THE McMILLAN PARK COMMISSION--THE PLAN OF 1901
In 1900 a great celebration commemorating the one-hundredth anniversary
of the removal of the seat of government to the District of Columbia
was held in Washington. The keynote of the celebration was the
improvement of the District of Columbia in a manner and to the extent
commensurate with the dignity and the resources of the American Nation.
The population was 218,196.
[Illustration: OLD BALTIMORE & OHIO RAILROAD STATION]
While the centennial exercises were in progress the American Institute
of Architects, in session in Washington, discussed the subject of the
development of parks and the placing of public buildings; the tentative
ideas of a number of the leading architects, sculptors, and landscape
architects of the country were heard; and as a result the Institute
appointed a committee on legislation. Consultations between that
committee and the Senate Committee on the District of Columbia were
followed by the order of the Senate for the preparation and submission
of a general plan for the development of the entire park system of the
District of Columbia.
[Illustration: MODEL OF WASHINGTON SHOWING CONDITIONS IN 1901]
[Illustration: MODEL OF THE FUTURE WASHINGTON, PLAN OF 1901]
[Illustration: WASHINGTON, FROM ARLINGTON, PLAN OF 1901]
Thus, Hon. James McMillan, of Michigan, chairman of the Senate
Committee on the District of Columbia, submitted the following
resolution, which was adopted by the United States Senate on March 8,
1901:
_Resolved_, That the Committee on the District of Columbia be, and
it is hereby, directed to consider the subject and report to the
Senate plans for the development and improvement of the entire park
system of the District of Columbia. For the purpose of preparing such
plans the committee may sit during the recess of Congress and may
secure the services of such experts as may be necessary for a proper
consideration of the subject. The expenses of such investigation
shall be paid from the contingent fund of the Senate.
[Illustration: OLD PENNSYLVANIA RAILROAD STATION]
On March 19, 1901, the subcommittee of the District Committee having
the matter in charge met the representatives of the American Institute
of Architects and agreed to their proposition that Daniel H. Burnham,
architect, and Frederick Law Olmsted, jr., landscape architect, be
selected as experts, with power to add to their number. These gentlemen
accepted, and subsequently invited Charles F. McKim, architect, and
Augustus Saint-Gaudens, sculptor, to act with them in the preparation
of plans. The services of men who had won the very highest places in
their several professions had thus been secured.
[Illustration: THE MALL, SHOWING RAILROAD TRACKS CROSSING IT]
[Illustration: THE MALL INUNDATED]
The nature and scope of the work having been outlined to the
commission, they entered upon their task, but not without hesitation
and misgivings. The problem was both difficult and complex. Much had
to be done; much, also, had to be undone. Also the aid and advice of
the commission was sought immediately in relation to buildings and
memorials under consideration, and thus the importance and usefulness
of the commission were enhanced.
The commission, in order to make a closer study of the practice of
landscape architecture as applied to parks and public buildings, made
a brief trip to Europe, visiting Rome, Venice, Vienna, Budapest,
Paris, London, and their suburbs. Attention was directed principally
to ascertaining what arrangement of park areas best adapts them to the
uses of the people and what are the elements that give pleasure from
generation to generation, and even from century to century. The many
and striking results of this study were given in the Park Commission
Report, including plans and illustrations. The Committee on the
District of Columbia submitted the report to the Senate on January 15,
1902. It was adopted and ordered to be printed as Senate Report No.
166, Fifty-seventh Congress, first session.
McMILLAN PARK COMMISSION
The members of the McMillan Park Commission were:
DANIEL H. BURNHAM, architect, of Chicago. He became head of the firm
of Burnham & Root, one of the first great architectural firms of the
country, and later of D. H. Burnham & Co. Designer of many buildings,
among them the Railway Exchange and Marshall Field’s retail store in
Chicago, and the Wanamaker stores in New York and Philadelphia; in
1893 he became chief architect and director of works of the World’s
Columbian Exposition. Mr. Burnham was instrumental in securing the
adoption of a scheme of construction which placed that exhibition in
the very front rank of international exhibitions, and by the display of
rare executive ability he brought about and maintained the effective
cooperation of the architects and artists, who then and there gave to
American art both a new direction and a tremendous impetus. In 1901 he
became chairman of the McMillan Park Commission for beautifying the
National Capital; in 1908 he built the Union Station at Washington; in
1910 he became a member of the National Commission of Fine Arts and
its first chairman. He also laid out plans for Chicago, Cleveland, and
Manila. He died in 1912 while on a trip abroad.
