In 1900 a great celebration commemorating the one-hundredth anniversary of the removal of the seat of government to the District of Columbia was held in Washington. The keynote of the celebration was the improvement of the District of Columbia in a manner and to the extent commensurate with the dignity and the resources of the American Nation. The population was 218,196.

While the centennial exercises were in progress the American Institute of Architects, in session in Washington, discussed the subject of the development of parks and the placing of public buildings; the tentative ideas of a number of the leading architects, sculptors, and landscape architects of the country were heard; and as a result the Institute appointed a committee on legislation. Consultations between that committee and the Senate Committee on the District of Columbia were followed by the order of the Senate for the preparation and submission of a general plan for the development of the entire park system of the District of Columbia.

Thus, Hon. James McMillan, of Michigan, chairman of the Senate Committee on the District of Columbia, submitted the following resolution, which was adopted by the United States Senate on March 8, 1901:

On March 19, 1901, the subcommittee of the District Committee having the matter in charge met the representatives of the American Institute of Architects and agreed to their proposition that Daniel H. Burnham, architect, and Frederick Law Olmsted, jr., landscape architect, be selected as experts, with power to add to their number. These gentlemen accepted, and subsequently invited Charles F. McKim, architect, and Augustus Saint-Gaudens, sculptor, to act with them in the preparation of plans. The services of men who had won the very highest places in their several professions had thus been secured.

The nature and scope of the work having been outlined to the commission, they entered upon their task, but not without hesitation and misgivings. The problem was both difficult and complex. Much had to be done; much, also, had to be undone. Also the aid and advice of the commission was sought immediately in relation to buildings and memorials under consideration, and thus the importance and usefulness of the commission were enhanced.

The commission, in order to make a closer study of the practice of landscape architecture as applied to parks and public buildings, made a brief trip to Europe, visiting Rome, Venice, Vienna, Budapest, Paris, London, and their suburbs. Attention was directed principally to ascertaining what arrangement of park areas best adapts them to the uses of the people and what are the elements that give pleasure from generation to generation, and even from century to century. The many and striking results of this study were given in the Park Commission Report, including plans and illustrations. The Committee on the District of Columbia submitted the report to the Senate on January 15, 1902. It was adopted and ordered to be printed as Senate Report No. 166, Fifty-seventh Congress, first session.

McMILLAN PARK COMMISSION

The members of the McMillan Park Commission were:

Daniel H. Burnham, architect, of Chicago. He became head of the firm of Burnham & Root, one of the first great architectural firms of the country, and later of D. H. Burnham & Co. Designer of many buildings, among them the Railway Exchange and Marshall Field’s retail store in Chicago, and the Wanamaker stores in New York and Philadelphia; in 1893 he became chief architect and director of works of the World’s Columbian Exposition. Mr. Burnham was instrumental in securing the adoption of a scheme of construction which placed that exhibition in the very front rank of international exhibitions, and by the display of rare executive ability he brought about and maintained the effective cooperation of the architects and artists, who then and there gave to American art both a new direction and a tremendous impetus. In 1901 he became chairman of the McMillan Park Commission for beautifying the National Capital; in 1908 he built the Union Station at Washington; in 1910 he became a member of the National Commission of Fine Arts and its first chairman. He also laid out plans for Chicago, Cleveland, and Manila. He died in 1912 while on a trip abroad.

Charles F. McKim, architect, of New York City, studied architecture at Harvard University and at the École des Beaux Arts in Paris. He organized the firm of McKim, Mead & White, architects, of New York City, who for half a century have led the architectural profession in the design of classical buildings, such as the Boston Public Library, Harvard University buildings, the Columbia University Library, the Morgan Library, the Rhode Island Capitol, the Pennsylvania Railroad Station in New York City, the restoration of the White House, and are the architects of the Arlington Memorial Bridge. Mr. McKim, as a member of the McMillan Park Commission, designed the Mall plan, and also made a sketch for the Lincoln Memorial. Mr. McKim was president of the American Institute of Architects in 1902 and 1903, and was instrumental in the purchase of the Octagon House as the headquarters of the American Institute of Architects. In 1903 he was awarded the royal gold medal given by King Edward VII for the promotion of architecture. Mr. McKim was a champion of good architecture and keenly interested in the development of the National Capital. He deplored the appearance of the State, War, and Navy Building, and said he would find pleasure during leisure hours in raking off the columns—a work that is contemplated in the remodeling of the building as the State Department Building. He died in 1909.

