Mr. Watterson goes on to say that "although by now many of the buildings on the square may be of a nondescript architectural character, the flavor and charm of the square have not been destroyed. It is still a fitting forecourt to the White House-which it must always be. This fitness would be lost with marble monumentality flanking the square-east and west."

Mr. Watterson makes, I think, a major contribution to the current consideration of the famed Lafayette Square when he adds that "since the Decatur House, on the northwest corner of the square, and the Blair and Lee Houses, on Pennsylvania Avenue, are to be preserved, and the new Executive Office Building designed to surround them with low wings and courts, it would seem that the same approach could be taken on the east side of the square. The Madison House, on the northeast corner, and the Tayloe House, in the middle of the block, are worthy of preservation and restoration, both historically and architecturally. Rather than preserve them purely as monuments, suitable uses can be found for these buildings, as is done in so many of the old cities of Europe. It is a brash generation, indeed, which will destroy all physical evidences of its great heritage."

(I include herewith as part of my remarks the letter I have received from Mr. Watterson, as well as an excerpt from a brilliant article by L. Morris Leisenring, FAIA, which was published in the February 1961 issue of the Journal of the American Institute of Architects:)

THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF ARCHITECTS,

Representative CARROLL D. KEARNS,

OFFICE OF THE JOURNAL, Washington, D.C., February 28, 1961.

New House Office Building, Washington, D.C.

DEAR CONGRESSMAN KEARNS: I am sorry that you were unable to see me last week, for we have noted with great interest the bill (H.R. 3982) which you introduced in the House February 7.

But

The American Institute of Architects is of course a strong supporter of any proposed legislation which would strengthen and improve the cultural opportunities here in Washington-or anywhere in the Nation, for that matter. at the moment it is the last part (section 3) of this bill which prompts me to write you. The AIA has always had an active interest in the planning and architecture of the city of Washington, ever since its part in the inception of the McMillan plan of 1901, in the formation of the Commission of Fine Arts and the National Capital Planning Commission, etc. Consequently, the institute deplores the apparently impending destruction of certain buildings fronting on Lafayette Square and the construction of large Federal buildings in their place. Although by now many of the buildings on the square may be of a nondescript architectural character, the flavor and charm of the square have not been destroyed. It is still a fitting forecourt to the White House-which it must always be. This fitness would be lost with marble monumentality flanking the squareeast and west.

Since the Decatur House, on the northwest corner of the square, and the Blair and Lee Houses on Pennsylvania Avenue, are to be preserved, and the new Executive Office Building designed to surround them with low wings and courts, it would seem that the same approach could be taken on the east side of the square. The Madison House, on the northeast corner, and the Tayloe House in the middle of the block, are worthy of preservation and restoration, both historically and architecturally. Rather than preserve them purely as monuments, suitable uses can be found for these buildings, as is done in so many of the old cities of Europe. It is a brash generation indeed which will destroy all physical evidences of its great heritage.

I enclose for your interest and information a copy of the February issue of the Journal of the American Institute of Architects, which contains an article on Lafayette Square. Its author makes no plea for preservation of buildings on the square, for the article was commenced months ago, when their destruction seemed inevitable. It is rather a somewhat nostalgic lament for their passing. However, with the interest displayed in the square by the President, and by the introduction of bills in the Congress, new hope has been aroused that perhaps the square is not doomed after all. This article has been widely circulated in Washington and has aroused considerable interest and comment in the newspapers as well as in Government circles. I hope you will find something of value in it.

Meanwhile I wish to assure you that support for this or similar bills will be forthcoming from the AIA and its 13,850 members all over the country.

Cordially yours,

JOSEPH WATTERSON, Editor.

[From the Journal of the American Institute of Architects, February, 1961]

LAMENT FOR LAFAYETTE SQUARE

(By L. Morris Leisenring, FAIA)

What manner of people is it that destroys its shrines? True, our Nation has preserved many shrines-but it is now, in the name of progress and efficiency, everywhere destroying more than it is preserving. Our grandchildren will place the blame on our heads. As a people, we pay little heed to the voices of the few who cry a halt to this destruction. More shame to us.

Lafayette Square has been the scene of few great events in our Nation's history, but it has been always, since our beginnings, the forecourt to the home of our Presidents and the site of the homes of generations of the great and the near-great.

Although the square itself is not now to be destroyed, most of its surrounding buildings are, thus completely altering its character as the front yard of the White House.

As the journal has said before, and will upon proper occasion, say again, the rebuilding of Washington is the concern of the entire Nation. It is not only our Capital, it is our national symbol.