CHARLES F. MCKIM, architect, of New York City, studied architecture
at Harvard University and at the École des Beaux Arts in Paris. He
organized the firm of McKim, Mead & White, architects, of New York
City, who for half a century have led the architectural profession in
the design of classical buildings, such as the Boston Public Library,
Harvard University buildings, the Columbia University Library, the
Morgan Library, the Rhode Island Capitol, the Pennsylvania Railroad
Station in New York City, the restoration of the White House, and are
the architects of the Arlington Memorial Bridge. Mr. McKim, as a member
of the McMillan Park Commission, designed the Mall plan, and also made
a sketch for the Lincoln Memorial. Mr. McKim was president of the
American Institute of Architects in 1902 and 1903, and was instrumental
in the purchase of the Octagon House as the headquarters of the
American Institute of Architects. In 1903 he was awarded the royal gold
medal given by King Edward VII for the promotion of architecture. Mr.
McKim was a champion of good architecture and keenly interested in the
development of the National Capital. He deplored the appearance of the
State, War, and Navy Building, and said he would find pleasure during
leisure hours in raking off the columns--a work that is contemplated
in the remodeling of the building as the State Department Building. He
died in 1909.
[Illustration]
AUGUSTUS SAINT-GAUDENS, sculptor, born in Dublin, Ireland, on March 1,
1848, came to the United States in infancy and learned the trade of
a cameo cutter. He studied drawing at the Cooper Institute in 1861,
and in 1865 and 1866 was a student of the National Academy of Design.
From 1867 to 1870 he studied at the École des Beaux Arts in Paris.
Mr. Saint-Gaudens was the greatest American sculptor, and, indeed, one
of the greatest of all time. His great works of art are numerous and
inspiring. Among them are The Puritan; the statue of Abraham Lincoln,
Chicago; the Farragut, the Peter Cooper, and the Sherman Victory
monuments in New York; the Shaw Memorial in Boston; the Amor Caritas
at the Luxembourg Gallery in Paris; and the celebrated Adams Memorial
in Rock Creek Cemetery, Washington. He also designed a $20 gold piece.
As a member of the McMillan Park Commission he wrote that part of the
report pertaining to Arlington National Cemetery and advised in the
matter of location of the Grant Memorial at the head of the Mall. He
died in 1907.
FREDERICK LAW OLMSTED, landscape architect, from the time that he
became a member of the McMillan Park Commission of 1901 has given
uninterrupted service in the development of the National Capital. He
was one of the original members of the National Commission of Fine
Arts, appointed in 1910, and served as landscape architect member until
1918. From 1924 he served as landscape architect member of the National
Capital Park and Planning Commission. Mr. Olmsted was president of the
American Society of Landscape Architects and from its organization in
1907 a member of the National Conference on City Planning.
His father laid out Central Park, New York City, about 1858 (2,300 men
were employed on it in September of that year), and in 1872 he prepared
the landscape plan for the United States Capitol Grounds as they have
existed since then. Mr. Olmsted and his firm have in more recent years
laid out the Metropolitan Park System of Boston, the Vanderbilt Estate
in North Carolina, the Baltimore Park System, and Redondo Beach, Los
Angeles County, Calif. The smaller park areas which Mr. Olmsted has
designed are too numerous to mention.
CHARLES MOORE has devoted fully 50 years to the development of the
National Capital, and is a former chairman of the National Commission
of Fine Arts. Mr. Moore was for many years clerk to the Senate
Committee on the District of Columbia, rendering most valuable service
to the committee, of which Senator McMillan was chairman, as well as to
the National Capital. The reports on the elimination of grade crossings
in the District of Columbia and on the charitable institutions of the
District of Columbia, as well as the Park Commission Report of 1901,
are memorable documents of that period which were largely prepared by
him. His influence has always been strong with Members of Congress
in favor of the development of the District of Columbia upon a noble
scale. His appointment as one of the original members of the National
Commission of Fine Arts was a fitting recognition not only of past
services but of his preeminent qualifications to pass upon subjects
relating to the beautification of the National Capital. He was chairman
from 1915 to 1937. Mr. Moore also helped prepare the plan of Chicago.