Augustus Saint-Gaudens, sculptor, born in Dublin, Ireland, on March 1, 1848, came to the United States in infancy and learned the trade of a cameo cutter. He studied drawing at the Cooper Institute in 1861, and in 1865 and 1866 was a student of the National Academy of Design. From 1867 to 1870 he studied at the École des Beaux Arts in Paris. Mr. Saint-Gaudens was the greatest American sculptor, and, indeed, one of the greatest of all time. His great works of art are numerous and inspiring. Among them are The Puritan; the statue of Abraham Lincoln, Chicago; the Farragut, the Peter Cooper, and the Sherman Victory monuments in New York; the Shaw Memorial in Boston; the Amor Caritas at the Luxembourg Gallery in Paris; and the celebrated Adams Memorial in Rock Creek Cemetery, Washington. He also designed a $20 gold piece. As a member of the McMillan Park Commission he wrote that part of the report pertaining to Arlington National Cemetery and advised in the matter of location of the Grant Memorial at the head of the Mall. He died in 1907.

Frederick Law Olmsted, landscape architect, from the time that he became a member of the McMillan Park Commission of 1901 has given uninterrupted service in the development of the National Capital. He was one of the original members of the National Commission of Fine Arts, appointed in 1910, and served as landscape architect member until 1918. From 1924 he served as landscape architect member of the National Capital Park and Planning Commission. Mr. Olmsted was president of the American Society of Landscape Architects and from its organization in 1907 a member of the National Conference on City Planning.

His father laid out Central Park, New York City, about 1858 (2,300 men were employed on it in September of that year), and in 1872 he prepared the landscape plan for the United States Capitol Grounds as they have existed since then. Mr. Olmsted and his firm have in more recent years laid out the Metropolitan Park System of Boston, the Vanderbilt Estate in North Carolina, the Baltimore Park System, and Redondo Beach, Los Angeles County, Calif. The smaller park areas which Mr. Olmsted has designed are too numerous to mention.

Charles Moore has devoted fully 50 years to the development of the National Capital, and is a former chairman of the National Commission of Fine Arts. Mr. Moore was for many years clerk to the Senate Committee on the District of Columbia, rendering most valuable service to the committee, of which Senator McMillan was chairman, as well as to the National Capital. The reports on the elimination of grade crossings in the District of Columbia and on the charitable institutions of the District of Columbia, as well as the Park Commission Report of 1901, are memorable documents of that period which were largely prepared by him. His influence has always been strong with Members of Congress in favor of the development of the District of Columbia upon a noble scale. His appointment as one of the original members of the National Commission of Fine Arts was a fitting recognition not only of past services but of his preeminent qualifications to pass upon subjects relating to the beautification of the National Capital. He was chairman from 1915 to 1937. Mr. Moore also helped prepare the plan of Chicago. He is the author of a number of books, among them being Under Three Flags, the Life of Daniel H. Burnham, the Life of Charles F. McKim, the Family Life of George Washington, Washington Past and Present; and has contributed also innumerable articles to magazines in the course of the years.

PLANS OF THE McMILLAN PARK COMMISSION

The plans prepared by the McMillan Park Commission and submitted, with its report, to the Senate, constituted the first and most notable proposal for grouping of public buildings ever put forward in the United States. The outlying sections of the District of Columbia were studied in relation to a system of parks, both large and small areas being indicated; the most convenient and the most picturesque connections between the various parks were mapped; the individual treatment which each important park should undergo was recommended; an extension of the park system to Great Falls and to Mount Vernon was discussed. Primarily, however, the development of the Mall received detailed and elaborate treatment, and the location of new public buildings, whether legislative, executive, or municipal in character, was arranged according to a rational system of grouping; and those memorials which mark distinct epochs in our national history were brought into harmonious relation with the general scheme of development.

