated in a beautiful and striking manner by choosing a few of the genera that have responded most successfully to garden cultivation and exhibiting them very perfectly^ 146 PARK SYSTEM OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. presenting, for example, every one of the almost countless varieties of lilacs, of clematis, of peonies, or of poppies, and of a few of the more interesting economic plants, such as grapes. A few such col- lections, grouped each by itself in a retired garden or bay of the wood along the easterly side of the park, if well planned with that end in view, need in no way interfere with the quiet simplicity of its general landscape, and would afford an immense amount of enjoyment as well as instruction. APPENDIX F.— LIST OF THE DRAWINGS, DESIGNS, AND MODELS ILLUSTRATING THE REPORT OF THE COM- MISSION ON THE IMPROVEMENT OF THE PARK SYS- TEM OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. [Exhibited at the Corcoran Art Gallery, Washington, D. C, January 15 to February 25, 1902, and now on exhibition in the Library of Congress.] GALLERY. CENTRAL GBOUP. 1. Map of District of Columbia, showing existing public spaces. 2. Map of District of Columbia, showing existing and proposed public spaces. 3. Map of District of Columbia, showing proposed additions to park system. 4. Diagram of the parks of New York. 5. Diagram of the parks of Boston. 6. Diagram of existing and proposed parks of Washington. 7. Diagram of the existing parks of Washington. 8. Diagram of the parks of Paris. 9. Diagram of the parks of London. 10. Typical section of Potomac Quay.' 11. Typical section of Rock Creek Parkway. Treatment recom- mended. 12. Typical section of Rock Creek Parkway. Alternative project with covered channel. 13. Typical section of one of the Valley Parkways, such as Piney Branch, Soapstone Creek, and Georgetown Parkways, show- • ing the preservation of existing natural scenery. , • The sections Nos. 11 to 17 were rendered by Sears Gallagher and Percival Gallager. 147 148 PAKK SYSTEM OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. 14. Typical section of Potomac Drive, short distance above Aqueduct Bridge. 15. Two panoramic views showing present conditions. 16. Typical section of Potomac Drive below Chain Bridge. 17. Section of Savannah Parkway. 18. Plan of Savannah Parkway. MALL DIVISION. 19. General plan, describing area included between Capitol and Lincoln Monument, White House and Potomac Park. 20. Birds-eye view of general plan from point taken 4,000 feet above Arlington. (Rendered by F. L. Hoppin.) 21. Birds-eye view of general plan from point taken 4,000 feet over Insane Asylum, Anacostia Heights. CAPITOL DIVISION. 22. Plan of Capitol grounds (L'Enfant) 1791. 22ffi. Plan of Capitol grounds (Thornton) 1803. 23. The Capitol. West elevation, showing proposed Terrace, I'esto- ration of the Bulfinch gates and boundary fence, fountains and approaches. Rendered by A. R. Ross. 24. Section through same, east and west. Rendered by A. R. Ross. MONUMENT DIVISION. 25. Plan showing proposed treatment of Monument Garden. Ren- dered by Geo. de Gersdorff. 26. Section thi'ough Monument garden on White House axis, show- ing proposed treatment of. approaches and terraces forming a setting for the Washington Monument. (Looking east.) Rendered by A. R. Ross. 27. Section through Monument garden on Capitol axis, looking north toward White House. Rendered by A. R. Ross. 28. Section through Mall at Fifteenth stpeet, looking west, showing Monument approaches and terraces. Rendered by A. R. Ross. 29. Section through canal, looking east, showing terraces and approaches to Monument garden. Rendered by A. R. Ross. APPENDIX F. DRAWINGS, DESIGNS, AND MODELS. 