248 The Smithsonian Institution 



eration. This site was the one which was designated by 

 Washington for the National University, and reserved for that 

 purpose upon the original plan of the city. It was subse- 

 quently used for the purpose Mr. Adams had in mind, 

 namely, as the site of the United States Naval Observatory, 

 a building for which was erected upon it in i843-'44, and 

 occupied until 1893, when a group of finer structures were 

 built upon Georgetown Heights. 



In another bill, introduced by Lewis F. Linn into the Sen- 

 ate February 10, 1841, the whole of the tract known as the 

 Mall was appropriated for the uses of the Smithsonian Insti- 

 tution, with the provision that the buildings should be 

 erected in accordance with the plans prepared by and under 

 the supervision of the National Institution, to be approved by 

 the President of the United States. 



In bills introduced into the Senate in June and December, 

 1844, by tne Library committee, Rufus Choate, Benjamin 

 Tappan, and James McP. Berrien, appeared the first defi- 

 nite characterization of the building, which was to be plain 

 and durable, without unnecessary ornament, and to contain 

 provisions for cabinets of natural history and geology, and 

 for a library, a chemical laboratory, and lecture-rooms. This 

 building was to be placed upon a site to be selected in that 

 portion of the Mall lying west of Seventh Street. The cost 

 was at that time limited to eighty thousand dollars. In 1846, 

 however, the bill of Doctor Robert Dale Owen, without 

 change of phraseology from those which had preceded it 

 in regard to location and character of the structure, was 

 adopted, but the limit of the cost was increased, and $242,- 

 129, the exact amount of the Smithsonian interest which had 

 at that time accrued, " together with any additional interest 

 which might remain after paying the current expenses of the 

 succeeding years," was designated for that purpose. 