As a result of this study, the desirability of making every considerable undertaking within the District of Columbia a part of a general plan was made evident, so that each undertaking should contribute its part to enhancing the value of the whole; and no undertaking would be allowed to invade, to mutilate, or to mar the symmetry, simplicity, and dignity of the one great composition designed to comprehend the entire area.

In working out the plans the park commission found it necessary to have prepared two models, one showing the existing disturbed conditions in the section from the Library of Congress westward to the Potomac, and the other showing the arrangement proposed. These models, constructed with the utmost attention to the details of topography by George C. Curtis, were accurate maps of the section they so graphically depicted, and served as guides in carrying the plans to completion. To present in graphic fashion particular features of the plans, the accurate architectural drawings were rendered in color by leading artists, and by means of these pictures a clear and distinct idea of the completed work was obtained.

One of the greatest obstacles to a restoration of the Mall as provided for in the L’Enfant plan was the fact that since 1872 the Mall had been occupied by railroad tracks, the board of aldermen and the board of common council having on March 20, 1871, granted the Mall site to the Baltimore Potomac Railroad Co., later the Pennsylvania Railroad Co., which action was confirmed by act of Congress May 21, 1872. The Mall was then no better than a common pasture. The railroad had taken the place of the canal, which it paralleled, and held the right to use the property by a title good in law and in equity; also by virtue of an act of Congress adopted in 1890 the railroad space had been enlarged, in consideration of the surrender of street trackage and the proposed elevation of the tracks within the city of Washington.

It so happened that the chairman of the commission, Mr. Burnham, was the architect of the new Pennsylvania Railroad Station at Pittsburgh, and he had also drawn for the Pennsylvania Railroad Co. the preliminary plans for the Baltimore & Potomac Railroad Station in Washington. After consultation, Mr. Burnham proposed to the president of the Pennsylvania Railroad Co. that the station be built on the south side of the Mall and the adjoining lands; and, while the matter received serious consideration, no action was taken. It was during the stay of the commission in London that President Cassatt announced to Mr. Burnham his willingness to consider the question, not of moving the Baltimore & Potomac Railroad Station to the south side of the Mall but of withdrawing altogether from that region and uniting with the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Co. in the erection of a union station on the site established by legislation for the new depot of that road, provided suitable legislation be secured to make compensation for the increased expense such a change would involve, and provided, also, that the approaches to the new site be made worthy of the building the railroads proposed to erect.

Subsequent examination convinced the commission that from an esthetic standpoint there were insuperable objections to the depot site provided by law; the chief objection being that were the station to front on C Street a train shed 800 feet long would be thrown across Massachusetts Avenue, one of the great thoroughfares of the city. Not only would the vista be blocked by a commercial building, but also the street would be carried underneath this enormous structure in a tunnel so long as to cause the avenue to be avoided by traffic. The commission thereupon proposed a site fronting on Massachusetts Avenue, and that was the one adopted for the Union Station. The plans called for a station 8 feet and 8 inches longer than the Capitol, the building to be of white marble, the façade Roman in style of architecture, and the construction and arrangements so planned as to make this station superior to any structure ever erected for railway purposes. Facing the Capitol, and yet not too near that building, the new station was designed to front upon a plaza 600 feet in width and 1,200 feet in length, where bodies of troops or large organizations could be formed during inaugural times or on other like occasions. Thus located and so constructed, the Union Station makes a great and impressive gateway to Washington.

In considering the views of the commission, and in reaching his decision, the president of the Pennsylvania Railroad Co. looked at the matter from the standpoint of an American citizen, saying in substance that he appreciated the fact that if Congress intended to make of the Mall what the founders of the city intended it to be, no railroad should be allowed to cross it, and that he was willing to vacate the space provided the matter could be arranged without sacrificing the interests of the stockholders of the Pennsylvania Railroad Co. This conditional consent on the part of the railroad, which was later agreed to by Congress, removed the one great obstacle to the preparation of adequate plans for the improvement of the city. Lesser obstacles, such as the lack of surveys of the oldest parks in the District and the difficulties of getting together the widely scattered data, were surmounted. On the other hand, the work was much lightened by the excellent topographical maps of the District outside of the city prepared by the Coast and Geodetic Survey.

