Tin-: xATiox's capital 



735 



the great idea which the first President 

 had when he urged that a university 

 should be estabhshetl in this city, which 

 was the darhng thought and hope of his 

 old age. 



WHAT STILL .\i:i:l)s to niv doxk 



I have been invited by some of you to 

 make a few suggestions as to some of 

 the things that may be considered with a 

 view to the beautification of Washington 

 and the turnin.g of its natural advantages 

 to the best account. 



It is hardly necessary to observe that 

 there ought to be some method of secur- 

 ing a measure of symmetry and harmony 

 in buildings. The public buildings to be 

 erected should not be planted haphazard. 

 Each building ought to be placed with 

 some reference to the others, so that they 

 will form, if possible, a group together, 

 and all go to make up a good general 

 effect. 



In the same way. when laying out the 

 streets, it is proper to consider the lines 

 on which the streets may best be planned, 

 so as to give the best scenic effect and so 

 as to open up the best vistas. It is well 

 to make some streets unusually wide, like 

 1 6th street, and to turn them in such a 

 way that they shall give the best north- 

 western and western evening lights, and, 

 if possible, a little piece of landscape ef- 

 fect at the end. Xothing is more charm- 

 ing than to see a bit of green landscape — 

 trees or a grassy slope — at the end of a 

 long street vista. There are some streets 

 in the growing parts of Washington 

 Avhere that can be usefully done. 



ODDITV r.ETTER THAX MOXOTOXV 



I am far from suggesting that you 

 should try to attain uniformity in your 

 buildings, because uniformity usually ends 

 in monotony. That can be seen in the 

 buildings of Paris. When the city was 

 largely rebuilt b\' TIaussman in Louis 

 Napoleon's day, that error was commit- 

 ted. While many of the boulevards of 

 that time are very handsome, one gets 

 tired of the repetition of the same de- 

 signs and structure over and over again. 



There is no doubt something almost 

 grotesque in the manner in which private 

 houses are placed side by side here in 



Washington — a large and handsome edi- 

 fice, perhaps in the .style of a French cha- 

 teau, by the side of a mean little building 

 of brick, or perhaps even of a wooden 

 shack. .\ piece of castellated Roman- 

 esque in granite looks od<l beside a colo- 

 nial hou.se in brick or stucco. Yet even 

 this oddity is a better plan than the mo- 

 notony of modern Paris or the far duller 

 monotony of llarley street or Gower 

 street in London. 



When considering the beautifying of 

 streets, something should be done to take 

 into account the possibilities in the little 

 open-space triangles that you have here 

 in Washington at the intersection of 

 streets and avenues. They are very 

 pleasant places in the summer because 

 they are green ; but surely more might be 

 made in a decorative way of them. You 

 need not perhaps put up any more stat- 

 ues, but treat these corners in some orna- 

 mental fashion, so as to give them a 

 greater landscape value than they have 

 at present. 



Questions relating to the river and the 

 Potomac Park constitute a very large 

 subject. You have, since the low ground 

 along the Potomac has been reclaimed, a 

 magnificent open sj^ace, and you have 

 running through it and s|)read out below 

 it on both sides of the island a magnifi- 

 cent expanse of water that is perhaps the 

 strongest feature in Washington itself 

 for scenic purposes Csee page 720). 



Much thouglit ought to be given to the 

 treatment of Potomac Park, on this side 

 the river, and possibly to the ground on 

 the other side also, if you ever gain 

 power to control the other side, so as to 

 ])roduce the best .scenic efiects. 



I do not know whether any of yon 

 have been in Calcutta, but if so you will 

 remember the only fine feature of that 

 rather uninteresting city is the broad 

 river and the very large, open grassy 

 ])ark which is called the Maidan. whicli 

 borders on it. The river Llooghly and 

 the Maidan redeem Calcutta. This park 

 is a sort t»f huge Maidan for Washing- 

 ton. Ought not pains to be taken tt) 

 plant groups of trees, some large groups 

 and more small groups, so as to give fine 

 combinations? One day these will grow 

 to the size of old forest trc('< rmd the 