149 LINCOLN MONUMENT DIVISION. 30. Plan showing proposed treatment of Lincoln memorial site. 31. Elevation of same on proposed site. 'i'2. Section of same. 33. General section, Lincoln monument site, showing proposed memorial bridge connection at this point. HEMICYCLE. 34. Model of Mall, including areas between Capitol and Twentj'- seventh street, White House and Potomac Park, showing present conditions. Scale, 1 foot equals 1,000 feet. George Carroll Curtis, geographical sculptor. 35. Model of Mall, showing treatment proposed by the Commission. Scale, 1 foot equals 1,000 feet. George Carroll Curtis, geo- graphical sculptor. CAPITOL DIVISION. 36. View of Capitol as seen from Mall (Third street). Rendered by Robt. Blum. 37. View showing proposed treatment of square at head of Mall. Rendered by C. Graham. 38. Gate house and posts, old Capitol Grounds. (Bulfinch.) 39. View showing proposed treatment of basin, terrace, and Capitol approaches, head of Mall. Rendered by Henry McCarter. MONUMENT DIVISION. 40. View of Monument and garden terraces from White House. Rendered by Jules Guerin. 41. View of Monument and garden terraces, seen from canal, Lincoln division. Rendered by Jules Guerin. 42. Views of projected buildings, restaurants, pavilions, etc. 43. One of the six pavilions in Monument garden. Rendered by Henry McCarter. 44. View in Monument garden, main axis, showing proposed treat- ment of approaches and terraces, forming a setting for the Washington Monument. (Looking east.) Rendered by Jules Guerin. 150 PARK SYSTEM OF THE DISTRICT OP COLUMBIA. 45. View from terrace, base of Monument, looking toward Arling- ton. Rendered by Jules Guerin. 46. View from terrace, base of Monument, looking toward White House. Rendered by Jules Guerin. 47. View of terrace and' approach to Monument, seen from the garden. Rendered by H. McCarter. 48. View of Monument garden, looking toward White House. Ren- dered by O. H. Bacher. LINCOLN DIVISION. 49. View showing proposed development of site for Lincoln memo- rial, seen from canal. Rendered by Robt. Blum. 50. Proposed development of Lincoln memorial site, seen from Riv- erside Drive. (Rendered by Carlton T. Chapman.) 51. View of the same, seen from Old Observatory site. Rendered by Jules Guerin. 52. View of same, seen from Washington Monument. (Rendered by O. H. Bacher.) WASHINGTON COMMON DIVISION. 53. View of memorial structure and public playgrounds looking south. (Rendered by Jules Guerin.) 54. View of Washington common and public playgrounds, showing proposed baths, theater, gymnasium, and athletic buildings. (Rendered by Jules Guerin.) 55. View of public square and above group of buildings, showing proposed memorial structure. Rendered by Jules Guerin. MALL DIVISION. 56. View in Mall at Sixth street. Rendered by J. Guerin. 57. Mall seen from Fourteenth street, looking toward Capitol. (Ren- dered by Jules Guerin.) 58. General view of Monument Garden and Mall, looking toward Capitol. (Rendered by C. Graham.) 59. View of Monument seen from Mall at Fourteenth street. (Ren- dered by Jules Guerin.) APPENDIX P. DBA WINGS, DESIGNS, AND MODELS. 151 69a. View from the West — Monument. 695. View from balloon. 