new subway, another contractor had to chop open a thick, tiled wall. The gadget-laden intercom system boomed like a foghorn or croaked feebly and went dead. "You can hear a beep sound from 350,000 miles in space," grumbled Senator Warren Magnuson, of Washington, "but you can't make yourself heard over a microphone 6 inches from your face."

All this culminated in the scandal of The Carpet. Some Senators said that the elegant tile floor, costing $100,000, was too slippery, and requested carpeting. This would have cost $150,000 more and would have entailed unhinging 600 doors in order to shave off a half-inch of walnut from the bottom. But the more frugalminded, led by Senator Paul Douglas, of Illinois, won a compromise: carpets would be optional for those who wanted them. Fifteen Senators did; the bill to taxpayers is a mere $53,550.

In addition, Senators still quartered in other parts of the Capitol were generously compensated. Majority Leader Johnson wound up with a total of six suites scattered in the Capitol and old and new SOB's. The Senate also voted to spend $40,000, originally assigned for "rusty plumbing," on a new swimming pool in the basement of the old SOB. The white-tile pool will be a handsome complement to the existing health suite which employs three masseurs.

Thus the Senate has become a citadel of comfort as well as rectitude, a place where members of the inner club can grump in snug surrounding about the decline of Republican virtue. Full credit for this goes to Mr. Johnson-and to Senator Dennis Chavez, chairman of the Senate Building Commission.

MIDDLE RAYBURN: THE THIRD HOB

Among Mr. Rayburn's many 10-gallon hats is the chairmanship of the House Building Commission, and in this capacity the Speaker kept a watchful eye on the upper Chamber's steam shovels. Only a few months after the new SOB was underway, Mr. Rayburn found that his Chamber's office buildings were cramped and inadequate. He advised the House Appropriations Committee that a $2 million starter was needed on a new building, and 4 days later, the House as a whole approved his plan. Mr. Rayburn personally took the floor to urge swift passage. Phase two quickly followed as Architect Stewart announced plans for a $18.5 million program to remodel the two existing House Office Buildings.

By the time the numbed House got around to debating the project, the foundation for the third HOB was already being dug. Nonetheless, an attempt was made on May 21, 1957, to strike out a $7.5 million appropriation for the new building. Mr. Rayburn again took to the floor and patiently explained that it would be "false economy" to eliminate the funds, because excavations had begun.

Meanwhile, curiosity was expressed about what the new building would look like and it was discovered in August 1959, that no plans had yet been presented. By then, some $16 million had been spent on digging the biggest hole in town. Mr. Stewart's office reported that drawings were not available, but that Harbeson, Hough, Livingston & Larson, of Philadelphia, had prepared sketches which might be released some day. The Architect's aides did confide that the new building would be H-shaped, 4 stories high, and would contain 170 suites, 15 subcommittee rooms, and parking for 1,638 cars. As to cost, one breakdown includes $64 million for construction and nearly $8.5 million for related costs including $1.4 million for a sewer to carry a creek beneath the building. But prices are going up, and Representative H. R. Gross, of Iowa, may yet be right in predicting that the total cost will ultimately reach $82 million.

On October 15, 1959, a sketch was finally published. Critics said the new building was in conventional Federalese, i.e., without any discernible style. But whatever the harsh contemporary judgment, when the third HOB is completed by 1962, it will surely be a vintage example of middle Rayburn, a suitable monument to the builder from Bonham.

JUDICIAL RAYBURN: THE COURTHOUSE

Lafayette Square, a small public park in front of the White House, still possesses something of the sleepy charm of the Capital's buggy and gaslight era. But, lamentably, not for long. Some of the old buildings surrounding the square have already been doomed as the site for a monster Executive Office Building. Most of the rest are about to be torn down to make way for a courthouse occupied by two Federal benches headed by judges from Texas.

Both the Court of Claims and the Court of Customs and Patent Appeals need more space. On this point there is no dissent. But Chief Judge Marvin Jones and Chief Judge Eugene Worley have evidently determined that the only suitable site for their courthouse is on Lafayette Square, and on the side occupied by the Dolly Madison House, the Benjamin Tayloe House, and the old Belasco Theater.

When this plan was announced a few months ago, the wholly expected outrage of the public forced the Senate to hold hearings, with wholly predictable results. a host of civic organizations appealed to the conscience and sentiments of the Senate, and urged that the Belasco Theater be rehabilitated as a functioning opera house-something that the District of Columbia now lacks.

