PROMOTION OF ARTS AND SCIENCES. 25 



That the Institute having understood that among the public property in the 

 City of Washington there is a reservation of more than twenty acres, situated 

 at or about the junction of the Capitol park and the extension of the President's 

 square, which have not been appropriated ; and being desirous of erecting 

 a hall and such buildings as might be hereafter extended for its accommodation, 

 and of forming and cultivating a botanic garden; and believing that the 

 western part of the aforesaid reservation would, for that purpose, be highly 

 advantageous to the Institute, whose object and labors are intended solely for 

 the public good, by the advancement of the sciences and learning, and would 

 also lend to the furtherance of the views of the founder of this Metropolis : — 

 The Institute, therefore, solicits that authority may be given to the President 

 of the United States to invest it with as much of the said reservation (or if 

 that should not be judged expedient, of some other public ground in the City 

 of Washington) not exceeding five acres, as by him shall be deemed proper, as 

 best adapted to the purposes of the Institute, and to the intention of the Govern- 

 ment for the improvement of the Capital of this extensive empire. 



February 21, 1820, a committee was designated to confer with the 

 committees of Congress on the District of Columbia for the purpose 

 of obtaining that the Mall shall be placed in the occupancy and 

 under the superintendence of the Institute, in order that such part 

 as may be proper may be applied to the promotion of the objects of 

 the Institute, and the whole improved for the convenience and orna- 

 ment of the city. The president also communicated a correspond- 

 ence between himself and the chairman of one of the committees 

 on the District respecting a bill for the grant of five acres of land. 

 The above-named committee of the Institute reported on May 1 

 that a bill favorable to the Institute had passed the House of Rep- 

 resentatives and was then before the Senate. This measure, which 

 permitted the use of five acres of ground for a botanical garden, 

 received the approval of the President of the United States on May 

 8, 1820, and on May 23, being accepted by the Institute under the 

 conditions named, 



The committee to whom was submitted the selection of a piece of ground 

 for the use of the Institute report the square to the north of 406 and 430 as 

 the most eligible in their opinion for this purpose, as it is the most central 

 square in the city that can conveniently be had, lying in a very fine command- 

 ing situation and capable of being watered from some natural springs so much 

 above it that the water, at a trivial expense, may be carried two feet above the 

 highest part of the square, six feet above the middle of the square, and twenty 

 feet above the lowest part. This square contains 4-1/8 acres of land. 1 



It was resolved on May 25, however, that the location of the five 

 acres be made on the reservation at the east end of the Mall, between 

 the Capitol and the canal, and between Pennsylvania and Mary- 

 land Avenues. A committee to wait on the President of the United 



^his is the double square bounded by Seventh, Ninth, F and G Streets, 

 northwest, subsequently occupied by the building of the Department of the 

 Interior, 



