Evening Star Newspaper, June 10, 1935, Page 48

Playing Host to Shrine’s Many Convention Visitor How the Huge Task of Providing Living Quarters and Attending to Transportation Details for Thousands of Shriners 11 as Organized by Special Committees. BY JOHN C.*HENRY. N A city already filled to capacity with legis= lators, lobbyists, liberals and lovely ladies— to say nothing of ordinary human beings— there has arrived a new legion. One hun- dred thousand strong, they are the nobles, friends and relatives of the Imperial Coun- cil, Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. Gathered here for the sixty-first annual ses- sion of the council, most of the visitors are guests of the Capital City for a full week. Most difficult, perhaps, of all the problems attendant upon such a large-scale invasion has been that of providing housing accommodations for 100,- 000 visitors in a city where hotel and apart= ment space long has been at a premium, It was a problem, however, which was recog- nized from the moment the convention was schedu'ed; a prcblem which has been solved upon occasion of presidential inaugurations and previous Shrine conventions here. And except for the cases of a few hardy sculs who probably prefer to sleep in their automobiles or on the soft turf of Washington’s many parks, it has been solved again. First, responsibility was placed upon Stanley D. Willis as chairman of a special housing com- mittee and the initiative was taken by broad- casting an appeal to all temples throughout Baltimore & Ohio Railroads, the only ones having yards in the District, have reserved most of the track space in their yards for location of the “Pullman cities” durinz the week. For instance, at the B. & O. yard on Florida avenue northeast, eight tracks with room for 112 cars were set aside for this weck, Most of this space already is filied with air- conditioned sleeping cars and diners. Some of the cars have showers, attendants always are present and the “community” possesses every= thing needed for emergency living quarters. The Pennsylvania road, accommodating not only its own train reservations but some other lines running into Washington, virtuall has filled up the three yards a* Fouiteenth street, at New Jersey avenue und at Pennsyl- vania avenue southeast, OURIST camps, rooming houses and inns and hotels in nearby communities also have been utilized. Masonic quarters and the halls of several private schools have been turned into temporary barracks with cot beds being set up. In spite of all the advance preparations, however, convention officials realize that the majority of their visitors are arriving in the District without forewarning and that disposi- tion of these is the greatest problem. To meet THE EVENING STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C., JUNE 10, 1935. 1 group of Housing Committee wor kers at the Shrine Temple headquarters handling the major task of providing acc ommodations for the thousands of visitors here for the convention and keeping a tabulated check on their whereabouts. this situation, officials have deployed their forces over a wide front. Headquarters, for instance, where the entire housing work is centered, has been established W ashington-Hoover Airport, one of the busiest airports in America, where thousands of visitors who flew to the Capital in giang airliners to attend the Shrine Convention landed. the country, advising them to make their plans early and to let the Convention Committee know what housing facilities would be needed. On the local front, the committee negotiated with all local hotels, learned how much space would be available, reserved it in blocks as the temples made their separate needs known O IMPRESSED were the temples with the advisibility of making reservations early that some have been in since last Winter, By the 1st of May practically adl the suitable hotel space was booked up. Some of the earliest and largest temples to Treserve space follow: Aladdin of Columbus, Ohio, 300, at the Lee House; Al Koran of Cleve- land, 420, at the Mayflower; Acca of Richmond, 870, at the Powhatan; Boumi of Baltimore, 300, at the Burlington; Cyprus of Albany, 300, &t the Continental; Jaffa of Altoona, 270, at the Ambasador; Khedive of Norfolk, 210, at the Lafayette; Kora of Lewiston, Me., 350, at the Hamilton; Lu Lu of Philadelphia, 600, at the Cairo: Moslem of Detroit, 400, at the Wardman Park. Smaller groups were allotted space at some of the above hotels or at others having accommodations available. : The largest singie unit of all, however, has brought its living quarters along with it, This group, representing Medinah Temple of Chi- eazo, and numbering 800 persons. arrived by special train and is making the train its head- quarters all during the stay here. Other large delegations living cn their trains are Morocco Temple of Jacksonville, 250; Salaam Temple ®f Newark, 250; Kosair of Louisville, Ky., and or of Madison, Wis. To meet this demand the Pennsylvania and ~Star Staff Photo. Star Stail Phote, at Almas Temple .n the 1300 block of K street, Here a platoon of aides, clerks, stenographers, messengers and whatnot has been placed under direction of Charles E. Baldwin. For their use, nearly a whole floor of the temple, a battery of telephones, lists of vacant living quarters and other necessary equipment and informae tion have been made available. As their first line of defense, this orgnnl-‘ zation enlisted the co-operation of the District of Columbia Motor Club of the American Aue tomobile Association. The result was estabe lishment of eight service and information booths at the eight main highway entrances into the District. Each of the booths is being manned by an A. A. A, representative and a Shriner. the outpost being connected by tele- phone with housing headquarters at Almas Temple. The booths, just inside the District line in each case, have been set up on Wisconsin aves nue, Georgia avenue, Connecticut avenue, Eleventh street and Pennsylvania avenue, Key Bridge, Bladensburg road, Rhode Island ave- nue and Highway Bridge. In addition, =& booth has been established at the Union Stae tion and in the Willard Hotel, where general headquarters of the convention are located, Direction signs have been placed at bus ter- minals and the airport In cases where arrivals at these booths report they have no living quarters already reserved, communication is established imme= diately with the Housing Committee headquare ters. If assignment of space can be made at once, it is done in that manner and the visitors sent directly to the address designated. By! this system, officials hope to eliminate con- gestion at headquarters as well as a lot of aime less searching by the visitors. Washington’s beautiful Union Station, through the broad portals of which thousands get their first view of the Nation’s Capital. Harei & Ewing