60. Projected plan of the City of Washington, 1790, designed by Peter Charles L'Enfant, under the direction of General Washington. 61. Plan of the City of Washington, 1791, designed by Peter Charles L'Enfant, under the direction of General Washington. 61a. Model of Monument Garden. Scale, 1 inch equals 32 feet. PHOTOGEAPHIC ENLARGEMENTS. 62. Fountain of Marcia, Rome. 63. Fountain in Front of Farnese Palace, Rome. 64. Fountain, Place Chateau d'eau, Paris. 65. Parade Ground, Boston Common. 66. Column in Garden of the Luxembourg, Paris. 67. Broad Avenue, Old Hadley, Mass. 68. Avenue, Cirencester, England. 69. Avenue, Windsor. 70. Broad Avenue, Old Hadley, Mass. 71. "Charles Sumner" Elm, Front of Capitol, Washington. 72. View from Terraces, St. Germain, Paris. 73. Terrace, Garden of the Tuilleries, Rue de Rivoli, Paris. 74. Fountain, Hampton Court, London. 75. Piazza del Popolo, Pincian Hill, Rome. 76. Ringstrasse, Vienna. 77. Fountain and Vista, ChantiUy, France. 78. Fountains, Versailles. 79. Fountains, Versailles. 80. Fountain, Place Saint Sulpice, Paris. 81. Fountain of San Paolo, Rome. 82. Fountain de I'Observatoire, Paris. 83. Fountain Versailles. 84. Fountain, Barberini Palace, Rome. 85. Fountain of the Medici, Garden of the Luxembourg, Paris. 86. Fountain, Quirinal, Rome. 87. Terrace, Versailles. 152 PARK SYSTEM OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. 88. Garden Pavilion, Laxenburg, Austria. 89. Fountain and Terrace, Fontainebleau. 90. The Long Walk, Windsor, England. 91. Avenue, Cirencester, England. 92. Avenue, Cirencester, England. 93. General View, Place de la Concorde, Paris. 94:. Avenue of the Champs Elys^es, Paris. 95. Fountains, Place de la Concorde, Paris. 96. Station at Frankfort, Germany. 97. Avenue of the Champs Elji^s^es, Paris. 98. Fountain in Garden at d'Aranja, Spain. 99. View, Garden of Villa Medici, Rome, showing Terrace. 100. Basin and Parterres, Fontainebleau. 101. Fountains, Versailles. 102. *Fountain, Villa Albani, Rome. 103. Fountain and Canal, Versailles. 104. The Orangerie, Versailles. 105. Palace and Gardens of the Luxembourg, Paris. 106. Temple, Borghese Gardens, Rome. 107. Chateau d'eau, Caserta, Italy. 108. Bernini Fountain, Piazza of St. Peter's, Rome. 109. Brandenburg Gate, Berlin. 110. Canal, Hampton Court Palace, London. 111. Memorial Walk, Thiergarten, Berlin. 112. L'arc de I'Etoile, Paris. 113. Fountain, Versailles. 114. Terrace, Trianon Palace, Versailles. 115. Terrace and Walk, Garden of the Tuilleries. 116. Quays 9*- Lucerne, Switzerland. 117. Quays at Grenoble, France, lis. Bridge and Quay, Paris. 119. Bridges and Quays, Budapest. 120. Quay at Vannes, France. 121. Bridges and Quay, Angers, France. '122. Elm, Lafayette Square, Washington. 123. Elms, Capitol Grounds, Washington. 124. Elms, East Front of Capitol, Washington. * From photograph taken by Mr. Frederick Law Ohnsted, jr. APPENDIX F. — DBA WINGS, DESIGNS, AND MODELS. 153 135. Elms, East Front of Capitol, Washington. 126. Elm, Capitol Grounds, Washington. 127. Elms, Side Avenue of Mall, Central Park, New York. 128. Elms, Side Avenue of Mall, Central Park, New York. 129. Elms, Mall, Central Park, New York. 130. Elms, Boston Common. 131. Mall, Boston Common. 182. Elms, Boston Common. 133. Elms, Boston Common. 134. Elms, Grounds of Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. 135. Elms, Grounds of Hai'vard Universit}-. 