12 UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



frame brick-and-terra-cotta building, to cost not exceeding one million five 

 hundred thousand dollars, for the United States National Museum, to be erected 

 when appropriated for, on the Mall, between Ninth and Twelfth streets west, 

 said plans when completed to be transmitted by the Secretary of the Smith- 

 sonian Institution to Congress, five thousand dollars. 



From the detailed inquiries which were at once instituted it was 

 shown that a building of adequate dimensions, even though con- 

 structed of brick and terra cotta, could not be erected for the sum 

 stated, at least twice that amount being, in fact, required. The 

 architects were, therefore, instructed to design a building of the full 

 size needed, of which approximately one-half could be erected sepa- 

 rately in a manner to permit of subsequent additions, and to prepare 

 two sets of plans, one representing the entire building, the other such 

 part of it as could be completed within the limit of cost prescribed 

 by the act. This was done and the two sets of plans were designated 

 by the letters "A" and " B," respectively. 



These plans, together with an explanatory report, were submitted 

 to Congress on January 23, 1903, accompanied by the following reso- 

 lution by a special committee of six members of the Board of Regents 

 appointed "to represent to Congress the pressing necessity of addi- 

 tional room for the proper exhibition of specimens belonging to the 

 National Museum " : 



That under the limitations of the law the committee hereby report to Con- 

 gress Plan B for a new National Museum building as the best obtainable for 

 the amount mentioned ; but, in the judgment of the committee, the larger plan, 

 A, is believed to be the one which should be adopted, and we therefore ask that 

 Congress shall make the appropriation for it instead of for the smaller plan. 



In the hearings before the House and Senate committees on appro- 

 priations, which were held soon afterwards, the larger building was 

 urged as a requirement of existing conditions, and also the use of 

 stone instead of brick and terra cotta for the outer walls, on account 

 of the conspicuous position to be occupied by the building in one of 

 the Government parks. Both of these requests were granted, and the 

 sundry civil act for the year ending June 30, 1904, contained the 

 following item : 



To enable the Regents of the Smithsonian Institution to commence the erec- 

 tion of a suitable fireproof building with granite fronts, for the use of the Na- 

 tional Museum, to be erected on the north side of the Mall, between Ninth and 

 Twelfth streets, northwest, substantially in accordance with the Plan A, pre- 

 pared and submitted to Congress by the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institu- 

 tion under the provisions of the act approved June twenty-eighth, nineteen 

 hundred and two, two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Said building com- 

 plete, including heating and ventilating apparatus and elevators, shall cost not 

 to exceed three million five hundred thousand dollars, and a contract or con- 

 tracts for its completion is hereby authorized to be entered into subject to ap- 

 propriations to be made by Congress. The construction shall be in charge of 

 Bernard R. Green, Superintendent of Buildings and Grounds, Library of Con- 

 gress, who shall make the contracts herein authorized and disburse all appro- 

 priations made for the work, and shall receive as full compensation for Ms 



