594 REPORTS OF THE BUILDING COMMITTEE. 



Corner-stone $9 00 



Superintendence, including incidentals therewith connected, and allow- 

 ance to architect for original plaus 2,773 67 



Total to 1st December, 1847 $25,002 67 



The committee has made a careful estimate of the probable expenditure for the 

 building and lot, all incidentals included, from the 1st December, 1847, to the 19th 

 March, 1848, being the end of the first year of the building contract, and set it down 

 at $10,467.50, thus: 



Payments to contractor, about $9,500 00 



Superintendence and contingencies, about 967 50 



Total from 1st December, 1847, to 19th March, 1848, about $10,467 50 



These two sums added together will give the total amount expended and to be 

 expended for the above objects, from the commencement of operations to the end of 

 one year from the date of the contract, about $35,470.17. 



It will be observed that the amount paid and to be paid to the contractor within 

 that year, will be less than thirty-one thousand dollars ; that is, upwards of ten thou- 

 sand dollars less than the annual payments to which, by the contract, the contractor 

 is restricted. 



The item of superintendence, with its incidentals, is a considerable one. It is 

 larger this first year than it will be in any subsequent one : first, because of an allow- 

 ance of about two months' salary to the architect, not in payment of his design, but 

 to repay the actual expenses incurred during these two months and previously, in the 

 mechanical execution of plans and sections of the building, including those which 

 embodied the modifications of the original design suggested by the committee- 

 appointed on the 9th September, 1846, and subsequently adopted by the Board ; and, 

 secondly, because it was necessary to engage the services of the architect and super- 

 intendent about a month before the actual signature of the contract. 



The annual expense of superintendence is necessarily increased by the circumstance- 

 that the architect does not reside in Washington. The committee could not afford to 

 offer him a salary which might have induced him to abandon his New York business^ 

 and as in consequence he could be present during a portion of his time only in this 

 city, the alternative was presented to them either to leave the work, during his- 

 absence, under the control of the contractor, trusting wholly to his judgment and to- 

 his scrupulous observance of the contract, or to engage the services of a superin- 

 tendent who might be always on the spot, to see that no faulty materials nor insuffi- 

 cient work was admitted into any portion of the structure. They considered this 

 latter the more prudent course, and engaged as superintendent a gentleman of much 

 experience as an architect and builder, at a salary of $1,000 a year. To the principal 

 architect they gave eighteen hundred a year and his traveling expenses — which, as 

 he usually passes between New York and Washington once a month, amount to 

 about three hundred a year — together with actual expenses for stationery, being from 

 fifty to a hundred dollars annually. 



In connection with this item of superintendence, the committee remark, that the 

 labor and expense of preparing working plans in a style so novel as the Lombard, 

 and for a design so irregular as that which has been adopted, are very much greater 

 than if the style were one common in this country, or the design characterized by 

 greater regularity. 



The expenses necessarily incurred by the Building Committee — which, however, 

 are small, as one member only of that committee is a non-resident of Washington — 

 are not included as part of the expense of the building ; both because a considerable- 

 portion of their attention was directed to objects other than the building, hereafter 

 to be mentioned, and with which they were charged by the Board, and also because 

 they consider the information embodied in their journal, herewith submitted and in 

 this report, to be more than an equivalent, in its value to the public, for the small 

 sum to which their expenses amount. 



In regard to the probable expense of completing the building, including its fitting 

 up and furnishing, its lighting, heating, drainage, &c, the laying out, planting, and 

 permanent fencing of the lot, and all other expenses therewith properly connected, 

 as compared with appropriations heretofore made for these objects, the committee- 

 report as follows : 