THE CAPITOL GROUP

Naturally the plan of 1901 began at the Capitol. It was recommended that the chief legislative building of the Nation be surrounded by structures dependent on or supplementary to legislative work. The Library of Congress had been completed in 1897. The enjoyment and satisfaction taken in the Library by the thousands of persons from all parts of the country who visit it daily is an indication of the manner in which the American people regard the upbuilding of their Capital. Since the Library Building was designed we have learned lessons of subordination in grouping (as shown in the Senate and House Office Buildings and in the Union Station), and also of restraint in decoration; but the Library contains individual work of the leading painters and sculptors of its era.

The idea of office buildings for the Members of the Senate and the House of Representatives was in mind when the plan was being made, and therefore the areas these buildings would naturally occupy were marked. The three buildings were designed and constructed in such manner as to make them an integral part of the Capitol group. Simple, elegant, and dignified, the Senate and House of Representatives Office Buildings carry on the great tradition established by Washington and Jefferson in the selection of the Thornton design for the original building, and persistently maintained by President Fillmore in the extension of the Capitol by Thomas U. Walter.

By common consent the remaining space facing the Capitol on the east was assigned to a building for the Supreme Court of the United States, which since the removal of the seat of government to the District of Columbia in 1800 occupied the same building with the Congress.

On the south below the House of Representatives Office Buildings the frontage is occupied by nondescript buildings, all undignified and unsightly. The obvious use of this land is building sites and house gardens to balance Union Station Plaza on the north. This also is a project for the future.

THE HEAD OF THE MALL

The area directly west of the Capitol grounds was marked on the L’Enfant map as an open plaza, affording an approach to that building similar to the one on the east. Owing to the slow development of Washington the west front underwent various vicissitudes. The Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Co. tracks once were located about on a line with the Peace and Garfield Monuments. The Botanic Garden area was reclaimed from an alder swamp, and the James Creek Canal wound its way through it. A quarter of a century ago the House passed a bill for the removal of the Botanic Garden fence, with the view of giving the public access to that park in the same manner that other parks are open.

The plan of 1901 aimed to restore this area to its intended uses as a broad thoroughfare so enriched with parterres as to form an organic connection between the Capitol Grounds and the Mall. Anticipating the improvement of this square, named Union Square, as outlined in the plan, Congress located therein the memorial to General Grant, the base of which was designed to be used as a reviewing stand, and later a site in the same area was designated for the monument to General Meade. The Grant Memorial was completed a number of years ago, the Meade Monument is also in place, and the Botanic Garden has been relocated south of Maryland Avenue, near the Capitol. The new plan for Union Square as carried out, was made by Frederick Law Olmsted in 1935.

DEVELOPMENT OF THE MALL

That section of the Mall between Third and Four-and-a-half Streets has been laid out and planted with elms in accordance with the plan of 1901, and Congress has provided for putting in the roadways. The temporary buildings in the Mall were so located that upon removal the roadways will be in accordance with the Mall plan, and as fast as the buildings are razed the planting of trees can be made. The space between Four-and-a-half and Sixth Streets was so improved and restored during the fiscal year beginning July 1, 1921.

Congress has authorized the occupation of the north side of the Mall between Third and Seventh Streets (former site of the Pennsylvania Station) by the National Gallery of Art, designed by John Russell Pope. Plans for the building approved by the Commission of Fine Arts are classical in style of architecture.

Auditoriums, both large and small, designed for the uses of conventions, inaugural exercises, and meetings of patriotic societies are among the prime necessities of Washington. Such gathering places would meet governmental and semipublic needs and be advantageous to the growth of American feeling.

The space between Third and Seventh Streets, on the south side of the Mall is being considered for the Smithsonian Gallery of Art, authorized by Congress, to house the collections of works of art that have been given to the Nation. The planting and roadways continuous with those already in place on the Mall can then be put in.

The new National Museum Building was the first structure to be located and erected according to the plan of 1901, having been aligned in conformity to the new Mall axis. On the south side of the Mall the new Freer Gallery also conforms to the revised axis. This gallery is a constituent portion of the National Gallery of Art. It represents one of the largest gifts ever made by an individual to the Government. Although comparatively small in extent, both the building itself and the collections now being arranged within it represent the very highest standards of art. Moreover, the Freer Gallery is a type of the small, adequately housed, and well-endowed gallery which doubtless will be established from time to time by private individuals and given to the Nation to be administered by the Smithsonian Institution for the instruction and gratification of the people.