He is the author of a number of books, among them being Under Three
Flags, the Life of Daniel H. Burnham, the Life of Charles F. McKim, the
Family Life of George Washington, Washington Past and Present; and has
contributed also innumerable articles to magazines in the course of the
years.
PLANS OF THE McMILLAN PARK COMMISSION
The plans prepared by the McMillan Park Commission and submitted, with
its report, to the Senate, constituted the first and most notable
proposal for grouping of public buildings ever put forward in the
United States. The outlying sections of the District of Columbia
were studied in relation to a system of parks, both large and small
areas being indicated; the most convenient and the most picturesque
connections between the various parks were mapped; the individual
treatment which each important park should undergo was recommended; an
extension of the park system to Great Falls and to Mount Vernon was
discussed. Primarily, however, the development of the Mall received
detailed and elaborate treatment, and the location of new public
buildings, whether legislative, executive, or municipal in character,
was arranged according to a rational system of grouping; and those
memorials which mark distinct epochs in our national history were
brought into harmonious relation with the general scheme of development.
As a result of this study, the desirability of making every
considerable undertaking within the District of Columbia a part of
a general plan was made evident, so that each undertaking should
contribute its part to enhancing the value of the whole; and no
undertaking would be allowed to invade, to mutilate, or to mar the
symmetry, simplicity, and dignity of the one great composition designed
to comprehend the entire area.
In working out the plans the park commission found it necessary to have
prepared two models, one showing the existing disturbed conditions in
the section from the Library of Congress westward to the Potomac, and
the other showing the arrangement proposed. These models, constructed
with the utmost attention to the details of topography by George C.
Curtis, were accurate maps of the section they so graphically depicted,
and served as guides in carrying the plans to completion. To present
in graphic fashion particular features of the plans, the accurate
architectural drawings were rendered in color by leading artists, and
by means of these pictures a clear and distinct idea of the completed
work was obtained.
One of the greatest obstacles to a restoration of the Mall as provided
for in the L’Enfant plan was the fact that since 1872 the Mall had been
occupied by railroad tracks, the board of aldermen and the board of
common council having on March 20, 1871, granted the Mall site to the
Baltimore Potomac Railroad Co., later the Pennsylvania Railroad Co.,
which action was confirmed by act of Congress May 21, 1872. The Mall
was then no better than a common pasture. The railroad had taken the
place of the canal, which it paralleled, and held the right to use the
property by a title good in law and in equity; also by virtue of an
act of Congress adopted in 1890 the railroad space had been enlarged,
in consideration of the surrender of street trackage and the proposed
elevation of the tracks within the city of Washington.
It so happened that the chairman of the commission, Mr. Burnham, was
the architect of the new Pennsylvania Railroad Station at Pittsburgh,
and he had also drawn for the Pennsylvania Railroad Co. the preliminary
plans for the Baltimore & Potomac Railroad Station in Washington. After
consultation, Mr. Burnham proposed to the president of the Pennsylvania
Railroad Co. that the station be built on the south side of the Mall
and the adjoining lands; and, while the matter received serious
consideration, no action was taken. It was during the stay of the
commission in London that President Cassatt announced to Mr. Burnham
his willingness to consider the question, not of moving the Baltimore
& Potomac Railroad Station to the south side of the Mall but of
withdrawing altogether from that region and uniting with the Baltimore
& Ohio Railroad Co. in the erection of a union station on the site
established by legislation for the new depot of that road, provided
suitable legislation be secured to make compensation for the increased
expense such a change would involve, and provided, also, that the
approaches to the new site be made worthy of the building the railroads
proposed to erect.