The citizens had the arguments; the judges had the proper birth certificates. Both judges are former Texas Congressmen, and Judge Jones also happens to be Sam Rayburn's brother-in-law. Congress approved the courthouse plan, and sent it along to the White House, whose present tenant-as some noted in near paranoiac desperation-was born in Denison, Tex.

The yen to build, to "improve," to marbelize is insatiable. And there is a perverse logic in Congress' building boom. Watching the mushroom growth of new executive buildings around Washington, the frustrated legislators find relief through high-handed imperialism in the one area that is indisputably beyond the President's control. Like a householder furious with his more successful neighbor, Congress can still smash up the dishes in the kitchen. A choice piece of crockery in the Capitol kitchen is the west front. In a report dated August 1957, Architect Stewart listed the extension of the west front of the Capitol in a table of things to do. While the plan is now dormant, it is sure to be revived because it envisages, as a sugarplum, yet another restaurant for Members of Congress.

Then there is the proposal to extend the House and Senate wings on the Capitol's east front in order to match the extension of the central portico. This plan has been urged by John F. Harbeson and Gilmore D. Clarke, both architectural consultants to Mr. Rayburn. Presumably the purpose of the new extensions will be to correct the "flaw" caused by the present prominence of the main portico.

Finally, there is the proposed new annex to the Library of Congress-a building which will contain more shelfspace than the present Library and annex combined. This summer Mr. Rayburn moved with characteristic alacrity to acquire two blocks near the Capitol. With a lack of debate the Supreme Soviet might envy, Congress quickly approved a $5 million appropriation-pausing only long enough to hear Representative John Rooney, of New York, term the property "ptomaine row" because the restaurants on the two blocks do not meet Mr. Rooney's exacting culinary standards.

Come Kennedy, come Nixon, come Johnson, come Lodge, the game of growthmanship on Capitol Hill has only begun.

[From the New York Times, Sunday, May 22, 1960]

WASHINGTON'S LAFAYETTE SQUARE UNDER SIEGE

(By Alvin Shuster)

WASHINGTON.-To most residents of the Nation's Capital, the construction of a new Federal building ordinarily makes about as much of an impression as the arrival of another politician in town. There are so many of them here already, nobody minds one or two more.

This traditional apathy has not prevailed, however, in connection with plans to construct new Federal offices along historic Lafayette Square, the tree-shaded "President's Park" just across Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House and one of the capital's most pleasant tourist retreats.

Quite a few Washingtonians are vigorously protesting the proposed construction and the cry "Save Lafayette Square" has been raised. Legislation has even been introduced in Congress to preserve what remains of the square's postcolonial atmosphere by designating the area a national historic site similar to Philadelphia's Independence National Historical Park and other shrines across the country.

The protests have gathered such momentum to date that the Senate Public Works Committee, reversing an earlier position, has now decided to hold hearings on the preservation proposals. These are aimed specifically at saving three edifices on the east side of the square the old Belasco Theater, a house built by Dolly Madison about 150 years ago, and another built by Benjamin Tayloe around the same time.

PARK'S GREATEST PERIOD

Opponents of the proposed construction say the office buildings now in the planning stage would remove from the Washington scene all the reminders of the park's greatest period, the century starting with the end of the War of 1812. Around the square in this era revolved the city's most brilliant political, literary, diplomatic, and social life, and in its surrounding old homes lived such notables as James Madison, Daniel Webster, William H. Seward, John Hay, James G. Blaine, Henry Clay, Roger B. Taney, and John Randolph of Roanoke.

The park itself, where many tourists and residents have strolled, is not in jeopardy today. The equestrian statue of General Andrew Jackson will continue its static ride in the middle of the park, and the General's colleagues on the four corners of the park will also remain untouched. Represented are Gen. Thaddeus Kosciusko, Baron Von Steuben, Count De Rochambeau, and Marquis De Lafayette himself, all Europeans and all soldiers who helped the American struggle for liberty.