136. Elms, Avenue, Old Hadley, Mass. 137. Elms, Avenue, Old Hadley, Mass. 138. Elms, Avenue, Old Hadley, Mass. 139. "Charles Sumner" Elm, Capitol Grounds, W^ashington. 140. "'Charles Sumner" Elm, Capitol Grounds, Washington. 141. The "Tapis Vert," Versailles. 142. General View, Cirencester, England. 143. Fountain and Vistas, Garden of the Tuileries, Paris. 144. Exedra, Garden of the Tuileries, Paris. 145. Terrace, Fontainebleau. 146. Garden of the Luxembourg, Paris. 147. *Garden Terraces, Chateau Vaux le Vicomte. 148. *Gardens, Vaux le Vicomte. 149. *Fountain, Garden Vaux le Vicomte. 150. *Vatican Garden, Rome. 151. *Borghese Gardens, Rome. 152. *Hippodrome, Borghese Gardens, Rome. 153. Pavilion, Borghese Gardens, Rome. 154. *Garden, Villa d'Este, Tivoli. 165. *Cascade, Garden, Villa d'Este. 156. *Cascade, Garden, Villa d'Este. 157. *Stair and Fountain, Garden. Villa d'Este. 158. *Villa Albani, Rome. 159. * Villa Albani, Rome. 160. *Villa Albani, Rome. 161. *Villa Albani, Rome. *From photographs taken by Mr. Frederick Law Ohmsted, jr. 154 PARK SYSTEM OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. 162. *Villa Medici, Rome. 163._ *Villa Medici, Rome. 164. *Statue, Garden, Schoenbrunn, Vienna. 165. *Pratei Restaurant, Vienna. 166. *Prater Restaurant, Vienna. 167. *Prater Restaurant, Vienna. 168. Tlie Long Walk, Windsor, England. 169. Avenue of Stone Pines, Rome. 170. Monument Park, Washington, Present Condition, from the South. 171. Fountain of Trevi, Rome. 172. Panorama from the Cupola of St. Peter, Rome. 173. Piazzi of St. Peter, Rome. 174r. Aqueduct, Rome. 175. The Spanish Steps, Plaza, Rome. 176. Avenue du Bois de Bologne, Paris. 177. Avenue du Bois de Bologne, showing Arc de Triomphe, Paris. 178. Fountain St. Michel, Paris. 179. Garden Pavilion. Borghese Gardens, Rome. *From photographs taken by Mr. Frederick Law 01m.sted, jr. Park Connections. Areas shown in Green Dashes t-^o^V-J are those whose purchase is recommended tor other than Park purposes. Areas shown in Green C3BK:=3 are proposed Elevated Drives along the Quays. Department Build'ngs shown in Slack "(Sl^ *'■« owned by the Government. Department Buildings shown in Brown | ir i are rented «NOIiew B GRi, D, C, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA SHOWING PUBLIC RESERVATIONS AND POSSESSIONS AND AREAS RECOMMENDED TO BE TAKEN AS NECESSARY FOR NEW PARKS AND PARK CONNECTIONS, COMPILED AND DRAWN IN THE OFFICE OF THE COMMISSION ON THE IMPROVEMENT OF THE PARK SYSTEM. SCALE a^TOTo No. D-289 NOVEMBER . 190 COMMISSION ON THE IMPROVEMENT OF THE PARK SYSTEM. d4mel h. bubnham, chicago augustus st. 3/.udens, new york. Charles F McKim, new York. Freoehick law Olmsted, jr.. brookune NOTE : Elevations are in Feet, and refer to the plane 2.11 above mean low tide level of the Potomac River. Areas shown m Green ^|b indicate existing Ptjblic Open Spaces or Parks. Aroas shown in Buff ^^V ""^"^^^^ Grounds to which the Public has access but which were not pnmariiy intended as Parks Areas shown in Green Lines ^Sa^'j are those whose purchase is recommended. Areas snown in Green Web fe: -"<-; r- ff i are existing or authorized Streets which are to serve as Park Connections. Areas shown in Green Dajhss c:bhcs are proposed Elevated Drives along the Quays. Line shown in Buff "idicates proposed National Road to Mt. Vernon. Departmerit Buildings show" ^ Slack ["iJi*! are owned by the Government. ISi fmm OLUMBIA /lENDED TO BE TAKEN AS NECESSARY AND DRAWN IN THE OFFICE F THE PARK SYSTEM. BOM iOOO 00 ICOC isoo 2000 PARK SYSTEM. US ST. Gaudens, new York. iCK Law Olmsted, jr., BRoomrNE level of the Potomac River. ir Parks. .ccess but which were not primarily intended as Parks smmended which are to serve as Park Connectioris. long the Quays. 