Subsequent examination convinced the commission that from an esthetic
standpoint there were insuperable objections to the depot site provided
by law; the chief objection being that were the station to front on C
Street a train shed 800 feet long would be thrown across Massachusetts
Avenue, one of the great thoroughfares of the city. Not only would the
vista be blocked by a commercial building, but also the street would
be carried underneath this enormous structure in a tunnel so long as
to cause the avenue to be avoided by traffic. The commission thereupon
proposed a site fronting on Massachusetts Avenue, and that was the
one adopted for the Union Station. The plans called for a station 8
feet and 8 inches longer than the Capitol, the building to be of white
marble, the façade Roman in style of architecture, and the construction
and arrangements so planned as to make this station superior to any
structure ever erected for railway purposes. Facing the Capitol, and
yet not too near that building, the new station was designed to front
upon a plaza 600 feet in width and 1,200 feet in length, where bodies
of troops or large organizations could be formed during inaugural times
or on other like occasions. Thus located and so constructed, the Union
Station makes a great and impressive gateway to Washington.
In considering the views of the commission, and in reaching his
decision, the president of the Pennsylvania Railroad Co. looked at the
matter from the standpoint of an American citizen, saying in substance
that he appreciated the fact that if Congress intended to make of the
Mall what the founders of the city intended it to be, no railroad
should be allowed to cross it, and that he was willing to vacate the
space provided the matter could be arranged without sacrificing the
interests of the stockholders of the Pennsylvania Railroad Co. This
conditional consent on the part of the railroad, which was later agreed
to by Congress, removed the one great obstacle to the preparation of
adequate plans for the improvement of the city. Lesser obstacles,
such as the lack of surveys of the oldest parks in the District and
the difficulties of getting together the widely scattered data, were
surmounted. On the other hand, the work was much lightened by the
excellent topographical maps of the District outside of the city
prepared by the Coast and Geodetic Survey.
[Illustration: TREATMENT FOR AREA WEST OF THE CAPITOL, PLAN OF 1901]
THE CAPITOL GROUP
Naturally the plan of 1901 began at the Capitol. It was recommended
that the chief legislative building of the Nation be surrounded by
structures dependent on or supplementary to legislative work. The
Library of Congress had been completed in 1897. The enjoyment and
satisfaction taken in the Library by the thousands of persons from
all parts of the country who visit it daily is an indication of the
manner in which the American people regard the upbuilding of their
Capital. Since the Library Building was designed we have learned
lessons of subordination in grouping (as shown in the Senate and House
Office Buildings and in the Union Station), and also of restraint in
decoration; but the Library contains individual work of the leading
painters and sculptors of its era.
[Illustration: UNION SQUARE, PLAN OF 1901]
The idea of office buildings for the Members of the Senate and the
House of Representatives was in mind when the plan was being made, and
therefore the areas these buildings would naturally occupy were marked.
The three buildings were designed and constructed in such manner as to
make them an integral part of the Capitol group. Simple, elegant, and
dignified, the Senate and House of Representatives Office Buildings
carry on the great tradition established by Washington and Jefferson
in the selection of the Thornton design for the original building, and
persistently maintained by President Fillmore in the extension of the
Capitol by Thomas U. Walter.
By common consent the remaining space facing the Capitol on the east
was assigned to a building for the Supreme Court of the United States,
which since the removal of the seat of government to the District of
Columbia in 1800 occupied the same building with the Congress.
On the south below the House of Representatives Office Buildings the
frontage is occupied by nondescript buildings, all undignified and
unsightly. The obvious use of this land is building sites and house
gardens to balance Union Station Plaza on the north. This also is a
project for the future.
THE HEAD OF THE MALL
The area directly west of the Capitol grounds was marked on the
L’Enfant map as an open plaza, affording an approach to that building
similar to the one on the east. Owing to the slow development of
Washington the west front underwent various vicissitudes. The Baltimore
& Ohio Railroad Co. tracks once were located about on a line with the
Peace and Garfield Monuments. The Botanic Garden area was reclaimed
from an alder swamp, and the James Creek Canal wound its way through
it. A quarter of a century ago the House passed a bill for the removal
of the Botanic Garden fence, with the view of giving the public access
to that park in the same manner that other parks are open.