Thus it is with pride and deep concern that the AIA Journal presents this story of Lafayette Square, written by a senior member of the Washington-Metropolitan Chapter AIA, its preservation officer and holder of architect's license 3 of the District of Columbia.

In L'Enfant's first conception of a plan for the Federal City, two elements of the Federal Government, the Congress, and the President, were emphasized in his first report and shown on his subsequent plan of 1791. In all adjustments made in this plan, by Andrew Ellicott and others, the location and relative importance of these has remained unchanged-the Congress House with its plaza and the President's mansion with its park, joined by broad parked areas, one directly west from the Capitol along the "Grand Avenue"-now the Mall-to the site of "the Monument," a proposed equestrian statute of General Washington, authorized by the Congress in 1785, and from there on a cross-axis directly north through the President's park and his mansion to H Street, extending east and west from 15th to 17th Streets. So here, at its northern limits, lies Lafayette Square, now as always a part of the President's park, its present dimensions determined by required traffic lanes and desired building areas, a beautiful foreground to the President's home and grounds.

The importance of the square in the city plan is emphasized by broad avenues extending from it to the northeast and northwest. Its north axis on broad 16th Street, extending out to Meridian Hill, is almost the exact north-south axis of the corners of the original "10 miles square." The President's House the White House, as it has been called from the first years of its building-was placed on a direct line with the Capitol down broad Pennsylvania Avenue, a vista carefully preserved until the reputed impact of President Jackson's cane and his words "Build it here." Now we see the Treasury instead. Neither the L'Enfant nor the Ellicott plan shows the square separated by a street from the White House, but connection between New York and Pennsylvania Avenues early became necessary, so now the south boundary of the square is determined by the extension of Pennsylvania Avenue. The east and west boundaries were indicated by Ellicott and have become established highways very important in the square's history— Madison Place on the east and Jackson Place on the west. The land had long been the farmstead of the Pierce family from whom it had been purchased, and there were still some orchard trees and the remains of the family graveyard there when the ground was graded after 1800.

L'Enfant had envisioned this as an area of residences fit to adjoin that of the President, and James Hoban's fine Georgian mansion has given good reason for great care to be taken to surround the square with buildings of proper scale and character. The area was slow in development, and when John and Abigail Adams, the first residents of the President's House, looked out over the square when they moved in during November 1800, it was not a thing of beauty. Fortunately its surrounding buildings lots were in no way suitable for development

by the speculative syndicates building quite creditable groups of buildings during the 1790's, on Capitol Hill, on Greenleaf Point near the old Arsenal, and on Pennsylvania Avenue out toward Georgetown. Even in 1814, when President and Mrs. Madison had to find shelter while their home was being rebuilt after the fire, the unfortunate incident of August of that year, the White House was still the only building on the square.

By the time President and Mrs. Monroe moved into the refurbished mansion in 1817, building had begun on the square and before the end of his administration it was well underway. Happily, the first was a church, St. John's Episcopal Church, built north of the square on the corner of H and 16th Streets in 1816. It was planned as a Greek cross, by Benjamin H. Latrobe, and by 1820 the nave had been extended to form the present Latin cross with portico. After the church, residences gradually filled all three sides of the square and up adjacent streets and avenues, and until the end of the century and beyond, the square lived a life of glorious historical record not matched by any other American community and few abroad. As an architectural heritage it offered a picture of development from the Georgian, the Early Federal, the Classic and Greek Revivals, up through the post-Civil War period, the early and late Victorian and at the last, an example of H. H. Richardson's best in residential design. The "Diagram of Lafayette Park and Its Surroundings," from Frank Leslie's Popular Monthly of April 1891 (from the Library of Congress), is a valuable document, for every one of the buildings shown was in place and occupied at that time, except those absorbed by the construction of the Arlington Hotel after 1869. The "Key to the Diagram" reads like a biographical index of those prominent in this formative period. It also shows the fluid quality of American political life as changing administrations brought new residents, anxious to be near the home and office of their Chief.

Before outlining briefly the history of some of the important buildings, it is well to remember that Washington was really a Southern city, lying between two slave States, many of its residents slaveholders, with sentiment strongly divided and loyalties finally brought to a real test. From the very first it was a city of political and sometimes social antagonisms and these were nowhere more intense than around the square. Here there was no lack of drama nor of tragedy. The old houses had their share in these.

The buildings are listed below in approximate order of their age:

St. John's Church, 1816, often called the court church, as it was the parish church of the first Presidents, Madison to Buchanan, and frequently attended on special occasions by all the Presidents regardless of their denominational connections.

