198 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1903. 



The committee decided that regularly coursed ashlar was best suited 

 to the design and would make a more substantial piece of work than 

 rubble. They also concluded that, with a doubt whether Seneca free- 

 stone did not assort even lietter with the Lombard style of architec- 

 ture adopted than marble, it was inexpedient to expend $23,000 addi- 

 tional for the latter. The bid of James Dixon & Co. (consisting of 

 James Dixon, of Washington, and Gilbert Cameron, of New York), 

 at $205,250, was therefore accepted. Mr. Dixon retired from the 

 firm on June 1, 1847. 



The contract was signed on March 19, 18-17. It included the most 

 expensive part of the furniture, such as the shelving, cases, desks, 

 drawers, and tables in the lal)oratory and apparatus room; the book- 

 cases, large tables, and alcove desks in the library; the glass cases in 

 the museum; the seats in the lecture rooms, elevators, toilet rooms, 

 rain-water cisterns; the chairs and tables in the Regents' rooms, flues 

 for heating and lighting, etc., but not the heating and lighting plant 

 nor the drainage. 



One condition of the contract was that the work should extend 

 through five 3^ears, or to March 19, 1852. It was also stipulated that 

 the building should be erected in such proportions during each year 

 as the conuuittee might direct, but so that the pa3uuents to the con- 

 tractor in each of the first four years of the contract should not exceed 

 $41,000 annually, and that the wings and connecting ranges should be 

 completed in two years from the date of the contract. 



It was subsequently appended to the contract that in case the Reg^^nts 

 should thereafter determine to make important alterations in the plan 

 of the building or in the time of its execution, the contractor was to be 

 paid pro rata according to the prices in the contract for work executed, 

 and reasonable damages if the nature of the case should justly demand it. 



The architect, James Renwick, jr., who resided in New York and 

 made approximately monthly visits to Washington, was paid at the 

 rate of $1,800 a year, with traveling expenses amounting to about $300 

 more. An assistant architect and superintendent, Mr. Robert Mills, 

 was also employed on the grounds, at $1,000 a year. 



The probable cost of the building had been estimated as follows: 



Contract for building .' $281, 000 



Fitting up and furnishing 20, 000 



Warming and lighting 5, 000 



Superintendence ($3,000 annually ) 15, 000 



Drainage 1, 350 



Supplying water to building 650 



Total 273, 000 



Owing, however, to the contract being lower than was expected, and 

 to other facts, the conuuittee judged that the expenditures for the 

 building for the five years would amount to only about $236,000. 



