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 A Short History, and Facts on 
 
 "The Park Commission Plans" 
 
 (Issued by Authority of the fFashington, D. C, Chamber of Commerce.) 
 Prepared by 
 
 The Committee of 100 on the Future Development 
 of Washington 
 
 In 1896 The Public Art League was organized for the sole pur- 
 pose of having the Government create a Fine Arts Commission for 
 the future development of Washington along the original plans of 
 L'Enfant, who was employed by George Washington and Thomas 
 Jefferson in 1789 to plan the Nation's future Capital, the only city in 
 the world ever planned before its construction and even today con- 
 ceded by all Nations the best planned city. 
 
 In 1899 the Washington Board of Trade offered suggestions to 
 Congress concerning the future development of Washington (Park 
 Improvement Papers of the District of Columbia, Public Document 
 No. 1). The same year, through the Public Art League, the Ameri- 
 can Institute of Architects organized a convention and were requested 
 to present suggestions on the future development of Washington. 
 (Senate No. 94, 56th Congress, 2d Session.) 
 
 In 1900 the celebration of the National Capital Centennial went 
 far to educate the people of the country as to the future of their 
 Capital. As a permanent memorial a park development plan was de- 
 sired. (Public Document No. 136, March 3d, 1901.) 
 
 In 1901 the Senate authorized a Commission to study plans for 
 the future development of Washington. (Senate report 160, 57th 
 Congress, 1st session.) The result of this Commission was that in 
 1902 The Park Commission Plans recommending a return to the 
 original L'Enfant plans and advising that that part of the District 
 not shown in the L'Enfant plans be developed in harmony with them, 
 was presented to and accepted by the Senate. (The Improvements of 
 the Park System of the D. C, 57th Congress, First session. Senate 
 report 166.) 
 
 Note is here made that upon research it will be found that The 
 Park Commission Plans for the future development of Washington 
 are the result of careful study and an epitome of the best of the many 
 

 plans and able suggestions that have been offered from time to time 
 to the Government and are considered by many to offer to the Nation's 
 Capital a tangible, economical system for the location of its public 
 buildings, bridges, statuary, highways, neighborhood parks, and a prac- 
 tical solution of the connecting of Potomac Park, National Zoological 
 Park, Rock Creek Park, Soldiers' Home Park, and what will soon 
 be Eastern Branch Park, the Arsenal, the Mall and Arlington through 
 a system of smaller parks, drives and bridges. 
 
 The idea is not to accomplish all this in one decade, but if the 
 Nation wishes its Capital ultimately to become the most beautiful city 
 in the world, then a plan is as necessary for its accomplishment as a 
 plan is to the man who would build a home, a machine, or lay out a 
 garden. 
 
 The Park Commission Plans were devised by mortals and it is 
 not contended that they are infallible or that from time to time minor 
 changes should not be made in them, but it is contended that future 
 Washington depends materially on these plans and it is hoped that 
 the House of Representatives will some day, in principle or in spirit, 
 approve them as the Senate has done. It will then no longer be neces- 
 sary for local and national organizations, societies, and public spirited 
 individuals to join in a movement, as was done during the years 1903 
 to 1907, to stop what they thought to be, though an honest, yet an 
 unwise expenditure of public moneys by the location of parks, public 
 buildings, and statuary not in harmony with The Park Commission 
 Plans. 
 
 In 1908 the President, recognizing this condition, appointed The 
 Fine Arts Council (executive order 1010) and this council reported 
 in favor of placing a projected Lincoln Memorial on the Mall, in keep- 
 ing with the Park Commission Plans, and through the efforts of this 
 Council the bill to place a projected Lincoln Memorial at the Union 
 Station, a severe divergence from the Park Commission Plans was de- 
 feated. 
 
 In 1910 Congress considered it wise to create a Permanent Com- 
 mission of Fine Arts and appropriated $10,000 a year for its use. 
 Every decision rendered by this Commission has been in keeping with 
 the Park Commission Plans. 
 
 In 1911 Congress passed an act authorizing an appropriation of 
 $2,000,000 for a Lincoln Memorial to be placed in the District of Co- 
 lumbia and created the Lincoln Memorial Commission, which was to 
 avail itself of the advice of the Permanent Fine Arts Commission. 
 (Public 346, Senate 9449, February, 1911.) 
 
 During the years 1910 and 1911 The Washington, D. C, Cham- 
 ber of Commerce, The Washington Board of Trade, The Federation 
 of Citizens' Associations and fourteen individual citizens' associations 
 passed resolutions indorsing the Park Commission Plans, and the Lin- 
 coln Memorial site on the Mall in keeping with the plans, and resolu- 
 tions favoring the site as indicated by the Park Commission Plan were 
 adopted by over two hundred local and national clubs, civic, municipal, 
 
 JAN 13 1912 
 
patriotic, historical, architectural, fine arts, landscape, and engineer- 
 ing organizations, and societies throughout the country, and the lead- 
 ing commercial organizations of Rhode Island, Indiana, Massachu- 
 setts, Wisconsin, Ohio, Texas, California, Colorado, Louisiana, Ne- 
 braska, South Dakota, Michigan, Iowa, Kentucky, New York, Mis- 
 souri, and Pennsylvania. 
 
