REPORT OF THE ARCHITECTS FOR THE RECONSTRUCTION 

 OF THE EASTERN PORTION OF THE SMITHSONIAN IN- 

 STITUTION. 



Prof. S. F. Baird, 



Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution: 

 Sir: We have the honor to submit a report of the operations pertain- 

 ing to the fire-proof reeonstruction of the east portion of the Smithson- 

 ian building, which w as commenced in the month of April, 1883, and 

 completed during the last year. 



For a proper understanding of the conditions under which this work 

 was executed it may be well to recall a few steps in the life of the whole 

 building. 



On the 28th of January, 1847, the plans of James Renwick, esq,, of 

 New York, were adopted, bids for the completion of the whole building 

 were invited, the work awarded on the 9th of March, and the corner- 

 stone laid on the 1st of May following. Five years were stipulated for 

 the completion of the work under the building contract. 



On the 2Cth of February, 1850, the interior framing and floors of part 

 of the center building, intended to contain the museum of apparatus, 

 fell down into the basement before completion, and on July 3, 1850, a 

 committee of the Regents of the Institution reported ''that the interior 

 of the main building is defective in the kind of material originally 

 adopted and to a considerable degree in the quality of the material em- 

 ployed, which consists principally of wood. The money was mainly 

 expended upon the cut-stone work of the fronts." The committee rec- 

 ommended " that the interior of the center building be removed and 

 that a ,^re-j)roo/ structure be substituted for it." 



In January, 1853, the plans of Capt. B. S. Alexander, U. S. A., for fire- 

 proofing and finishing the interior of the center building were adopted, 

 and the author of the plans intrusted with the superintendence of this 

 work, which was commenced in June, 1853, and completed in Decem- 

 ber, 1854. It included a lecture room with unsurpassed optical and 

 acoustic properties, accommodating 1,800 persons. Unfortunately for 

 the building the term "fire-proofing" had in those days simply refer- 

 ence to floors and walls, so that the fire-proofed center building still 

 retained a combustible wooden roof, like all other public buildings 

 erected about the same time. 



A fire occurred on the 24th of January, 1865, which destroyed this 

 roof, and with it all the interior of the upper story of the main building 

 and the adjacent towers. The executive committee of the Regents re- 



