Evening Star Newspaper, May 7, 1933, Page 69

Wi THE SUNI’IAY STAR;" WASHIN(‘ TON D C.. MAY 7 1933 =i This Is the House That Uncle Sam Built Planned by the First President, and Almost as Old as the Nation Itself, the Botanic Gar- dens Will Soorl Be Moved to a New Sct- ting at Foot of Capitol Hill Where, in Addi- tion to a Magnificent “Crystal Palace” Con- servatory, the Govern- ment Has Built a Model Home for the Director and His Family, BY JOSEPHINE TIGHE WILLIAMS. HIS is the story of “The House That Uncle Sam Built,” dear grown-up children, and i you will be very good this May morning, sit com- fortably on .the sun-porch and light a cigarette, I will tell you all about ft. In efegant parlance it is a very “bijou” of & housé—a “jewel,” indeed; unique, expensive, exclusive, magnificent and historic. As this is a sort of alry, fairy story of what happens when Samuel & Co. waves & JOovernment wand, we will commence with, “Once upon a time.” In 1776, to be exact, there was boin of very, very young parents a baby boy who grew rapidly into & tall, gangly youth. Omn reaching middle age Be affected gray stove pipe hats, flag-motivated dlothes, long-tailed coats and trousers that strapped beneath custom-built boots, - If the dove-colored topper crowned long, straggling Iooks, it also covered the best brains in the world and today he is your busy, successful, ‘lnys-nt-;,'nur-ser\'lce and affectionate “Uncle All of which bedtime story leads up to the fmportant fact that when this Fairy Godfather- Uncle builds, whether it be bridge or fort, oanal or dam, highway or home, he builds to Imst, to signalize, to glorify and typify in points of beauty, strength, utility and historic value. This house, then, just completed is Do exception. This glowing little jewel has been benumqu mounted by Federal lapidaries at the southwest end of the Capitol Grounds, at Pirst and Canal shreets. (If you are an “Oldest Inhabitant,” or know well the history of our wonderful @by, you will remember that the old canal actually passed to within & block or two of the Capitol Building.) Quite delightfully, Samuel & Co. faced the new dwelling to look out on the great and proud white dome. And im a trianglc front of the new mansion he re- @rected the famous and magnificent Bartholdi Pountain and its reflecting pool. To the north of this sparkling, bubbling sculpture rise the mew crystal and aluminum and nearly com- pleted conservatories of the Greater Bontanic QGardens. A glass house, by the way, little ones, from which are tossed bouquets, not brickbats, The director of the Botanic Gardens is @eorge W. Hess and for over 20 years he and his family have lived in the inconspicuous and Eighty-seven thousand cubic feet of glass were used in this “C rystal Palace,” the new conservaiory of the Botanic Gardens. The dome of the building rises 94 feet in heighs. George W. Hess, director of the Botanic Gardens, with Mrs. Hess and their two sons, Joseph ‘and Gordon. sequesiered two-story cottage immediately back of the east wing of the main and soon-to-be- dismantled greenhouse. Just when this dwell- ing was built is not made plain in obtainable Government records, but as the first conserv- otous bloom of little known {s deemed necessary that day, Winter and Summer, a instant and constant super- lovely charges and of the fragile which they thrive. present 80-some-year-old domicile of Director Hess necessary improvements only have been made from time to time. It is really become the “tumble-down shack” crooned of in one of our recent popular songs. Outliving its usefulness and condemned, Con- gress in an appropriation of more than $850,000 for a Greater Botanic Garden included in the grant a sum sufficient for the new home of the director. This ability, comfort and appointments. Let us visit this eight-room “gold star” house built by the firm of Samco. HE entrance hall is covered with black and white rubber tiling and has what is unusual .jhall is the llving room, with parquetry flooring and walls a@l ceilings finished in satinwood. . To the left is the dining room.wnlkandfloorsmatchlngmcuotthe living room, and lighted by perhaps one of the smallest and loveliest of crystal chandeliers. Naturally enough, the kitchen adjoins and is the very last word in electrical and mechanical equipmaent. Hlectric refrigeration, electric range having as ome unit a fireless eooker, call but- tons which light up instead of ringing, chutes for refuse; and a servant’s room, bath, should make it very easy and pleasant for Mrs. Hess to escape the everlasting “serve ant problem.” In the rear is a wall-inclosed yard which probably will be used for anything but a place in which to dry clothes, because, in the basement of the menage is an electric dry- ing room as well as electric washer and ironer, The house is heated, lighted and electrically operated from current passed on from the Cap- itol and is the only private home in Washing- ton to be connected with the Capitol tele- phone system. And, right here, please, please catch ycur breath, page Dr. Cannon and Rip- ley, while you read that in the basement is & closet of room-size, built, designated and sir- cooled for the sole and happy use as a wine- cellar! In the rear of the main hall, delicately spin- died and polished stairs lead to the second floor and into a hall large enough for a goad- sised den or studio. To pipe systems. ’rhe dwelling, finally, has waat every woman seldom knows, but always deeply desires—closets, closets and more closets. There isn't a niche nor abutment which has mnot been made into some sort or a closet. For this is the House That Uncle Sam Built. In front of the old cottage is a rounded by an iron fence and withi closure grows a boxwood hedge, si sign to one at Mount Vernon, and, ability, well over 100 years old. transferted to the new quarters. this union are two sons, Joseph Wesley, aged 6, and Gordon Anthony, a year younger. These healthy, merry youngsters are the only enes in America whose actual home playground nestles at the very foot of the Capitol of the United States. And if & misdirected foot ball or base ball smashes through & pane of giass in a certain conservatory—well, what the hecle! A’l‘thlspolntuswiftmumeo(thehlstoq of the Botanic Gardens (or Botanical Gar« dens, if you will; for as far back as 1800 snd up to the present times, both names are in use and print) and what they have led up to, may prove of interest. In May, 1933, the gare dens will be precisely 113 years of good, ripe, old age. Senator Fess of Ohio, laying the corner stone of the new conservatory of the Greater Gardens on November 12, 1931, emphasized the fact that it was an institution almost as eid as the Nation itself, was really a fulfililment of -the plans of George Washington, and the sube ject of considerable and lively correspondence between the first President and the “Commiss sioners of the PFederal District” as far back as 1796. It was in 1820, after some years of discussion of various plans and means that the Columbian Institute for Promotion of Arts and Sciences passage of a con(ru.flmlbmfora tnct hekno'n used as a bo- tanical garden. muunut chosen was that of the Patent Office, between F and G, Seventh streets. A tle later this was changed to a location on the low and swampy ion, at the base of the Capitol. funds slowed up development and, occasional somewhat moribund as- Capitol gardener, the scheme lay 840. In that year the Federal uired a large quantity of rare " plants and seeds collected by the Untied States Exploring Expedition of the South Seas—1838- 1840. Interest in the project was renewed and the gardens and all they meant to posterity, and public became a lving, thriving issue, in 1867, drew designs which the present main conservatory was have sprung up