 On December the fourth, 1912, after many meetings and examin- 
 ing many plans, schemes and suggestions, such as roadways, etc., the 
 Lincoln Memorial Commission, composed of President Taft, Speaker 
 Clark, Representatives McCall and Cannon and Senators Cullom, 
 Wetmore and Martin and Col. Cosby as executive officer, recom- 
 mended to Congress that the Lincoln Memorial be placed in the Dis- 
 trict of Columbia on the Mall, which is in keeping with the Park Com- 
 mission Plans. 
 
 On December the 13th, 1912, the Senate approved the findings 
 of the Lincoln Memorial Commission. 
 
 But in spite of all this and in spite of the fact that it has been 
 proven again and again that with few exceptions commercial, 
 civic, architectural and artistic America are a unit that the L'Enfant 
 and, in principle, the Park Commission Plans are the best for the future 
 of the Nation's Capital, there are constant and persistent efforts made 
 to materially change these plans ; no more glaring example of this 
 can be found than the attempt that was made to divert the $2,000,000 
 appropriated by Congress for a Lincoln Memorial in the District of 
 Columbia to a roadway. (Hearing Library Committee H. R. 13045, 
 1912.) 
 
 It was conditions of this nature that brought into life the Com- 
 mittee of 100 on the Future Development of Washington, organized 
 1910 with the sanction of the Washington, D. C, Chamber of Com- 
 merce. A permanent committee, a national committee, and in its truest 
 sense a vigilance committee, jealous for the future of Washington, 
 positive as to the spirit of the Park Commission Plans. 
 
 It is the desire of this committee that as far as possible the people 
 of the country, who own and take such pride in their capital, and their 
 representatives in Congress (who for a hundred years have been, and 
 for the centuries to come will be considerate for it), to know what the 
 Park Commission Plans mean to future Washington so they can think 
 and vote understandingly. 
 
 Information in detail on the Park Commission Plans, slides and 
 suggestions for lectures, photographs and half tones showing present 
 and future Washington, news for publications and resolutions to be 
 adopted by organizations will be furnished upon request by addressing. 
 
 The Committee of 100 
 ON THE Future Development of Washington, 
 Chamber of Commerce, Washington, D. C. 
 
The Committee of 100 
 ON THE Future Development of Washington. 
 
 Glenn Brown, Chairman, 
 
 Wm. E. Shannon, Vice-Chairman 
 
 Thos. Grant, Secretary, 
 
 Milton E. Ailes 
 
 Chas. J. Bell 
 
 Ira E. Bennett 
 
 Emil Berliner 
 
 Miss Mabel Boardman 
 
 Scott C. Bone 
 
 Chapin Brown 
 
 D. J. Callahan 
 
 Dr. Mitchell Carroll 
 Frank G. Carpenter 
 Wm. McK. Clayton 
 Fred G. Coldren 
 C. I. Corby 
 
 E. H. Daniel 
 John Dolph 
 E. H. Droop 
 
 H. Rozier Dulaney 
 John Joy Edson 
 Dwight L. Elmendorf 
 Fred A. Emery 
 Wm. Phelps Eno 
 Wm. John Eynon 
 W. W. Finley 
 W. T. Galliher 
 
 E. C. Graham 
 Julius Garfinkle 
 
 Col. F. C. Goldsborough 
 Wm. F. Gude 
 Rev. Alfred Harding 
 Frank W. Hackett 
 Walter S. Harban 
 Col. Robert N. Harper 
 Chas. D. Hilles 
 Rev. J. J. Himmel 
 Wm. D. Hoover 
 Chas. E. Howe 
 Archibald Hopkins 
 
 F. J. Haskin 
 Hennen Jennings 
 General John A. Johnston 
 Col. W. V. Judson 
 Louis Kann 
 
 John B. Earner 
 
 John C. Letts. 
 
 A. Lisner 
 
 Isaac F. Marcoson 
 
 Hon. H. B. F. Macfarland 
 
 James Rush Marshall 
 
 Dr. James Dudley Morgan 
 C. R. Miller 
 
 A. C. Moses 
 
 Miss Leila Mechlin 
 Dr. E. P. Mertz 
 Clarence Norment 
 Theodore W. Noyes 
 Chas. D. Norton 
 Frank B. Noyes 
 Robert Lee O'Brien 
 J. C. O'Laughlin 
 Captain James F. Oyster 
 Thomas Nelson Page 
 Arthur J. Parsons 
 Hon. M. M. Parker 
 Hon. Henry Kirke Porter 
 Rev. Wallace Radclifife 
 Dr. Chas. W. Richardson 
 Mrs. Chas. W. Richardson 
 Hon. Cuno H. Rudolph 
 Rev. W. T. Russell 
 
 B. F. Saul 
 
 Montgomery Schuyler 
 Albert Schulteis 
 
 Rev. Thomas J. Shahan 
 Mrs. W. Cummings Story 
 Dr. J. B. Scott 
 Dr. Frank Sewell 
 James Sharp 
 E. D. Shaw 
 John Shughrue 
 J. H. Small, Jr. 
 Rabbi Abram Simon 
 
 A. Leftwich Sinclair 
 W. J. Starr 
 
 Hon. Wendell Phillips Stafford 
 
 E. J. Stellwagen 
 
 Rear Admiral Charles H. Stockton 
 George Stuart 
 George Oakley Totten 
 Mrs. Herbert Wads worth 
 
 B. H. Warner 
 
 Dr. Charles D. Walcott 
 
 F. A. Walker 
 Richard B. Watrous 
 John L. Weaver 
 
 Rev. W. R. Wedderspoon 
 George W. White 
 Mrs. S. A. Willis 
 A. S. Worthington 
 
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 Conservation Resources 
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