FIFTIETH CONGRESS, 1887-1889. 1233 
A. Yes, sir. The main portion of my office is in that building. 
That building and the one on New York avenue will provide entirely 
for the office. 
Q. Who owns the armory building?—A. The Government of the 
United States. 
Q. Suppose we should give up the armory building to the District 
militia or some military organization, as has been proposed, which is 
rather implied in the name, then what would be necessary for you?— 
A. It would require us to suspend our work in Washington. That is 
our great distributing station for the United States. 
Q. Do you use the whole of the building?—A. We use all of it. 
We are using now the ground floor and the third floor, but the Geolog- 
ical Survey under some arrangement is occupying a portion of the 
building. 
By Mr. Brcx: 
Q. Simply with their boxes and things as a storehouse?—A. That 
is all. 
STATEMENT OF ALBERT G. ORDWAY. 
ALBERT G. OrpDway appeared. 
By the CHarrMan: 
Q. You want the armory building surrendered to the militia of this 
District?—A. Yes, sir; it is a very plain matter, will not lead to any 
debate, and scarcely needs an argument. It is a perfectly plain prop- 
osition of law. In 1855, in the sundry civil bill, you passed an appro- 
priation directing the Secretary of War to erect a building for the care 
and preservation of the arms and accouterments belonging to the United 
States in the possession of the volunteer militia of the District of 
Columbia, the building to be used by them under such regulations as 
the President might prescribe. Under that law of 1855 and that appro- 
priation the Secretary of War erected the building on Sixth street, on 
the Mall, called the armory building. 
Q. On a Government reservation?—A. On a Government reserva- 
tion. And that building remained dedicated to the uses for which it 
- was built until after the close of the war, when the militia of the Dis- 
trict, not being organized, and the building consequently not occupied, 
at the time of the Centennial Exhibition foreign governments gave to 
our Government an enormous amount of exhibits for our National 
Museum. The National Museum building was not built, and it became 
a question what to do with them. Your committees looked about and 
found that this building was not in use, and they made an appropria- 
tion in the’sundry civil bill of 1876 appropriating a sum of money to 
fit it up and repair it for the purpose, in the language of the law, ‘‘ of 
storing the exhibits presented to the National Museum,” and then 
each year thereafter in the sundry civil bill you appropriated a sum 
H. Doc. 782——78 