'ernon. nment. ^WW" t QRUUH CO '-■'JlO-ulIWGHiPKMa **SH"«aTO)i, c INDEX Agriculture, Department of, 13, 43, 65; building for, 44; experiment stations of, 144. Allen, Lieut. Col. Charles J., Corps of Engineers, V. S. A., 56, 105; report of, on Anacostia flats, 106. Almshouse farm, 113. American Institute of Architects appoints a committee on legislation and recom- mends members of Park Commission, 8. Amsterdam, plan of, 12. Anacostia embankment, 115. Anacostia flats, 11. Anacostia, relation of dam to tidal scour, 131. Anacostia section, 113. Anacostia Park, proposed treatment of, 105, 133-135. Analostan Island, 55, 57. Aqueduct Bridge, 97. Arc de Triomphe de I'lfltoile, Paris, 45. Arlington, proposed treatment of, 51, 55, 58, 59, 122. Arnold Aboretum, Boston, 143. Attorney-General refers to Park Commission in annual report, 13. Bacher, Otto H., drawings of, 123, 150. Bacon, Mr., 123. Baer,Mr.,123. Bald Eagle Point, 114. Baltimore and Ohio Eailroad, 15, 29; Metropolitan Branch of, 102, 103. Baltimore and Potomac Railroad, occupation of Mall by, 14, 29, 43. Bathing beach, Washington, 28. Bathing places, public, 125. Batteries, Parrott, 97; Bicketts, 112; Vermont, 94. Beach Drive, 88. Berlin, 26. Bingham, Col. Theodore A., Corps of Engineers, U. S. A., officer in charge of pub- lic buildings and grounds; his plans for the extension of the White House, 63. Bladensburg road, 103. Blum, Robert, drawings of, 123, 149, 150. Bois de Bologne, Paris, 51. Boston Metropolitan Park Commission, 28, 127. Botanical collections, desirabilty of, 145. Botanic Garden, the, 37, 41, 43. Broad Branch parkway, 92. Brookline, Mass., public baths at, 128. Brown, Glenn, his history of the Capitol, 37, Buck, L. L., plans of, for Memorial Bridge, 56. Budapest, 15, 26, 70, 83. S.Rep.l66-7-J6 17S 174 ijNijjaji.. Burnham, Daniel H., president Park Commission, 8, 9, 13, 41, 123; architect railroad stations at Pittsburg and Washington, 15. Burr, Prof. W. H., plans of, for Memorial Bridge, 56. Bushy Park, England, 45. Butler, Mr., 123. Cabin John Bridge, 96. Capitol, the United States, 12, 23; extension of, 24; location of, 37, 47. Carlsruhe, plan of, 12. Carnegie Library, Washington, 70. Cassatt, A. J., president Pennsylvania Railroad, consents to withdraw tracks from Mall, 15. Cemeteries, character of modern, 58. Center Market, Washington, 69. Central Park, New York, 45, 103. Chapman, Carlton T., drawings of, 123, 150. Chesapeake Bay, 25. Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, 84. Chevy Chase, the suburb of, 91. Chief of Engineers, U. S. A., 18, 25. Coast and Geodetic Survey, topographical map of the District of Columbia, 16, 77. Columbia Institution for Deaf and Dumb, 102, 113. Commerce, Department of, 64. Commissioners of the District of Columbia refer to the Park Commission in annual report, 13. Compifigne, palace of, France, 45. Conduit road, 95. Congress grants Mall site to Baltimore and Potomac Railroad, 15. Congress house, name for Capitol, 35. Connecticut avenue bridge, 11. Constantine, arch of, 30. Continental Congress votes statues, 35. Corcoran Gallery of Art, 18, 29. Corps of Engineers, U. S. A., 14. Cox, William V., 63. Crow, Mr., his work on Washington plans, 