Evening Star Newspaper, June 10, 1935, Page 41

RN The Past Few Years Have Wrought Amaz- ing Ghanges W ash- ington as Monumental New Structures Have Risen in the Greatest Federal Building Pro- gram in the World. HRINERS this week scarcely will recog- nize their famous old parade ground of 12 years ago Since the tumult, the shouting. the pageantry of 1923, when thousands of Mystic Shriners *“parked their camels with Uncle Sam’l,” this same Uncle Sam vir- tually has changed the face of his downtown Federal City. Along the south side of Lower Pennsylvania avenue there remains scarcely a landmark recs ognizable by a parader of 12 years ago—except the tall old Post Office Department Building, no longer used as the Post Office Department, and possibly the Municipal Building. ; At the grounds around the Capitol Building ftself, the Shriner, especially if he came in by train through Union Station, px'ol)al)ly: gasped with surprise—unless he had been a frequent visitor in between Shrine Conventions. The whole area has changed. For the United States Government—both Re= publican and Democratic—has cleared away literally thousands of old ramshackle and some not-so-ramshackle buildings to make way for a program of new Government housing, and wide vistas of new extensions to park, play= grounds and Capitol Grounds. Millions have been spent—the total has never been struck, because it came from s0 many different places and is still constantly on the change. With some new buildings in the immediate future, and with this administration constantly enlarging its functions by adding new agencies, the prospect appears to be for still more changes in the face of Washington, D. C. Nobles, take a look at old Pennsylvania ave- nue, for instance. Remember the south side, where you marched in 1923, past tattooing par- lors, Chinatown, a wholesale district, and curi- ous old Center Market? Nothing of that is left. What happened to it? The Government almost made a south side clean sweep in 12 short years, from the majestic building on Capitol Hill to the gray granite old Treasury Building at the western end of what is most popularly known as Pennsylvania avenue, AS THE Shrine parades begin their march they will find that instead of a nondescript lot of small stores and hotels along Pennsyle vania avenue uearest the Capitol Grounds, there will be found nothing but broad stretches of park, some newly graded. Most of this has been cleared for the extension of the Capitol Grounds, & program under way for several years in adding many acres to the grounds around the Capitol. From Lower Pennsylvania avenue the Shriners will look across a cleared park space, and along broad Louisiana avenue straight to the Union Station, where heretofore was a series of old buildings, hotels, stores and “whatnots.” On the other de, toward the Mall, a great park which sweeps from the Capitol to the river, the Shrine legions gathering for parade will see under way the formation of new Union Square around the Grant Memorial, which stands on the site of the old Botannic Gardens, These gardens themselves have been moved across the Mall to the south side to make way for Union Square. Historic old trees were taken out and younger trees are being put in their places, according to a new landscape plan. Marching down Pennsylvania avenue, the paraders will see on their right an ugly empty space surrounded by a board fence, where it was intended to build a Municipal Center, be- tween Third street and John Marshall place. But the money to build this still is not forthe coming, as yet. Some kind of new municipal buildings eventually will be constructed there. On the left the parades will be marching by wide-open park spaces looking ino the Mall, instead of looking into Chinatown, until they come to Seventh street—the present spear= point of the gigantic group of correlated Federal structures known as the Federal Triangle. These present a magnificent terminus now at the new Archives Building, to be completed in July The Government has not yet decided what to do about a so-called “Apex” Building, to be erected immediately to the east, on the squares between Sixth and Seventh streets. Next in order along the line of march, the Shriners will pass by the new Department of Justice Building, the new addition to the Bureau of Internal Revenue, now under con- struction, and finally arrive at the first old landmark, the old Post Office Department Building. now occupied by one of the admin- istration’s alphabet agencies, the Agricultural Adjustment Administration Next the parade will pass the new Post Office Department, a monumental building in the shape of an "X Here Shriners will find & [ucility which was not available in downe N Y ;\i\?\)&}\ The Federal Triangle, showing the Department of Commerce Building in the foreground, forming the triangle base, and the nearly completed Archives Building at the apex in the distance. The broad thoroughfare at the right of the pigture is Constitution avenue. town Washington in 1923—an all-night postal station. This new Benjamin Franklin station, at the corner of Twelfth street and Pennsyl- vania avenue, is never closed, so that visitors may mail letters and souvenirs to the home folks, or buy much needed stamps at any hour of the day or night, HE old Southern Building, now occupied by several Government agencies, and the old Municipal Building are next in line on the south side of the Avenue, but the parade will come to a turning point at Pennsylvania avenue and PFifteenth street, where the magnificent new Department of Commerce Building brings to an imposing western ferminus the Federal Triangle. ; This Triangle, modeled on an inspiration from the Louvre in Paris, provides downtown Washington with what is known as a ‘““unified architectural composition” of monumental buildings, in limestone, cutting a flying wedge between the best downtown business section and the great parkway which is the Mall. Built to accommodate overcrowded Federal buildings, and to obviate Federal rent, the Arcade on the east front of the new United States Post Office Department Building in the Federal Triangle. —Photo by Horydezak, Copyright by Aero Service Corgu Triangle already is overcrowded with Federal agencies, and the Government is reaching out to build still more buildings. Another imposing new area being developed with architectural beauty in marble structures is Constitution avenue, further to the west facing the Mall between Seventeenth street and the Potomac River. Already in place along this stretch ere the well known Pan-American Union, which is planning a new annex adjacent; the Public Health Service, the National Acad« emy of Sciences and the Pharmaceutical Asso= ciation. The Federal Reserve Board, which the Federal Government plans to clothe with new powers under pending legislation, is to have a new white marble structure in this row. A distinguished architect, Paul Cret of Phila« del;fhla, has just won a competition for archi« tectural services on this structure. A new $11,000,000 Interior Department Building soon will be started nearby. On Capitol Hill several new structures are apparent to the visiting Shriner. Chief eof these, perhaps, is the impressive marble home of the Supreme Court of the United States facing the Capitol, planned under direction of the late Chief Justice William Howard Taft. It is nearly finished. Other structures on Cap- itol Hill of recent construction include the new House Office Building, new Senate Office Building wing and addition to the Library of Congress. Foundations have been finished for an annex to the Library of Congress, which will fill almost a complete square. South of the Mall an immense new home for the Department of Agriculture is nearing completion, and a gigantic heating plant there is hooked up to all the principal Federal build- ings in downtown Washington, including the White House. It furnished heat for the first time this past Winter. TILL pending is the problem of what to @0 with the War and Navy Departments, which eventually are to have new homes. But this administration has not yet formulated a come plete plan for these departments of defense, Considerable difference of opinion exists among various agencies as to where these defense departments shall be housed. Many studies have been made of various locations. The question of whether Andrew W. Mellon of Pittsburgh, Pa., former Secretary of the Treasury, will present several million dollars’ worth of classic paintings to the Government, and build a handsome art gallery here to house them, has been under dispute in the Mellon income tax case, heard both at Pittsburgh and here in Washington. Mellon has claimed exe emption from income tax on account of the value of the paintings, which he intends to give the Government. This building would add something entirely distinctive to the group of buildings in the downtown area. Washington thus presents to the visiting hordes virtually a new Federal City, eminently suited to house the great agencies of Govern= ment, & monument in themselves to the ime spiration, the aspiration and the accomplishe ments of the American people, 4