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 [626] 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.