250 The Smithsonian Institution 



vacant, this site was regarded as much more accessible 

 than the Mall. 



A proposition was submitted to the Common Council of 

 the City of Washington, that the site of the City Hall should 

 be resigned for the use of the Smithsonian Institution upon 

 its offering to pay to the city $50,000, a sum deemed suffi- 

 cient to erect a building for the use of the city government 

 upon the site south of Pennsylvania Avenue, between Sev- 

 enth and Ninth streets, now occupied by the Center Market. 

 A bill was introduced into Congress, authorizing the Regents 

 to purchase the City Hall, but the Common Council refused 

 to consider the proposition, and the site of the Mall was 

 used. 



From the very beginning Doctor Owen was the chief ad- 

 vocate of a large and showy building. In this matter he was 

 supported by the sympathy of the people of Washington, 

 and especially Mr. William W. Seaton, Mayor of the city and 

 one of the Regents, whose interest in the realization of the 

 plan of Smithson undoubtedly did much at last to secure 

 action from Congress. Outside of Washington, there was 

 much opposition to an expensive building, owing partly to 

 the manner in which the bequest of Stephen Girard had 

 been rendered for many years inoperative by the action of its 

 trustees. 



Doctor Owen himself was earnest in his denunciation of 

 such abuses. " Of the noble Girard fund," said he, " three 

 quarters of a million of dollars are lost forever, and though 

 half a generation has passed away since the eccentric Phila- 

 delphian died, not one child has yet reaped the benefit of his 

 munificent bequest. A temple has, indeed, arisen that out- 

 shines Greece and her Parthenon ; its sumptuous Corinthian 

 pillars, each one costing a sum that would have endowed a 

 professorship, are the admiration of beholders and the boast 



