SENATE COMMITTEE ON THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA.

PARK IMPROVEMENT PAPERS.-NO. 12.

CENTENNIAL AVENUE.

FEBRUARY 3, 1902.-Printed for the use of the committee.

EDITORIALS FROM THE EVENING STAR.

CENTENNIAL AVENUE.

(February 22, 1900.)

The decision of the capital centennial committee to press the project of a grand Centennial avenue to be cut through the Mall from the Capitol to the river is hardly in the line expected to be developed. That is in effect a new scheme unverified by official surveys, virtually unheralded and unknown, and of, as yet, doubtful propriety. It is, indeed, vague in its details. It has a faint basis in the fact that L'Enfant included in his original plan of the city-which has been so far and so long departed from in many respects that it is scarcely now to be recognized-a project for the location of the Government buildings on either side of the Mall, forming a grand park, flanked by architectural creations of beauty and utility. But this new Centennial avenue plan is apparently different. If it be coupled with the clearing away of all the private buildings south of Pennsylvania avenue, well and good. If, however, it contemplates the establishment of a governmental boulevard bordering the Mall without affecting Pennsylvania avenue in any respect, then the consensus of opinion here will unquestionably be against it. The effect would be to make Pennsylvania avenue virtually a back street. It will, however, always remain the scene of great pageants. It is the most direct route from the Capitol to the White House, while the Centennial avenue, as far as the plan has been explained, leaves the White House considerably to the north.

It is to be noted, furthermore, that the project which, it is understood, forms the basis of the plan adopted by the committee contemplates placing the municipal building on the market-house square.

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That would be the only public structure extending through from one avenue to the other. All others would front upon the new boulevard, with their back doors pointing toward Pennsylvania avenue as far as the public land might extend.

The committee's action is, of course, only advisory. It remains to be ratified by Congress. Doubtless in the discussion of the whole centennial enterprise before the Houses the precise features of this plan will be exploited, giving opportunity to compare it with the more substantial scheme of clearing out all of the south avenue land and using it for future public buildings, irrespective of the later evolution of a boulevard to serve as an approach to the forthcoming Memorial Bridge. There will likewise be occasion to see how this new proposition squares with the pending measure to readjust the lines of the Pennsylvanla Railroad's terminal, which is directly affected by the Centennial avenue proposition. Until the project is thus set forth in plain terms, and in a manner to commend itself to the full approval of everybody concerned in the creation of the ideal capital, the citizens of Washington will reserve their judgment and hope that the centennial will be marked by a genuine creation of lasting utility and beauty.

WHY TWO NATIONAL AVENUES NOW?

(February 23, 1900.)

The proposition to provide a grand national boulevard along the Mall commends itself to some minds because of the fact that it would afford a magnificent avenue whereon great pageants would appear. There is already a thoroughfare entirely fitted for such use, associated with many historic memories and recognized to-day by the people of all the States as the natural parade ground for these imposing processions. This is Pennsylvania avenue,, whose advantages are many and whose opportunities for further beautification are limited only by the disposition of Congress. Why provide a new avenue when there is one at hand already, especially as the use of the new one in the manner anticipated will perhaps result in making a back street of the older one, despite its history and its capacity for coping with modern conditions? The stroke of surplusage does not commend itself at first glance to the most practical thought of the people. There is every probability that the grand future of this city will require that the Government occupy all of the land between Pennsylvania avenue and the Mall. When that time comes, a new and splendid avenue through the Mall, with public buildings and possibly State buildings along its length, would be a fine feature and a necessity. The beginning of this work should be where it is most needed, and that place is the south side of Pennsylvania avenue.

PARK SYSTEM OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA.

PRESERVE THE PARKS.

(March 3, 1900.)