123. CuUom, Senator Shelby M., his bill for Lincoln Memorial, 52. Curtis, George Carroll, geographical sculptor, models made by, 17, 123, 149. DeGersdorff, George, his work on Washington plans, 123, 148. District of Columbia militia, 29, 70. District of Columbia, Senate Committee on, members of, 2. District of Columbia, centennial celebration of the removal of the seat of govern- ment to, 7. District of Columbia, desirability of comprehensive plan for, 7; list of lands in, devoted to public use, 155-165; list of proposed additions to park system of, 167- 171; park system under control of Chief of Engineers, 18; topographical features of, 14, 75; courts of, 70. Dodge, Gen. Grenville M., member Grant Memorial Commission, 41. Douglas, E. A., 123. Duncklee, John B., letter of, relative to the proposed treatment of Anacostia Park 133-135. Eckington parkway, 101. EUicott, Major, makes surveys for the city of Washington, 25. Elliott, Mr., work of, 123. Elms, use of in Mall, 45. Engineer school of application, 117. INDEX. 176 Evening Star, Washington, 14. Executive Departments, grouping of buildings of, 28, 63. Fillmore, President, extension of Capitol under his charge, 37. Fisheries Commission building, 44. Fontainebleau, Chateau of, France, 45, 51. Forts, Albany, 121; Baker, 112; Bunker Hill, 111; Chaplin, 112; Davis, 112; DuPont, 112; Greble, 112; Kemble Park, 97; Mahan, 112; Myer, 58; Preble, 114; Eeno, 91; Sedgwick, 112; Slemmer, 111; Stanton, 112; Stevens, 111; Thayer, 111; Totten, 111. Fort Drive, the. 111. Fort Reno Park, 93. Forum, The, Rome, 27. Foundry Branch of Rock Creek, 97. Frankfort, Germany, plan of, 12, 26. French, Daniel Chester, sculptor, member of the Grant Memorial jury, 41. Gage, Lyman J. , Secretary of the Treasury, 25. Gaillard, Capt. D. D., Corps Engineers II. S. A., 56. Gallager, Percival, drawings of, 123, 147. Gallagher, Sears, drawings of, 123, 147. Gallinger, Senator Jacob H., member Subcommittee on Park Investigation, 10. Garden of the Tuilleries, Paris, 45. Georgetown parks, 97. Georgetown, 58. Georgetown College, 97. Georgetown Harbor, 84, 86. Georgetown Observatory, 97. Githens, Mr., work of, 123. Giesboro parkway, 114. Government Hospital for the Insane, ^ ""^ ^ ^ ' Graham, Charles, drawings of, 123, 1' Grant memorial ( we also Union squar Great Falls of the Potomac, 17, 96. Guerin, Jules, drawings of, 123, 149, ] Hains, Col. Peter, Corps of Engineers, 55, 121. Hall of Records, 29. Hampton Court, England, 51. Harewood road, 100. Harmon, Mr., work of, 123. Hatfield House, seat of the Marquis o Hill, James G., member of the Memc Hillside Reservation, 113. Hoban, James, architect of White He Hoppin^ F. L., drawings of, 123, 148. House of Representatives, office build Howard Park, 101. Howard University, 101. Howard University reservoir, 101. Hutton, William R., competitor for IV Inauguration of President, accommod Interior, Department of the, 64, 70. James River, 25. Jefferson, Thomas, supervises plan of Johnson, Mr., drawings of, 123. Justice, Department of, 64. 