Naturally enough, therefore, the Library has grown in the last quarter of a century to be by far the largest in the country. In 1896 it contained, roughly estimated, 755,000 volumes of books, 250,000 pamphlets, 500,000 separate pieces of music, 25,000 maps, and 256,000 engravings, photographs, lithographs, etchings, photogravures, and pictorial illustrations in general.
The Old Quarters in the Capitol.—For many years the Library had been kept in the west front of the Capitol. Here there was provision for perhaps 350,000 volumes. With the great increase, the old quarters had long been utterly inadequate. The crypts in the basement of the Capitol afforded room for storage, but the hundreds of thousands of books, pieces of music, and engravings thus stored were for the most part entirely inaccessible to the student—a serious loss to the usefulness of the Library, in spite of the fact that, so far as the books were concerned, only duplicates and such volumes as were seldom called for were thus laid away. The copyright business could be kept up to date only by the greatest effort. The rooms regularly devoted to the Library were so small, and so over-crowded with books, that there was almost no opportunity for quiet study, while the ordinary official routine was carried on with the greatest difficulty and inconvenience. That the Library should be able to keep its doors open at all, much more that it should continue promptly to furnish books to applicants, was a sufficient cause for wonder.
The Agitation for a New Building.—In his report for 1872, Mr. Spofford first laid before Congress the necessity of a new building for the accommodation of the Library. It was fourteen years, however, before any decided action was taken in response to this appeal, annually repeated, and twenty-five years before the present building was finally ready for occupancy. During these fourteen years, to quote Mr. Spofford, “various schemes for continuing the Library within the Capitol were brought forward. One was to extend the west front of the edifice one hundred feet, to hold the books; another, to project the eastern front two hundred and fifty feet, thus making a conglomerate building out of what is now a purely classic edifice; a third, and more preposterous scheme, was to accommodate the Library growth within the great inner concave of the dome, which was to be literally honeycombed with books from the floor of the Rotunda to the apex: a plan which would have given space for only twelve years’ growth of the Library, besides increasing incalculably all the difficulties of its administration. Every plan for enlarging the Capitol would have provided for less than thirty years’ increase, after which Congress would be confronted with the same problem again, and forced to erect a new building after all the cost (estimated at four millions of dollars) of such enlargement. At length a commission of architects reported against disturbing the symmetry of the Capitol, and that illusive spectre was laid to rest. Then ensued difficulties and dissensions about a site, about plans, about architects, and about cost. Some wanted to save money by planting a building in the Botanic Garden, or on the Mall, sites which have been twice under water in the last twenty years, from the overflow of the Potomac River. Some wanted a plain storehouse of brick, after the model of the Pension Building, but it was wisely concluded that one such architectural monstrosity was enough for our Government.
“At length all differences between Senate and House were harmonized; the act for a separate building received over two-thirds majority in 1886; a site of ten acres was purchased on a plateau near the Capitol for $585,000; work was begun on a large scale, but cut down in 1888 to smaller dimensions, with a limitation of ultimate cost of $4,000,000; restored in 1889 to the original size, and the limitation of cost was raised to $5,500,000, in addition to sums heretofore appropriated, thus providing for an ample and thoroughly equipped edifice, with ultimate accommodations for four and one-half millions of volumes.”
THE ENTRANCE PAVILION.
THE NEW BUILDING.
The first act of Congress providing for the construction of the building was approved April 15, 1886. Its terms adopted the plan submitted by Mr. John L. Smithmeyer; created a commission consisting of the Secretary of the Interior, the Architect of the Capitol Extension, and the Librarian of Congress, to have charge of and carry forward the work; and selected the present site. The year 1886 was occupied in appraising and taking possession of the ground; the next year in clearing the site, making the principal excavation for the foundations, and laying the drainage system; and the year 1888 in laying one half of the concrete foundation footings on the plan adopted by the act above mentioned. On October 2, 1888, a new act of Congress was approved, repealing so much of the act of April 15, 1886, as provided for a commission and the construction of the building according to the plan therein specified. This act placed the work under the sole control and management of the Chief of Engineers of the Army, Brigadier-General Thomas Lincoln Casey, requiring him to report direct to Congress annually and to prepare general plans for the entire construction of the building, subject to the approval of the Secretary of War and the Secretary of the Interior, and within a total cost of $4,000,000, exclusive of appropriations previously made.
The preparation of the new design was at once entered upon, using the previous one of Mr. Smithmeyer as a basis by reducing its dimensions and otherwise considerably modifying it to bring the cost within the required limit. The new plans were completed and submitted for approval to the Secretaries on November 23, 1888, but no action was taken by them. At the same time this design, together with another modification of the original, retaining the full dimensions of the building, but modifying its ground-plan and other architectural features, within and without, in many important particulars, was placed before Congress. The cost of the building by the latter design was estimated at $6,003,140, and the time for its construction at eight years. Toward the close of the session Congress again took up the subject of plans in connection with the sundry civil appropriation bill and adopted the larger modified design by the act approved March 2, 1889, directing that the building be erected in accordance therewith, and at a total cost not to exceed $5,500,000, exclusive of appropriations previously made. The amount of the previous appropriations was $1,000,000, of which a balance of $745,567.94 remained after the expenses of operations on the old plan had all been defrayed. Thus the total limit of cost of the new plan was fixed by law at $6,245,567.94. It may be added that none of the plans, drawings, or designs made prior to General Casey’s taking charge of the work were used, all having been new and different.