Part 151

New buildings for the National Museum, on the Mall between Ninth and Twelfth Streets, and the new one million five hundred thousand dollar marble building of the Department of Agriculture, west of the Smithsonian grounds, are notable. The former, originally established to exhibit the rich contributions given to the government by various countries from the Centennial at Philadelphia in 1876, has become a most extensive and instructive collection of antiquities, ethnology, geology, and natural history generally; and there are many museums, libraries and art galleries.

The Bureau of Engraving and Printing, where the paper money, bonds and stamps of the United States are printed, is at the corner of B Street and the Mall, southwest.

The national monument to Washington, popularly known as the “Washington Monument,” is a towering obelisk of white marble, on the bank of the Potomac, erected at a cost of one million two hundred and thirty thousand dollars. It has a total height of five hundred and fifty-five feet, an area at the foundation of sixteen thousand feet, and a weight of thirty-six thousand nine hundred and twelve gross tons. The apex has an aluminum point, and there is an elevator and an iron stairway of nine hundred steps in the interior of the shaft.

From the Washington Monument the Treasury Department at Pennsylvania Avenue and Fifteenth Street comes into full view. It is an immense edifice, five hundred and ten feet long and two hundred and eighty feet wide, with an Ionic colonnade on the east front and porticos on the other three sides. The materials are freestone and granite, and it cost seven million dollars to erect the edifice. Among the chief objects of interest are the United States Cash Room, in the north corridor; the Redemption Division, in the basement; the Silver Vaults, containing bullion and coin to the value of hundreds of millions of dollars; and the Secret Service Division, with its collection of forged money and portraits of forgers.

On the south, opposite the Treasury, is the fine equestrian monument of General Sherman, by Rohl-Smith, erected in 1903. The pedestal is embellished with bronze reliefs, medallions, and figures of Indian women, and at the corners are four sentinels.

Following Pennsylvania Avenue towards the west, Lafayette Square, is approached. Here are bronze statues of General Andrew Jackson, by Clark Mills; the Rochambeau Monument, by F. Hamar; and the Lafayette Monument, by Falguiére and Mercié. On the east side of the square is the Belasco Theater, occupying the site of the house in which an attempt was made to assassinate Secretary Seward in 1865.

Opposite Lafayette Square is the entrance to the White House or Executive Mansion of the President of the United States. The White House is a two-story stone building, painted white, one hundred and seventy feet long and eighty-six feet deep, with an Ionic portico. It was first built in 1792, occupied by President Adams in 1800, burned by the British in 1814, and rebuilt in 1818. In 1902-1903 the whole building was admirably restored, within and without. The esplanade or terrace on the west side connects the house with the new Executive Offices and Cabinet Room. The large East Room (eighty by forty by twenty-two feet) is open to the public from ten to two. The Reception Rooms, which contain portraits of Presidents and valuable gifts, and the handsome Dining Room are shown by special order only. The rest of the house is private. The grounds surrounding the house are seventy-five acres in extent.

To the west of the White House is the huge building of the State, War, and Navy Departments, enclosing two courts and measuring five hundred and sixty-seven feet in length by three hundred and forty-two feet in breadth. It is a granite building, in Renaissance style, the largest public edifice in Washington, covering four and one-half acres, has five hundred and sixty-six rooms, and cost eleven million dollars. The north and west wings are occupied by the War Department. The Navy Department is in the eastern part of the building.

The Department of State occupies the southern part of the building. Among the finest rooms are the Diplomatic Reception Rooms, containing portraits of the Secretaries of State from 1789 to the present day, and the Library, with Jefferson’s original draft of the Declaration of Independence and other relics.

In Seventeenth Street, to the southwest of the State Building, between New York Avenue and E Street, is the Corcoran Gallery of Art, built and endowed by the late W. W. Corcoran. The present building, erected in 1894-1897, is a handsome white marble structure in a Neo-Grecian style, by Ernest Flagg. The semicircular hall at the north end is used for occasional exhibitions, while the rest of this part of the building is occupied by a School of Art. The steps to the main entrance are flanked by colossal bronze lions, modeled after those by Canova at the tomb of Pope Clement XIII. The Gallery contains more than two hundred paintings, the finest collection of Barye bronzes, Power’s Greek Slave, and Vela’s Dying Napoleon in marble.