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The Centennial avenue proposition is a distinct violation of the park principle, the maintenance of which has made Washington one of the beauty spots of this continent. The great Mall, with its succession of broad areas devoted artistically to combinations of lawn and wooded growths, forms one of the city's most distinctive features. Its arrangement was in accordance with the careful designs of A. J. Downing, the distinguished architect and landscape gardener, who in 1851 was called to Washington to lay out the public grounds of the national capital. He was recognized throughout the country and abroad as “the chief American authority on rural art,” and his admirable designs for the Smithsonian grounds, with choice tree groups, graceful winding drives, and pleasant shaded walks, resulted in making that line of parking a beauty spot and a subject of admiration to all visitors. With the Botanic Garden at one end and the Monument grounds at the other, this great stretch stands for a tangible evidence of the theory upon which the capital is founded, that in making of a seat of government there can not be too much parking or too much care in preserving it from encroachment.

The plan is now to cut a straight avenue through this Mall, at one side, in a diagonal line, not in harmony with any of the natural or artificial features of the great park, nor in accordance with any of its present or proper uses. It is further proposed to utilize the grounds lying adjacent to this avenue as sites for public buildings yet to be erected, thus violating the sanctity of the parks, which has been preserved, in the main, by dint of the most strenuous endeavor and some sacrifices. The avenue will not partake of the graceful nature of the landscape gardening through which it will ruthlessly cut. Straight, uncompromising, ugly, it would be a mere street through what is now a series of woodland parks. It will soon take on all the characteristics of a thoroughfare, which are incompatible with the park nature.

Already the Mall has been invaded by buildings because of the parsimony of Congress. There was but a feeble objection to the introduction of the Smithsonian Institution there, for its nature befitted it to the seclusion of the park and its architecture blended harmoniously with the dense foliage of the forest growth. The Department of Agriculture, however, was a mistake, while the National Museum was only to be excused on the ground of its likeness in organizational character to the Smithsonian, a biscuit-toss away. But for the sternly practical, forbidding Medical Museum there was never a valid excuse, and the capital has always deplored this invasion and violation of the park principle. It was hoped that these four builings, constituting a group of scientific organizations,

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would remain the solitary occupants of the Mall aside from the Fish Commission Office, doomed to early removal, and a magnificent memorial shaft at the western end, destined for a significant

permanence.

Now comes the plan to despoil the park, to locate all the future public buildings within its limits, to cut it in twain by an inartistic street, and to change its original character entirely. It is no wonder that the scheme is rejected by the most advanced and public spirited of the citizens as unworthy the great occasion with which it is associated and a positive detriment to the artistic and the material progression of the capital. There is room in plenty for the buildings yet to be built without invading the parks. There are grander opportunities for city adornment than this, which represents such a direct sacrifice of principle and public space. The only course of safety is to stand firmly in opposition to the plan. Once it is adopted, there is no guaranty for the future. Whereas now Congress is chary about buying sites for public buildings, always counting the cost and the difficulty of selection, with the park-site principle established there will be no barrier to prevent the frequent and lavish expenditure of this beauty and breathing space for public buildings uses.

It is only by the maintenance of high ideals that great ends are achieved. The great end here is the evolution of a capital worthy the country and the times-a city of rare beauty and convenience, of dignity and good government. The Centennial avenue project means a loosening of the grip upon this ideal, and is, therefore, a retrogression wholly out of keeping with the historical significance of the occasion. There are better ways of marking the centenary—-constructive instead of destructive, progressive rather than reactionary. Let them be adopted and urged, and let this misconceived scheme be dropped without further ado.

WHY? AND WHAT?

(March 5, 1900.)

Why do they call the proposed roadway-which leads from nowhere to nowhere, and which, in doing so, will longitudinally bisect and measurably destroy one of our finest and most accessible parks-why do they call it a "boulevard?" The meaning of that term, according to the lexicons, is: "First, originally a bulwark or rampart of a fortified town; second, a public walk or street occupying the site of a demolished fortification." There is, therefore, no excuse for the snobbery of lugging into our vernacular this awkward foreign term, which is not in the least degree applicable to the proposed roadway or to any other thoroughfare in Washington—or in any other city in