At stake, however, is the "atmosphere" of the park, the citizens' committee claims. Plans call for razing historic buildings on both the east and west sides of the square and replacing them with the new office buildings. On the west side of the park, on Jackson Place, would rise a new building for the Executive Offices of the President. On the east side, on Madison Place, would rise a new structure for the Court of Claims and the Court of Customs and Patent Appeals. The plans for the west side are already set and no one seriously hopes to upset them. Down will come all the buildings except one on that side of the park. The exception is the Decatur House, built in 1819 when the naval hero, Stephen Decatur, returned from the Barbary Coast campaigns. The first private dwelling built on the square, it is now held by the nongovernmental National Trust for Historic Preservation.

The pressures involved in all the construction planning have been substantial, to say the least. One illustration of the behind-the-scenes maneuvering for space around the park involves the National Grange.

EMBATTLED FARMERS

The national farm organization had its offices on Jackson Place facing the square and, according to the original plans, the only two buildings that would have remained on that entire block would have been the Decatur House, facing the square, and Blair House, the President's guest house, around the corner on Pennsylvania Avenue.

The Grange fought back, however, and won permission to construct a new building around the corner from its present site. The building, just completed, does not face the square, but it nevertheless is on the same historic block. The new Executive Offices will be built around it.

Another illustration of the maneuvering involves the Court of Claims which had been planning to have its offices in the new Executive Offices Building. There were some second thoughts, however, and the General Services Administration, the Government's housekeeping agency, and the court's Chief Judge Marvin Jones, a former Texas Congressman and long-time friend of House Speaker Sam Rayburn, started looking around for another site.

They did not look very far before they decided the best place for the court would be just across Lafayette Square on the east side, and subsequently plans were submitted to Congress to tear down Dolly Madison House, the Benjamin Tayloe House, and the Belasco Theater, now used by the United Service Organizations (USO).

This latest move has stirred up the campaign to preserve the square. Democratic Representatives Frank Thompson, Jr., of New Jersey, and Harris B. McDowell, of Delaware, both leaders in the fight, claim it would be an "act of supreme folly" to destroy buildings "which give the White House park an early American distinction and charm." Democratic Senators John F. Kennedy, Hubert Humphrey, and Wayne Morse, all announced candidates for the Democratie presidential nomination, have also introduced bills to save the structures.

The oldest of the three historic buildings is the Madison House, built around 1820. After the death of the fourth President, his widow devoted the proceeds of the sale of the Madison papers to restoring the mansion and she occupied it until her death in 1849. During the Civil War it was used as one of the headquarters of the Army of the Potomac under Gen. George McClellan and Union soldiers camped right in the park. Today the building is occupied by one of the Government's newest agencies, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

The other historic residence on the block was built in 1828 by Benjamin Ogle Tayloe and later owned by a succession of high-ranking capital leaders. When Senator Mark Hanna, the celebrated power behind the throne of the McKinley administration, lived there it was known as the Little White House.

Tayloe, whose father was a wealthy Virginia planter and a close friend of George Washington, collected antiques from throughout the world for his home and during his lifetime the house was frequented by the leading diplomats and political figures of the day.

PROPOSED RESTORATION

The Belasco Theater was opened in 1895 as the Lafayette Square Opera House, and Lillian Russell, Sarah Bernhardt, Julia Marlowe, and Maude Adams, among others, performed there. One proposal aimed at preserving the historic atmosphere of the square calls for the restoration of the Belasco for use as a repertory theater.

Whether the efforts to save the square will succeed remains to be seen, but as the Washington Post and Times Herald pointed out in a recent editorial, the decision should have been made long ago to preserve the residential character which predominated around the square until World War I.

"With a little more foresight, the square could have remained a pleasant patch of the past," the paper noted. "Our grandchildren may well reproach us for failing as guardians of a heritage worth saving."

[From the Washington Post, Friday, July 1, 1960]

THE TEXANS VERSUS LAFAYETTE SQUARE
(By Drew Pearson)

It isn't Senator Lyndon Johnson's fault, but some of his fellow Texans aren't building up any good will for Texas in the Nation's Capital. This includes Speaker Sam Rayburn, Lyndon's campaign manager.

Two Texans have just maneuvered to disrupt the colonial architecture of the most historic square in America with a modern new brick and glass court building, chiefly because one of them wants to walk to work.

The Texan who wants to walk to work is Judge Marvin Jones, of Amarillo, Sam Rayburn's brother-in-law, who wants a new Court of Claims building erected in place of the historic Dolly Madison Mansion, the Benjamin D. Tayloe House, and the old Belasco Theater on Lafayette Square, diagonally opposite the White House.