Also in Seventeenth Street, south of the Corcoran Gallery, are the new Continental Hall, built by the Daughters of the American Revolution, and the new building of the International Bureau of the American Republics, erected at a cost of one million dollars by Andrew Carnegie.

The Interior Department occupies an entire square in the heart of the city, and is constructed of white marble in pure Doric, costing three million dollars. The General Land Office opposite is a Corinthian marble edifice.

In Judiciary Square on the north side stands the Pension Office, an enormous structure of brick, four hundred feet long and two hundred feet wide. It is surrounded by a terra cotta frieze illustrating military and naval operations. The interior, with its mammoth columns (seventy-five feet high), can accommodate about twenty thousand people at an inauguration ball, or other occasions.

Nearby, in B Street, is the large Census Bureau, in which a large staff is constantly at work. The enumerating machines are especially interesting.

To the northeast of this point, at the corner of North Capitol and H Streets, is the Government Printing Office, a twelve-story building erected at a cost of two million dollars.

Ford Theater, in which President Lincoln was assassinated by Booth on April 14, 1865, is in Tenth Street. A house opposite bears a tablet stating that Lincoln died there, and contains a collection of Lincoln relics.

On the south side of Pennsylvania Avenue, between Eleventh and Twelfth Streets, is the Post Office Department, with a tower three hundred feet high. At the corner of Pennsylvania Avenue and Fourteenth Streets is the new District or Municipal Building, a fine marble structure completed in 1908, and occupied by the District Commissioners and other officials of the local government.

At the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue and New York Avenue is Mt. Vernon Square, containing the Public Library, a white marble building, presented by Mr. Andrew Carnegie.

Beyond the Capitol to the southeast are the Washington Barracks, at the junction of the Potomac and its Eastern Branch, an artillery post, and the War College, a fine brick building, erected 1903-1908. In front of the latter is a statue of Frederick the Great by T. Uphues, presented to the United States by Emperor William II.

About one mile to the northeast, on the Anacostia River, is the Washington Navy Yard, with a museum, an important gun foundry, and manufactories of naval stores.

There are more than two hundred and fifty churches in Washington, of which the more important are St. John’s (the “President’s Church”), and St. Thomas’ Episcopal; the New York Avenue, and Church of the Covenant, Presbyterian; the Metropolitan and Foundry, Methodist; St. Matthew’s and St. Aloysius’, Roman Catholic; Calvary, Baptist; Garfield Memorial, Christian; and Mount St. Sepulchre, with its reproduction of the sacred places of the Holy Land.

The National Soldiers’ Home, two miles above the city, founded in 1851, has six hundred acres of park and forest, which serve as a public driving park and rural resort. To the north lies the National Military Cemetery, with the graves of General Logan, General Kearney, and seven thousand soldiers. On the west this is adjoined by Rock Creek Cemetery, containing Saint-Gauden’s beautiful monument to Mrs. Henry Adams. To the east of the Soldiers’ Home Park is the important Catholic University of America, around which has grown up a somewhat remarkable group of ecclesiastical establishments, including a Franciscan Convent, houses of the Dominicans, Paulists and Marists, and Trinity College for young women. The university has a number of fine stone buildings of striking architectural effect. The other colleges of note are: George Washington University, with academic, scientific, graduate, medical, and technological departments, and a famous law school; Georgetown University, a Jesuit institution with academic and professional schools; American University, for graduate instruction only; and the National Deaf-Mute College, founded in 1864, a government institution for the education of deaf and dumb pupils from the army, the navy, and the District of Columbia. Its fine stone buildings lie just north of the city.

Among the more important private buildings may be mentioned those of the Washington Post and Evening Star, and the Munsey buildings, all on Pennsylvania Avenue; the Riggs National Bank, American Security and Trust Company, Washington Loan and Trust, Union Trust and Storage Company, and the National Metropolitan Bank. The larger office buildings are the Bond, the Colorado, the Ouray, the Southern, and Woodward buildings. The Masonic Temple, the Scottish Rite Temple, and the Y. M. C. A. buildings, are important structures.

More and more Washington is becoming the home of a class of wealthy Americans, many of whom have erected beautiful residences, and among those of conspicuous architectural value are the Leiter, Townsend, Walsh, McLean, Belmont, Hale, Anderson, Boardman, Patterson, Thomas Nelson Page, Wayne McVeagh, Henderson, and Gale houses. Of similar interest are the embassy buildings of the British, Chinese, French, Russian, and other nations. The Metropolitan, the Cosmos, the Army and Navy, University, National Press, and the Washington (for women) are the principal clubs, and have homes of their own.