176 INDEX. Kaiser, C. S., drawings of, 123. Langdon, James G., in charge of ttie drafting of maps for Park Commission, 123. L'Enfant, Maj. Peter Charles, 12, 13, 25, 26, 35, 36, 37, 39; his plan of the Mall, 43; his plan of Washington, 10,11; custody of plan, 25; invasions of plan, 9, 39; use of water shown in plan, 28. Len6tre, Andr^, French landscape architect, 12, 25, 27. Library of Congress, 17, 18, 38, 39. Lincoln avenue, 101. Lincoln Memorial, 51, 57, 83; action of Congress on, 52. Little Eiver, 55. London, 15, 25, 26, 77. Long Bridge, 117. Lopez, Charles A., 41. Louvre, palace of, 45. McCarter, Henry, drawings of, 123, 149, 150. McCleary, Hon. James T., member of Lincoln Memorial Commission, 52. McKim, Charles F., member of Park Commission, 8, 13, 41; plans White House res- toration, 65, 123. McKinley, President William, urges building Memorial Bridge, 55. McMillan, Senator James, report of, on park system of the District of Columbia to Senate, 7; states District of Columbia problem to Park Commission, 10. Mall, the, 10,29, 35; changes in, 23; development of, 17; proposed plan for, 43. Margaretten-Insel, Budapest, 118. Market, proposed character of, 70. Martm, Senator Thomas S., member Subcommittee on Park Plans, 10. Massachusetts avenue bridge, 11. Memorial Bridge, 51, 55, 122; preparation of plans for, 56; recommendations of Park Commission concerning, 56; action of Senate on, 55. Merritt, Maj. Gen. Wesley M., member of the Grant Memorial jury, 41. Merz, Mr., designs model of monument garden, 17, 123. Michigan avenue, 101. Milan, plan of, 12. Military road, 88. Miller, Burr C, 41. Minor reservations, treatment of, 79. Morris, Mr., 123. Morrison, George S., engineer, 56. Mount Hamilton Park, 103. Mount Hamilton parkway, 103. Mount Olivet Cemetery, 103. Mount Vernon, 17, 121. Mount Vernon Association, 122. Mount Vernon road, 121. Mundy, Mr., 123. Municipal building, 29, 69; location of, 70. Municipal Hospital, 99. National Museum, 44. National Zoological Park, establishment of, 10. Naval Observatory, 56, 97; grounds of, 98. Nebraska avenue, 92. New Cut road, 97. New York City, 77; botanical garden in, 143. Nichols avenue, 113. Niehaus, Charles Henry, 41; character of his work on design for Grant Meuiorial, 42. INDEX. 177 North Capitol street, opportunity for triumphal arch on, 101. Offleer in charge of public buildings and grounds, 14. Old Hadley, Massachusetts, 45. Olmsted, Frederick Law, jr., member of Park Commission, 8, 13, 123. Orleans, plan of, 12. Outhet, R. A., work of, on park plans, 123. Pantheon, proposed, 50. Paris; 12, 15, 26,70, 77, 83. Park Commission appointed, 8; problem stated to, 10; visit to Europe, 15; compre- hensive character of plans of, 16; consulted as to architect for Department of Agriculture building, 13; report of, 23; recommendation of as to public buildings, 28; list of drawings, designs and models illustrating the report of, 147-154. Park system of Washington, character of, 75; the larger parks and their connec- tions, 83; law governing, 18; need for additional parks, 77. Partridge, William T., work of, on Washington plans, 123. Patent Office, 64. Patterson Park, 102. Pennsylvania avenue, treatment of area south of, 29, 69. Pension OflBce, 70. Piney Branch, 99. Place de la Concorde, Paris, 42. Playgrounds, 49, 79. Post-Office Department, 64. Potomac Drive, 94. Potomac Flats, 24; improvement of, 10, 36, 77. Potomac Park, 11, 51, 56, 83, 117. Potomac quay, 83. President's house, 12. President's palace, 35. Public baths and gymnasiums, 28. Public buildings, Lafayette square suitable for, 28; location of, 28; need of new, 24. Eeceiving reservoir, 94. Eeform School, 108, 113. Eevere Beach, Massachusetts, 28, 127. Rhind, J. Massey, sculptor, 41. Richardson, Hon. James D., member of Lincoln Memorial Commission, 52. Richmond, Va., swimming basin at, 125. Riverside Drive, Washington, 