THE PUBLIC-BUILDINGS PROGRAM
NEW BUILDINGS NECESSARY
As a result of the World War, Government departments in Washington
became overcrowded, and from 30,000 to 40,000 employees were housed in
temporary buildings. This congested situation made a public-building
program one of urgent need. For 40 years no real department building
had been erected in Washington. The Department of Agriculture was in 47
rented buildings. The Department of War and the Department of the Navy
were housed in many temporary war buildings.
[Illustration: PLAN OF 1910 FOR DEVELOPING SOUTH SIDE OF PENNSYLVANIA
AVENUE]
PLANS AS DEVELOPED
In 1910 plans were authorized for three department buildings--Justice,
Commerce and Labor, and State--to be built along Fifteenth Street,
between Pennsylvania Avenue and B Street NW., now Constitution Avenue,
and the land in this locality was bought by the Government, but the
building project was deferred. Again, in 1913, Congress took up the
question of a public-building program, and in 1917 a comprehensive
survey was made by the Public Buildings Commission of the needs of
the Government for additional buildings. At that time the area south
of Pennsylvania Avenue along Fifteenth Street to Constitution Avenue,
which in 1910 was proposed for three buildings, was designated for two
buildings. Then came the World War, during which the many temporary war
buildings were erected. President Coolidge in his message to Congress
on December 9, 1925, called attention to the great need for public
buildings and asked for an annual appropriation of $10,000,000. He
said:
[Illustration: VIEW OF THE MALL FROM THE CAPITOL DOME, LOOKING WEST]
[Illustration: VIEW OF THE MALL FROM THE WASHINGTON MONUMENT, LOOKING
EAST]
No public buildings bill has been enacted since before the war. I
am not in favor of an act which would be characterized as a general
parceling out of favors and that usually bears a name lacking in good
repute. I am ready to approve an act similar in character to that
already passed by the House, providing a lump-sum appropriation to
be expended under the direction of the Treasury or any other proper
authority, over a term of years, with such annual appropriation as
the national finances could provide.
The public buildings act was approved May 25, 1926.
This marked the beginning of a public-buildings program in the National
Capital greater than any which had been undertaken by the United States
since the establishment of the seat of government along the banks of
the Potomac in 1790.
Congress placed the public-buildings program in the hands of the
Secretary of the Treasury, both for Federal buildings in the States and
for the District of Columbia. To assist him in the plans for new public
buildings here in the National Capital the Secretary of the Treasury
appointed a board of architectural consultants. The Commission of Fine
Arts has been called upon regularly to advise in the development of the
plans for the new public buildings.
Five years had not yet elapsed when the long pent-up needs for
buildings to accommodate public business finally burst their bonds in
the act of 1926. The preparations for the flood had been long in the
making--so long and so carefully considered, indeed, that the flood has
always been under control. There has been no haphazard planning. No
hasty or ill-considered work has been done. The harmonious development
of the National Capital has progressed in form that would have pleased
George Washington, and latterly with a speed and vigor that would have
gladdened his heart.
In addition to the great public-buildings program and the Arlington
Memorial Bridge, Congress authorized during the past ten years many
other great projects for the development of the National Capital
which contribute to making Washington the greatest and most beautiful
national capital in the world. Among these are: The completion of the
Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington, the restoration of Arlington
Mansion, the Mount Vernon Highway, the George Washington Memorial
Parkway, the enlargement of the Capitol Grounds and development of
Union Station Plaza, development of the Mall, addition to the House
Office Building, addition to the Library of Congress, United States
Supreme Court Building, Government Printing Office extension, Social
Security Building, War Department Building, Navy Department Building,
new Naval Hospital, Municipal Center development, Walter Reed General
Hospital buildings, Botanic Garden and new conservatory near the
Capitol, and a National Arboretum.
[Illustration: TREATMENT OF THE CAPITOL GROUNDS]
[Illustration: PENNSYLVANIA AVENUE BETWEEN THE TREASURY AND THE
CAPITOL]
PENNSYLVANIA AVENUE
Pennsylvania Avenue is the great historic avenue of the Nation,
particularly that portion between the legislative and executive
branches of the Government--the Capitol and the White House--extending
a distance of 1 mile. It was named by Congress at the time the plan
of Washington was under consideration, in compliment to the State of
Pennsylvania. In the time of Thomas Jefferson it was a dusty highway,
and to add beauty to it he planted quick-growing poplar trees. Being
about at sea level in elevation, it was the scene of rowboats in times
of flood as late as the year 1880. Several large department stores of
the city to-day had their beginning on the Avenue. The Evening Star has
been published there for about 89 years; its home, remodeled from time
to time, to-day is a large and beautiful building.
Since the L’Enfant plan provided for giving Pennsylvania Avenue
a conspicuous place in the development of the National Capital,
Congress decided, by the public buildings act of May 25, 1926, that
the necessary land on the south side of the Avenue from the Capitol
to the Treasury should be purchased by the Government and monumental
buildings erected thereon. In the House of Representatives the bill
was sponsored by Congressman Richard N. Elliott. As Chairman of the
Committee on Public Buildings and Grounds, he had a very prominent
part in furthering the legislation for the public buildings program of
the National Capital and also for the country at large. More public
buildings were authorized during the Sixty-ninth and Seventieth
Congresses (1925-1929) than in all the preceding Congresses. In the
United States Senate the public buildings program was sponsored by
Senator Bert N. Fernald and after his death in 1926 by Senator Henry W.
Keyes, Chairman of the Committee on Public Buildings and Grounds of the
Senate. This is the Triangle Plan, which is now being carried out. In
due time it is expected also that the north side will be developed to
correspond to the south side. However, several buildings now there may
be considered as established for decades to come.
