A manual on the origin and development of Washington

by H. Paul Caemmerer

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.

UNION SQUARE, PLAN OF 1901

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.