The plan of 1901 aimed to restore this area to its intended uses as a
broad thoroughfare so enriched with parterres as to form an organic
connection between the Capitol Grounds and the Mall. Anticipating the
improvement of this square, named Union Square, as outlined in the
plan, Congress located therein the memorial to General Grant, the base
of which was designed to be used as a reviewing stand, and later a site
in the same area was designated for the monument to General Meade. The
Grant Memorial was completed a number of years ago, the Meade Monument
is also in place, and the Botanic Garden has been relocated south of
Maryland Avenue, near the Capitol. The new plan for Union Square as
carried out, was made by Frederick Law Olmsted in 1935.
DEVELOPMENT OF THE MALL
That section of the Mall between Third and Four-and-a-half Streets
has been laid out and planted with elms in accordance with the plan
of 1901, and Congress has provided for putting in the roadways. The
temporary buildings in the Mall were so located that upon removal the
roadways will be in accordance with the Mall plan, and as fast as
the buildings are razed the planting of trees can be made. The space
between Four-and-a-half and Sixth Streets was so improved and restored
during the fiscal year beginning July 1, 1921.
Congress has authorized the occupation of the north side of the Mall
between Third and Seventh Streets (former site of the Pennsylvania
Station) by the National Gallery of Art, designed by John Russell Pope.
Plans for the building approved by the Commission of Fine Arts are
classical in style of architecture.
Auditoriums, both large and small, designed for the uses of
conventions, inaugural exercises, and meetings of patriotic societies
are among the prime necessities of Washington. Such gathering places
would meet governmental and semipublic needs and be advantageous to the
growth of American feeling.
[Illustration: MALL AND MONUMENT GARDENS, PLAN OF 1901]
The space between Third and Seventh Streets, on the south side of the
Mall is being considered for the Smithsonian Gallery of Art, authorized
by Congress, to house the collections of works of art that have been
given to the Nation. The planting and roadways continuous with those
already in place on the Mall can then be put in.
The new National Museum Building was the first structure to be located
and erected according to the plan of 1901, having been aligned in
conformity to the new Mall axis. On the south side of the Mall the
new Freer Gallery also conforms to the revised axis. This gallery is
a constituent portion of the National Gallery of Art. It represents
one of the largest gifts ever made by an individual to the Government.
Although comparatively small in extent, both the building itself and
the collections now being arranged within it represent the very highest
standards of art. Moreover, the Freer Gallery is a type of the small,
adequately housed, and well-endowed gallery which doubtless will be
established from time to time by private individuals and given to
the Nation to be administered by the Smithsonian Institution for the
instruction and gratification of the people.
The section of the Mall between Twelfth and Fourteenth Streets is
occupied by the Department of Agriculture. The location of the two
wings of the building designed to accommodate the administrative
offices of the department precipitated a contest, on the result of
which depended the fate of the plan of 1901. It was due to the firm
stand taken by President Roosevelt and Secretary of War Taft that the
location was made in accordance with the plan. That crisis having been
met satisfactorily, the future of the Mall scheme was assured, and
since then the plan for park connection between the Capitol and the
White House has become an established fact.
While L’Enfant had planned a driveway through the center of the Mall,
the Mall Plan of 1901 consists of an expanse of undulating green park,
a mile in length and 300 feet wide, extending from the Capitol to the
Monument. This central green space is bordered by park roads, flanked
by four rows of American elms, under the shade of which are walks and
resting places. Back of these rows of trees are other roads furnishing
access to public buildings like the National Museum, the Department of
Agriculture Building, the Freer Gallery, and the National Gallery of
Art, which have been located according to the plan.
RESTORING THE MALL AXIS
According to the L’Enfant plan the Monument to George Washington was to
be located at the point where a line drawn due west from the center of
the Capitol would intersect a line drawn due south from the center of
the White House. On these axial relations the Mall composition depended
for its effect. The builders of the Washington Monument, despairing of
securing adequate foundations in the lowlands at the intersection of
the main and the cross axes, located the Monument without regard to
points fixed in the plan. Feeling the absolute necessity of restoring
these relationships, the Park Commission boldly determined to create
a new main axis by drawing a line from the Capitol Dome through the
Washington Monument and prolonging it to the shore of the Potomac,
where they proposed, on the then unimproved lands dredged from the
river to form Potomac Park, a site for a new memorial. Here they placed
the long-contemplated memorial to Abraham Lincoln. This they did with
full comprehension of the fact that by common consent Lincoln is the
one man in the history of this Nation worthy to stand with Washington
in the great central composition.