The Decatur House, 1819, the first residence. Built by Commodore Stephen Decatur on his return from his brilliant victories in the Barbary wars. This fine house, Latrobe its architect, with garden and dependencies, has been preserved almost intact. But Decatur and his lovely wife had not long to enjoy it, for in 1820 he returned to die here after his duel at Bladensburg with Commodore Barron-the square's first tragedy. Later came Henry Clay while Secretary of State to the second Adams. The year before he moved into the house a second duel occurred when he called his neighbor, the picturesque John Randolph of Roanoke, out to the Virginia hills, but this time with no physical injury. Later it was from here that Mrs. Clay and Mrs. Calhoun carried on their social vendetta against brilliant Peggy O'Neal Eaton, an innkeeper's daughter and wife of Senator John Henry Eaton, a special protege of Gen. Andrew Jackson, which almost disrupted his presidential administration. In 1836 John Gadsby, an Alexandria tavern keeper, took over the house and auctioned slaves in the high walled garden. During the Civil War it was commandeered by the Government and later was bought by Gen. Edward Beale, under whose grandfather Decatur once served as ensign. Its last owner, Mrs. Truxtun Beale, restored it and deeded it to the Nation under the aegis of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Many of Latrobe's original drawings were available for the restoration. Some years previously, in a wise move to save it from threatened destruction by Government intrusion, Mrs. Beale provided for the use of the carriage house area by the Truxtun-Decatur Naval Museum.

The Dolly Madison House, 1820, was the second residence on the square. Built by Richard Cutts, brother-in-law of Dolly Payne Madison, a simple colonialtype townhouse, given to Mr. Madison in payment of a debt. It was never occupied by him but was the scene of Dolly's triumphant widowhood. From 1837 to her death in 1849 this was a center of the social and political life of the Capital. The house was then taken over by Commodore Wilkes who added a 70259-61-16

third story to it and moved the entrance to H Street. It was occupied during the war by General McClellan while Wilkes was on sea duty. A dramatic incident illustrating the wide range of loyalties on the square was the arrest by Captain Wilkes of his neighbor, Senator John Slidell of Louisiana, who naturally had joined the Confederacy and had been appointed Minister to France. On his way he was taken off the British steamer Trent by Captain Wilkes, causing the famous Trent affair and a violent controversy with Great Britain. From 1887 to 1952 the house was the home of the Cosmos Club, involving more alterations. Still intact, it is now the property of the Government, and faces early destruction.

[From the Congressional Record, Mar. 6, 1961]

IT IS A BRASH GENERATION INDEED WHICH WILL DESTROY ALL PHYSICAL EVIDENCES OF ITS GREAT HERITAGE

Extension of Remarks of Hon. Carroll D. Kearns, of Pennsylvania, in the House of Representatives, Monday, March 6, 1961

Mr. KEARNS. Mr. Speaker, the distinguished editor of the Journal of the American Institute of Architects, Joseph Watterson, has written me that: "It is a brash generation indeed which will destroy all physical evidences of its great heritage."

Mr. Watterson mentions the well-known interest of President John F. Kennedy in the preservation of the buildings fronting on Lafayette Square, an interest demonstrated in the most forceful and significant way when, on March 24, 1960, he introduced S. 3280 and, in a speech on the floor of the Senate at that time, declared that: "There is pending before the Public Works Committee a plan to locate the Court of Claims in Lafayette Square. This means that many of the historic buildings now fronting that square will be torn down. The Dolly Madison House, the Benjamin Tayloe House, and the Belasco Theater have long served as an inspiration to generations of Americans who have visited their Capital City. Certainly before any irrevocable action is taken to destroy these buildings to provide a site for a courthouse, other sites should be investigated."

In his letter to me Mr. Watterson says that: "With the interest displayed in the square by the President, and by the introduction of bills in the Congress, new hope has been aroused that perhaps the square is not doomed after all."

Mr. Watterson ended his fine letter by saying that support for the bills which Senators John Sherman Cooper and Wayne Morse have introduced in the other House, and which I have introduced in this one, that is, S. 1020 and H.R. 3982, "will be forthcoming from the AIA and its 13,850 members all over the country."

This is very encouraging news indeed. Only the other day the 600,000 member National Federation of Music Clubs advised me that it has launched a national drive in the 50 States to mobilize support for saving the buildings on Lafayette Square.

In a memorandum to its national officers, its board of directors, its State presidents, and its State legislative chairmen, it is pointed out that:

"It is even more important from the standpoint of history, culture, and economy that similar protection to that given historic buildings elsewhere throughout the United States, such as Philadelphia's Independence National Historical Park, and New York's Carnegie Hall, be given the historic buildings on Lafayette Square."

