In 1910 plans were authorized for three department buildings—Justice, Commerce and Labor, and State—to be built along Fifteenth Street, between Pennsylvania Avenue and B Street NW., now Constitution Avenue, and the land in this locality was bought by the Government, but the building project was deferred. Again, in 1913, Congress took up the question of a public-building program, and in 1917 a comprehensive survey was made by the Public Buildings Commission of the needs of the Government for additional buildings. At that time the area south of Pennsylvania Avenue along Fifteenth Street to Constitution Avenue, which in 1910 was proposed for three buildings, was designated for two buildings. Then came the World War, during which the many temporary war buildings were erected. President Coolidge in his message to Congress on December 9, 1925, called attention to the great need for public buildings and asked for an annual appropriation of $10,000,000. He said:
VIEW OF THE MALL FROM THE CAPITOL DOME, LOOKING WEST
VIEW OF THE MALL FROM THE WASHINGTON MONUMENT, LOOKING EAST
No public buildings bill has been enacted since before the war. I am not in favor of an act which would be characterized as a general parceling out of favors and that usually bears a name lacking in good repute. I am ready to approve an act similar in character to that already passed by the House, providing a lump-sum appropriation to be expended under the direction of the Treasury or any other proper authority, over a term of years, with such annual appropriation as the national finances could provide.
The public buildings act was approved May 25, 1926.
This marked the beginning of a public-buildings program in the National Capital greater than any which had been undertaken by the United States since the establishment of the seat of government along the banks of the Potomac in 1790.
Congress placed the public-buildings program in the hands of the Secretary of the Treasury, both for Federal buildings in the States and for the District of Columbia. To assist him in the plans for new public buildings here in the National Capital the Secretary of the Treasury appointed a board of architectural consultants. The Commission of Fine Arts has been called upon regularly to advise in the development of the plans for the new public buildings.
Five years had not yet elapsed when the long pent-up needs for buildings to accommodate public business finally burst their bonds in the act of 1926. The preparations for the flood had been long in the making—so long and so carefully considered, indeed, that the flood has always been under control. There has been no haphazard planning. No hasty or ill-considered work has been done. The harmonious development of the National Capital has progressed in form that would have pleased George Washington, and latterly with a speed and vigor that would have gladdened his heart.