[Illustration: PLAN OF THE MALL]
The original intersection had been marked by Thomas Jefferson by a
small monument known as the Jefferson Pier. In the McMillan Park
Commission plan of 1901 this pier is indicated by a circular pool. That
commission, as has been said, restored the cross axis of the Mall,
and from the Mall plan of 1901 by actual measurement the Washington
Monument is 371.6 feet east of the north and south axis of the White
House, and 123.17 feet south of the Capitol axis.
EXTENDING THE MALL AXIS TO THE LINCOLN MEMORIAL
While this location of the Lincoln Memorial commended itself to men
like Theodore Roosevelt, John Hay, Elihu Root, and William H. Taft,
it was opposed by many others, who had regard to the immediate future
and who did not consider either the historical significance of the
situation or the prospective development of Potomac Park, then far from
the more populous parts of the city and thus seemingly isolated and
remote. The struggle over this location, and indeed over any memorial
of an ideal character, was long and bitter. Nor was it ended during
the lifetime of Mr. McKim and Mr. Saint-Gaudens. Happily, however,
the result was determined in accordance with the commission plan, and
to-day no other site seems possible. This was a distinct victory for
the plan, virtually insuring the realization of the large scheme as
laid out in 1901.
The Park Commission wrote as follows:
From the Monument garden westward a canal 3,600 feet long and 200
feet wide, with central arms and bordered by stretches of green
walled with trees, leads to a concourse raised to the height of the
Monument platform. Seen from the Monument this canal, similar in
character to the canals at Versailles and Fontainebleau in France
and Hampton Court in England, introduces into the formal landscape
an element of repose and great beauty. At the head of the canal a
great rond-point, placed on the main axis of the Capitol and the
Monument, becomes a gate of approach to the park system of the
District of Columbia. Centering upon it as a great point of reunion
are the drives leading southeast to Potomac Park and northwest by
the Riverside Drive to the Rock Creek system of parks. From this
elevation of 40 feet the Memorial Bridge leads across the Potomac
directly to the base of the hill crowned by the mansion house of
Arlington.
[Illustration: SITE OF THE LINCOLN MEMORIAL, 1901]
Crowning the rond-point, as the Arc de Triomphe crowns the Place de
l’Etoile at Paris, should stand a memorial erected to the memory
of that one man in our history as a nation who is worthy to stand
with George Washington--Abraham Lincoln. Whatever may be the exact
form selected for the memorial to Lincoln, in form it should possess
the quality of universality, and also it should have a character
essentially distinct from that of any other monument either now
existing in the District or hereafter to be erected. The type which
the commission has in mind is a great portico of Doric columns rising
from an unbroken stylobate.
The foregoing recommendations were among the fundamentals of the plan
of 1901. Ten years were required to embody them in legislation. To-day
the Lincoln Memorial and the Arlington Memorial Bridge are completed
along the general lines suggested.
[Illustration: THE LINCOLN MEMORIAL, MEMORIAL BRIDGE, AND RIVERSIDE
DRIVE, PLAN OF 1901]
There are many other features of the McMillan plan that the report of
1901 describes to which attention is called in the subsequent pages
of this volume; thus there is the Rock Creek Parkway, the Anacostia
Park development, the Fort Drive, the parkway along the Palisades of
the Potomac to Great Falls, and the Mount Vernon Highway. The plans
for these projects required authorization by Congress and time to make
necessary land purchases; but at the present time there is indication
that they will be completed in the near future. The day has come when
the Greater Washington, or the metropolitan area of Washington, is
being brought into the scheme of development of the National Capital.
The plan of 1901 reasserted the authority of the original plan of
L’Enfant, extended to meet the needs of the Nation after a century of
growth in power, wealth, and dignity, and also marked the path for
future development.
[Illustration: THE FUTURE WASHINGTON]