The fine old buildings on Lafayette Square give the Nation's Capital its distinct flavor and charm, and they teach significant lessons in patriotism to the youth of the Nation.

Tourists who come to the Nation's Capital from all over the world as members of conventions, or to attend national meetings, or as families intent on seeing the buildings and the sites where so much history has been made, spend, I have been informed, $300 million a year.

How many will take the trouble to visit the Nation's Capital if all of its buildings, which are such an intimate part of our Nation's history, are destroyed for the convenience of a few individuals? Not many, I am sure.

Only last year the Congress authorized the spending of up to $33 million, or one-third of the cost, to save the ancient treasures of the Nile Valley.

Perhaps the people of ancient Egypt will now reciprocate, and help us save our own buildings in this time when our young people feel so restless and so rootless, and when they so badly need to have the history of our Nation emphasized in every possible way.

I include as part of my remarks an excerpt from an article on Lafayette Square written by L. Morris Leisenring. The article appeared in the February 1961 issue of the Journal of the American Institute of Architects :

"The Ewell house, about 1820, built by Thomas Ewell of the Navy, father of the famous Confererate general, Richard S. Ewell. From 1824 to 1834 it was occupied by three successive Secretaries of the Navy, but it is best known as the home of Dan Sickles, Representative from New York, who on Sunday afternoon, February 27, 1859, crossed the square and shot the brilliant young attorney, Phillip Barton Key (son of Francis Scott Key) whose affair with Sickles young wife had long been a scandal. Key was carried into the John Rodgers House, then the Washington Club, where he died. Sickles' wife confessed; her husband was acquitted and forgave her. A few years later he was the famous Union General Sickles of Chancellorsville and Gettysburg. With one leg gone, he was a familiar sight on the spqare when he returned from the war to stump around his old neighborhood.

"The Benjamin Ogle Tayloe house, built in 1828 by the son of the Col. John Tayloe who had built the Octagon in 1798–1800. This charming house, a distinguished design of the period, with garden and dependencies, had as a fre"quent visitor, William Henry Harrison, the owner's warm friend. Later it came

to be called the Tayloe-Cameron house due to its long occupancy by Senator Don Cameron during the years of his greatest influence, then again the Little White House, as the home of Senator Mark Hanna during President McKinley's administration. It still stands but will soon be lost.

"The John Rodgers house built in 1830 by the commodore, one of the heroes of Tripoli. This site is said to have been secured by him from Henry Clay in exchange for a blooded Andalusian jackass, brought by Rodgers from Spain. This commodious square brick building was the scene of many events. While used as Washington's first important club it was here that Phillip Barton Key died. While the home of William H. Seward, Secretary of State, on the night of April 14, 1865, a near tragedy occurred when Lewis Payne, one of the conspirators of the Lincoln assassination plot, stabbed and dangerously wounded Secretary Seward. The Lafayette Square Opera House, later the Belasco Theater, was built on this site in 1895.

"Another building on the east of the square facing the avenue, not shown on the diagram, the Gunnel house, was built in 1836 by Dr. Thomas Gunnel, a prominent dentist. This was the only framehouse on the square. It was a typical Maryland small-town house with a long two-story gallery on the square side and a fine garden. The incident most often told of this old place is that once the doctor, having received a hurry call from President Van Buren, his neighbor then in the White House, hastened there with the tools of his trade, expecting an emergency. Instead he returned with the appointment as postmaster of the city. The house has been gone for years, and its site is now occupied by the massive Treasury Annex of 1919 vintage.

"It would be well to note that neither Madison nor Jackson Place was named or paved until several years after the Madisons had owned their house on the corner and General Jackson's statute had graced the square's center. Before then they had been gravel drives without names.

"The Daniel Webster house, later known as the Corcoran house. Built by Thomas Swann, of Alexandria, the records say in 1822, though this seems very early for a design of Italian villa type such as this. Presented to Daniel Webster by admirers when he became Secretary of State in 1841, it was famous for his lavish entertainments. Webster sold the house to W. W. Corcoran, the philanthropist, who occupied it until his death in 1888, except for a short period during the war when, because of his strong Southern sympathies he leased it to the French Ambassador to avoid its confiscation by the Government. With its beautiful garden reaching back to I Street, and with its next door neighbor, the dignified Greek Revival house built by Commander Stockton and the home of Senator Slidell, of the "Trent affair,' it survived until destroyed for the construction of the monumental building of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

"Ashburton house, built by Matthew St. Clair Clarke in 1835, some say earlier. This very English, broad and high brick house, later brown stuccoed, was the British Legation and the scene, in 1845, of the signing of the Webster-Ashburton Treaty establishing our Canadian boundaries and other matters of mutual in