238 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1903. 



directly for the Ai'inorv building. It bccuino more extensively used 

 1)3" the Fish Commission, the Museum retaining only a few workshops 

 and some storage quarters on the third floor. The expenses of main- 

 tenance and repair were paid by the C-ommission. In 18SS the newly 

 appointed Fish Commissioner recjuested that the entire building be 

 turned over to the Fish Commission for othce and hatchery purposes. 

 Opposition arising, however, the matter was settled for the time ])y 

 the following item in the sundry- civil act for 1889: 



That the building known as tlie Armory building, Washington, D. C, whall be 

 occupied as at present, jointly by the United States Commission of Fish and Fish- 

 eries and the National Museum. 



The act for 1890, however, wdiich is as follows, extended the privi- 

 leges of the Fish Commission: 



Fish Commission: For altering and fitting up the interior of the Armory building, 

 on the Mall, city of AVashington, now occujiied as a hatching station, for the accom- 

 modation of the offices of the United States Fish Commission, and for general repairs 

 to said building, including the heating apparatus, and for repairing and extending 

 the outbuildings, $7,000, or so much thereof as may be necessary, th<i same to be 

 innnediately available and to be expended under the direction of the Architect of 

 the Capitol; and for the purpose above named the Secretary of the Smithsonian 

 Institution is hereby required to move from the second and third stories of this 

 building all properties, except such as are connected with the workshops hereinafter 

 named, under his control; and the workshops now in the second story of said build- 

 ing shall be transferred to and provided for in the third storj^ thereof. And the 

 Architect of the Capitol is hereby directed to examine and make rejiort to Congress 

 at its next regular session as to the practicability and cost of constructing a basement 

 story under the National Museum building. 



In his report upon the National Museum for 1890, Doctor Goode 

 states that — 



In the Armory building there are at the present time several hundreds of boxes 

 containing valuable material which has never been unpacked, since there is no 

 space available for the display of the specimens. Many of the boxes contain collec- 

 tions which were brought to the Museum through the medium of special acts of 

 Congress. 



Realizing, however, the inconvenience to the Fish Commission of 

 retaining these undesirable features in the midst of the ofiice quarters 

 then in course of construction, a compromise was ettected where))}' the 

 balance of the material in storage was transferred to a large adjacent 

 shed erected by the Commission and the workshops to a location near 

 the Museum. Some parts of these sheds are still used for the same 

 purpose. 



THE MUSEUM BUILDING. 



HISTORICAL ACCOUNT. 



At the beginning of 1S7T the Board of Regents made its first request 

 to Congress for means to erect a museum building supplemental to 

 the Smithsonian building, which for over twenty years had housed the 