The section of the Mall between Twelfth and Fourteenth Streets is occupied by the Department of Agriculture. The location of the two wings of the building designed to accommodate the administrative offices of the department precipitated a contest, on the result of which depended the fate of the plan of 1901. It was due to the firm stand taken by President Roosevelt and Secretary of War Taft that the location was made in accordance with the plan. That crisis having been met satisfactorily, the future of the Mall scheme was assured, and since then the plan for park connection between the Capitol and the White House has become an established fact.

While L’Enfant had planned a driveway through the center of the Mall, the Mall Plan of 1901 consists of an expanse of undulating green park, a mile in length and 300 feet wide, extending from the Capitol to the Monument. This central green space is bordered by park roads, flanked by four rows of American elms, under the shade of which are walks and resting places. Back of these rows of trees are other roads furnishing access to public buildings like the National Museum, the Department of Agriculture Building, the Freer Gallery, and the National Gallery of Art, which have been located according to the plan.

RESTORING THE MALL AXIS

According to the L’Enfant plan the Monument to George Washington was to be located at the point where a line drawn due west from the center of the Capitol would intersect a line drawn due south from the center of the White House. On these axial relations the Mall composition depended for its effect. The builders of the Washington Monument, despairing of securing adequate foundations in the lowlands at the intersection of the main and the cross axes, located the Monument without regard to points fixed in the plan. Feeling the absolute necessity of restoring these relationships, the Park Commission boldly determined to create a new main axis by drawing a line from the Capitol Dome through the Washington Monument and prolonging it to the shore of the Potomac, where they proposed, on the then unimproved lands dredged from the river to form Potomac Park, a site for a new memorial. Here they placed the long-contemplated memorial to Abraham Lincoln. This they did with full comprehension of the fact that by common consent Lincoln is the one man in the history of this Nation worthy to stand with Washington in the great central composition.

The original intersection had been marked by Thomas Jefferson by a small monument known as the Jefferson Pier. In the McMillan Park Commission plan of 1901 this pier is indicated by a circular pool. That commission, as has been said, restored the cross axis of the Mall, and from the Mall plan of 1901 by actual measurement the Washington Monument is 371.6 feet east of the north and south axis of the White House, and 123.17 feet south of the Capitol axis.

EXTENDING THE MALL AXIS TO THE LINCOLN MEMORIAL

While this location of the Lincoln Memorial commended itself to men like Theodore Roosevelt, John Hay, Elihu Root, and William H. Taft, it was opposed by many others, who had regard to the immediate future and who did not consider either the historical significance of the situation or the prospective development of Potomac Park, then far from the more populous parts of the city and thus seemingly isolated and remote. The struggle over this location, and indeed over any memorial of an ideal character, was long and bitter. Nor was it ended during the lifetime of Mr. McKim and Mr. Saint-Gaudens. Happily, however, the result was determined in accordance with the commission plan, and to-day no other site seems possible. This was a distinct victory for the plan, virtually insuring the realization of the large scheme as laid out in 1901.

The Park Commission wrote as follows:

The foregoing recommendations were among the fundamentals of the plan of 1901. Ten years were required to embody them in legislation. To-day the Lincoln Memorial and the Arlington Memorial Bridge are completed along the general lines suggested.

There are many other features of the McMillan plan that the report of 1901 describes to which attention is called in the subsequent pages of this volume; thus there is the Rock Creek Parkway, the Anacostia Park development, the Fort Drive, the parkway along the Palisades of the Potomac to Great Falls, and the Mount Vernon Highway. The plans for these projects required authorization by Congress and time to make necessary land purchases; but at the present time there is indication that they will be completed in the near future. The day has come when the Greater Washington, or the metropolitan area of Washington, is being brought into the scheme of development of the National Capital.

The plan of 1901 reasserted the authority of the original plan of L’Enfant, extended to meet the needs of the Nation after a century of growth in power, wealth, and dignity, and also marked the path for future development.