51. Riverside Drive, New York, 95. Rock Creek Park, 11, 88, 99; purchase of, 10. Rock Creek parkway, treatment of, 85. Rock Creek, section east of, 99; section west of, 91; system of parks, 51; valley of, 11; alternative plans for treatment of, 137. Rodeman, Mr., 123. Rome, 15-26; fountains of, 27. Roosevelt, President, 65. Root, Hon. Elihu, Secretary of War, 41; member of Lincoln Memorial Commission, 52. Ross, A. R., drawings of, 123, 148. Rossell, Captain, Corps of Engineers, U. S. A., report of as to treatment of Rock Creek, 137, 138. Roth, F. G. R., 41. St. Gaudens, Augustus, member of Park Commission, 9, 13, 41, 123. St. Peter's, Rome, 27. 178 INDEX. Savannah street boulevard, 99. Schonbrunn, palace of, 45. Schofield, Lieut. Gen. J. M., member Grant Memorial jury, 41. Shaw Botanical Garden, St. Louis, 143. Shephard, Mr., 123. Shepherds Landing, 115. Sheridan avenue, 113, 114. Sheridan, Gen. Philip H., statue of, 41. Sherman, Gen. William T., statue of, 41. Shrady, Herwiu Merwin, sculptor, wins competition for Grant Memorial, 41. Shuters Hill, 121. Smithsonian Institution, 43; Secretary of, 14. Soapstone parkway, 92. Soldiers' Home, 11, 93, 99, 100. Soldiers' Home cemetery, 58. Spring Bank Run, 121. State, War, and Navy building, 39. Stickfoot Creek parkway, 113. Story, Waldo, sculptor, 41. Strasburg, plan of, 12. Supervising Architect of Treasury, 13. Supreme Court building, 38. Symons, Maj. Thomas W., Corps of Engineers, U. S. A., report of, on Memorial Bridge, 55, 56. Tenley circle, 91 . Tiber Creek, 40. Tittmann, Otto H., Superintendent Coast and Geodetic Survey, 14. Treasury building, 39. Treasury, Secretary of, 13. Trevi, fountain of, Rome, 27. Trueblood, Mr., 123. Turin, plan of, 12. Thornton, William, architect of Capitol, 37, 40. United States Senate, resolution of, relative to improvement of park system, 7. Union Square, 41. Union Station, 15, 16, 29, 44. Vaux-le-Vicomte, chateau of, near Melun, France, 45; fountains of, 27. Venice, 15, 26. Versailles, palace of, 27, 45, 51. Vienna, 15, 26, 83. Virginia palisades of the Potomac, 97. Walker, Mr., 123. Walter, Thomas U., architect of extension of the Capitol, 37. War College, 117. War, Secretary of, refers to report of Park Commission in annual report, 13. Water, consumption of, in the District of Columbia, 28. Washington, as a capital city, 25; its advantage over other cities, 39; planned under supervisionof Washington and Jefferson, 12; climatic condition of, 26,76; defenses of, during civil war, 79; local government of, 14. Washington, Alexandria, and Mount Vernon Railroad, 117. Washington Barracks, 105, 117. Washington Board of Trade, 8, 85, 137. Washington channel, 10. Washington common, the, 49. INDEX. 179 Washington embankment, 117. Washington market, 29. Washington, George, 13, 19, 25, 35, 37, 39, 52; supervises plan of Washington, 12. Washington Monument. 10; model of, 17; as work of art, 24; beginnings of, 35; pro- posed treatment of, 47. Washington Star, the, 43. Webster, Daniel, first mentions Memorial Bridge, 55. Weekes, Mr., 123. Wetmore, Senator George Peabody, member Grant Memorial Commission, 41; mem- ber of Lincoln Memorial Commission, 52. White House, 23,35,39,47; improvement of, 36; occupied by President and Mrs. John Adams, 63. White Lot, 29, 42, 49. White, Stanford, member of Memorial Bridge jury, 56. Williamsburg, Va. , 45. Windsor Great Park, 45. Wisconsin avenue, 93. Yuma street, 93. Zoological park, 87.