An elaborate park system is in course of development, which will ultimately surround the city with parks and connecting boulevards. The principal park is Rock Creek Park, to the north of the city, containing two thousand acres extending along both sides of Rock Creek. Its natural beauties are very great. On Mt. St. Alban, near Woodley, to the northwest of Georgetown, is the Peace Cross, a large Celtic cross erected at the close of the war with Spain (1898) on the grounds of the new Episcopal Cathedral, of which the cornerstone was laid in 1907. It affords a fine view of Washington. On the Chevy Chase Road, to the northwest of the Zoölogical Park, are the National Bureau of Standards and the Geophysical Laboratory of the Carnegie Institution, the administration building of which latter is in Sixteenth Street.

South of Rock Creek Park, on Rock Creek, lies the National Zoölogical Park of one hundred and seventy acres, reached from Washington in a half hour.

On a commanding site overlooking Rock Creek, north of Georgetown, in handsome grounds, is the United States Naval Observatory, of white marble, with its twenty-six-inch equatorial telescope.

Scattered throughout the city are numerous squares, circles, and small parks, nearly all of which contain statues.

Of bronze statues erected in honor of famous men, Washington has an abundance--mainly to military characters. Equestrian statues of Washington, Jackson, Greene, Scott, Thomas, and McPherson are erected, besides full-length statues of Lafayette, Luther, Franklin, Chief Justice Marshall, Lincoln, Garfield, Professor Henry Farragut, General Rawlins, and Admiral Dupont.

At Arlington, across the river from Washington, on commanding heights, is the National Cemetery containing the graves of about sixteen thousand soldiers. Arlington House, in the middle of the grounds, two hundred feet above the river, was once the residence of George Washington Parke Custis (step-grandson of Washington) and afterwards of General Robert Lee, who married Miss Custis. Near the house are the graves of General Sheridan, Admiral Porter, General Lawton, General Wheeler, and other distinguished officers.

To the south is a tomb containing the remains of two thousand one hundred and eleven unknown soldiers. The sailors destroyed by the blowing up of the “Maine” in 1898 and other victims of the war with Spain are buried in the southern part of the cemetery.

The cornerstone of a splendid military memorial or Hall of Fame was laid here in 1916, to be erected in classic style, of marble, and to cost several millions of dollars.

MOUNT VERNON, Washington’s home and burial place, is in Fairfax County, Va., about fifteen miles below the city. It is in full view, standing among the trees on the top of a bluff rising about two hundred feet above the river. As the steamboat approaches, its bell is tolled, this being the universal custom on nearing or passing Washington’s tomb. The estate was originally a domain of about eight thousand acres, and Augustine Washington, dying in 1743, bequeathed it to Lawrence Washington, who, having served in the Spanish wars under Admiral Vernon, named it Mount Vernon in his honor. General Washington, in 1752, inherited Mount Vernon from Lawrence. After his death the estate passed to his nephew, Bushrod Washington, subsequently descending to other members of the family.

Congress repeatedly endeavored to have Washington’s remains removed to the crypt under the rotunda of the Capitol, originally constructed for their reception, but the family always refused, knowing it was his desire to rest at Mount Vernon.

In 1856 the mansion and surrounding property were saved from the auctioneer’s hammer, and secured as a national possession by the Ladies’ Mount Vernon Association, assisted principally by Edward Everett, at a cost of two hundred thousand dollars.

Washington, originally called Federal City, was named after Washington in 1791, and became the capital in 1800. In 1814 the Capitol, White House, and other public buildings, were burned by the British.

LEADING EVENTS IN THE COLONIAL HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES IN THE FORM OF PARALLEL OUTLINES

I. PERIOD OF AUTHENTIC DISCOVERY AND EXPLORATION, FROM 1492 TO 1607

Preceding this Period there are some legendary accounts of discoveries by Norsemen, Irish missionaries and even Asiatics. Little importance attaches to any except those of the Norse discoverers, chief of which was Lief Ericsson and his brother Thorwald who came upon the mainland of North America about 1000 to 1004. The discoveries of Columbus and Vasco da Gama opened a new era, during which the Spaniards explored and settled the West Indies, Mexico, and the southern part of the present United States; while the English and French explored, claimed, and made unsuccessful attempts at settlement in the North.