The Dolly Madison Mansion, where the wife of the fourth President gave some of her gayest parties, is one of the oldest colonial houses in Washington. The Belasco Theater is being proposed as a small-scale opera house in the one major capital of the world which has no opera house at all.

However, Judge Jones lives at the University Club, a few blocks away, on 16th Street. And it obviously was more convenient for him to have his new court building within walking distance.

The judge can also walk across the square to the Metropolitan Club for lunch, then back to the University Club to play bridge.

TEXANS AND REPUBLICANS

Another Texan close to Sam Rayburn is Eugene Worley, judge of the Customs and Patent Appeals Court. He, too, wants to tear down the Dolly Madison Mansion, et al., in favor of a modern court edifice.

These two Texans, who have influence with the Democrats, were joined by Republican Judge I. Jack Martin, also of the Customs and Patent Appeals Court. Martin was Senator Taft's assistant and former White House contact man with

Congress, so has influence with both the White House and congressional Republicans.

So, although every civic-minded organization in the Nation's Capital went to bat for the preservation of Lafayette Square, these two Texans plus one Taft Republican proceeded to get their way.

At first, however, the White House balked.

Conscientious Franklin Floete, head of General Services and in charge of public building, testified that he had an alternate site in Southwest Washington. Furthermore, Floete said the new site would hold three courts instead of two. At Lafayette Square site it would mean an uncomfortable squeeze to include the U.S. Tax Court, which has to move anyway. The two Texas judges aren't interested in it, however. The head of the Tax Court, Judge Edgar Murlock, isn't from Texas; has no political pull.

Immediately after Floete urged another site, the two Texas judges got panicky. Judge Jones phoned Carl Levin, head of the Citizens' Committee To Save Lafayette Square, offered to make a deal.

"You can keep the Belasco Theater," he proposed, "but let us take the Dolly Madison House and the Benjamin Tayloe House." Levin rejected the deal. "The people of Washington aren't interested in a barter deal," Levin replied. "We're interested in preserving the most historic square in America." Levin later explained to friends.

At this point the Republican judge, Jack Martin, began pulling wires with old friends in the White House. Suddenly Floete found the ground being cut from

under him.

"You'll have to get a lot of support to make my proposal stick," he confided to civic leaders.

They got a lot of support-from 30 top civic organizations. But Judge Martin got more from the White House. Floete, a Republican, was told to reverse himself. Ike, he was told, favored the demolition of the historic buildings on Lafayette Square.

MORE TEXANS

Last week another Texan, Sam Rayburn, pushed a $5 million appropriation through the House to buy up two city blocks to make room for an expansion of congressional buildings. Similtaneously the House Appropriations Committee told the District of Columbia, in effect, to jump in the Potomac when it came to building four badly needed schools. On the same day, Senator Dennis Chavez, of New Mexico, put through an appropriation of $40,000 to build a new swimming pool for Senators. Chavez is the chairman of the Public Works Committee, who is helping his neighbors from Texas to raze the historic buildings on Lafayette Square. On the same day, another Texan, charming Albert Thomas, of Houston, knocked $2.8 million off the cost of building a sewer from the new Dulles Airport. At the same time, the same Congressman Thomas was angling with the Interior Department to turn part of Normanstone Park, which is National Capital Parks land opposite the British Embassy, over to the ladies of Congress and their Congressional Club. These wives of Congressmen would not have to pay for the Government land.

[From the Washington Post, Washington, D.C., Sunday, June 12, 1960]

THE BEAUTIFUL BELASCO RATES PROMPT ATTENTION

(By Paul Hume)

Although it has been known as the Belasco Theater for many years, there are letters carved in stone over the door of the building that stands on the east side of Lafayette Square that read "Lafayette Square Opera House."

One of the extremely rare errors I have ever found in my favorite reference book, Oscar Thompson's edition of the "International Cyclopedia of Music and Musicians," the Belasco Theater is named as the scene of the first American performance of an opera you have all heard of, "Madam Butterfly." Actually that premiere took place over on F Street, in the Columbia Theater.

Quite possibly the reason for the error can be found in the review which appeared in the Washington Post of October 16, 1906, the day after the premiere. In the first paragraph of the review the writer correctly locates the opera in