Here at Pennsylvania Avenue, connecting the Capitol and the White
House, we are at the heart of the Nation. It is the Via Sacra of the
great Republic of the New World.
On September 5, 1931, at the ground-breaking ceremony for the Archives
Building, at Pennsylvania Avenue and Seventh Street, Hon. Ferry K.
Heath, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, who was in immediate charge
of the public-buildings program, said: “The story of the traffic and
parades of this great Avenue would be an outline of the history of the
United States.”
The act for enlarging the Capitol Grounds, and the municipal center
development on the north side of the Avenue, gives the Government
control from the Capitol to Sixth Street.
[Illustration: UNION STATION AND PLAZA, LOOKING NORTH FROM THE DOME OF
THE CAPITOL]
TRIANGLE DEVELOPMENT
Upon the adoption of the public buildings act of May 25, 1926, Hon.
Andrew W. Mellon, Secretary of the Treasury, took up with the Public
Buildings Commission, and the executive departments that were in
immediate need of new buildings, the project to place the building
program under way. Secretary Mellon authorized the preparation of a
tentative study for new public buildings, and after an interval of a
few months sketches were submitted to him for a series of buildings
monumental in character and intended for the most part for locations
south of Pennsylvania Avenue. The greater part of the Triangle
development has been completed.
ENLARGEMENT OF THE CAPITOL GROUNDS AND UNION STATION PLAZA DEVELOPMENT
An important feature of the McMillan Park Commission plan of 1901 was
the creation of a series of “Congress Gardens” on the north side of the
Capitol. For many years this project was held in abeyance pending the
completion of the purchase of lands. The development necessitated the
purchase of 12 squares and laying out a plan for this long-neglected
area at the entrance to the city. The plan also provided for a new
avenue to extend from Union Station to Pennsylvania Avenue, and street
cars are routed accordingly.
In addition to the landscape features, the plan, which was designed by
Bennett, Parsons & Frost, architects of Chicago, provided for a terrace
upon which is located a fountain and also a large basin, which reflects
the Dome of the Capitol. To harmonize with this plan, a new approach to
the northwest corner of the Senate Office Building has been built.
The temporary war buildings and Government hotels, which stood on the
grounds a whole decade after the World War, have been removed, and the
work of developing the plan was carried forward as rapidly as possible
under the direction of David Lynn, Architect of the Capitol.
Through this plan the United States Capitol is given the appropriate
landscape setting which, as the most important building in this
country, it should have. The plan joins the plan for the Mall, giving
the Capitol the open approach from the west and embellishing Union
Square at the head of the Mall.
UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT BUILDING
The United States Supreme Court Building is in classic style, in
harmony with the architecture of the Capitol and adjacent buildings,
and is located in the square east of the Capitol, north of the Library
of Congress, and facing the United States Senate Chamber.
The building, 385 feet from east to west and 305 feet from north to
south, has four open courtyards 64 feet square. The portico is of the
Corinthian order, and there is a low pilaster treatment around the
building.
[Illustration: _Photograph by Commercial Photo Co._
THE UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT BUILDING]
[Illustration: THE UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT CHAMBER
FRIEZE BY A. A. WEINMAN, SCULPTOR]
General designs were prepared, and then, to unify every part of the
design, a model was made which was publicly exhibited in the Rotunda of
the Capitol for a number of months.
The Supreme Court Chamber is placed on the main axis of the plan.
It is characterized by appropriate simplicity and quiet dignity.
It is classical in style, 82 feet by 91 feet square in its extreme
dimensions, about 64 feet square inside the columns, and 45 feet high
from floor to ceiling.
The second floor contains a law library and rooms for members of the
bar and conference rooms.
The third floor contains a law library and reading room. The justices’
rooms are on the first floor, convenient to the court room.
A number of rooms for the use of lawyers are provided in the second
story. Two large conference rooms are provided on the main floor, and
on this floor also rooms are provided for the Attorney General, the
Solicitor General, the clerk of the Supreme Court, and the marshal.
Convenient rooms and special telephone booths have been provided for
the press.
The appropriation for the building authorized by Congress was
$9,740,000.
The building was designed by Cass Gilbert, architect, and the erection
was under the charge of the Supreme Court Building Commission, Chief
Justice Charles Evans Hughes, chairman. David Lynn, Architect of the
Capitol, a member of the commission, was the contracting officer.
HOMES OF THE SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES
The Supreme Court of the United States is the major tribunal of one
of three coordinate branches of the Government--the judicial. During
the 148 years of its existence the Supreme Court has sat in eight
different places, always in or near the Capitol or place of meeting
of the legislative body. Thus it met, first, in New York; second, in
Independence Hall, Philadelphia; third, in the basement of the Capitol,
where it was when the British burned the Capitol in 1814; fourth, while
the Capitol was being rebuilt the Supreme Court occupied the residence
of the clerk of the court; fifth, when the Capitol wings were built it
moved into its former chamber; sixth, when driven out by an explosion
and fire in 1898 it occupied the committee room of the Senate Committee
on the District of Columbia, of which Senator McMillan was chairman,
and also sat for a brief period in the Judiciary Committee Room.
It then moved back into what was the old Senate Chamber until 1859
which was designed by Benjamin Latrobe, after the model of a Greek
theater, a semicircular hall with a low-domed ceiling. It is historic.
Here Webster replied to Hayne; here Calhoun debated with Clay and
Webster; and in it the Electoral Commission sat which decided the
presidential contest between Hayes and Tilden in 1877.