48 UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



centered over "the columns. Between the columns in the second and 

 third stories are gallery railings of ornamental cast iron, 2 feet 6 

 inches high, and standards of harmonizing detail are provided in 

 the narrow openings between the outer columns and the pilasters. 

 These railings and standards are secured to a limestone base which 

 brings their extreme height to 3 feet 6 inches and 3 feet 1 inch for 

 the second and third stories, respectively. The railings closing the 

 middle bays in the second story have a center wreath design sur- 

 rounding an eagle, the balance of the design on either side comprising 

 leaf scrolls. Except for the center, which elsewhere represents a 

 budding growth, all of the other railings are similar in design to 

 those described, and both sides of all railings and standards are 

 finished alike. 



Aside from the location, size and design of certain doors, the space 

 back of the piers and screens in the first, second and third stories is 

 almost identical in treatment and finish. In all stories there are low 

 relief panel-faced pilasters, 2 feet 10 inches wide in the first and 

 second stories and 2 feet 6 inches wide in the third story, which.occur 

 in pairs near each intersection of the outer or pavilion walls of the 

 octagonal-shaped enclosed space and are repeated on the pier walls. 

 The intersections of these walls are not such, however, in the true 

 geometrical meaning, since the two converging walls are joined by 

 a curved wall struck from a center and of greater arc than those of 

 the opposite pier walls, which are also curved. Kecalling the pilas- 

 ters, metal-furred plaster beams divide the ceiling area into a series 

 of cornice-bordered panels, rectangular in shape behind each pier 

 and screen and triangular at the intersections. Where the screens 

 occur the loAver members of these cornices are of limestone, but other- 

 wise the entire treatment is of plaster. The detail of cornices and 

 beams is not elaborate. The beam soffits in the first and second 

 stories have a sunken fret design, while those in the third story have 

 a rosette-centered sunken panel. Slightly projecting mutules with 

 decorated under sides are the only decoration other than the plain 

 moldings on the first story cornices, but in the second and third 

 stories several prominent moldings have some form of leaf decoration. 



Through the center of the curved wall surfaces openings occur in 

 all stories, two leading into each wing on the east, west and north 

 sides, and two into the rooms fianking the portico on the south. The 

 first and second story openings are 13 feet high and 6 feet 41 inches 

 wide, while those in the third story are 10 feet 6 inches high by 6 

 feet 8 inches wide. In the second and third stories these are the 

 only means of direct access from the pavilion to the wings, but in 

 the first story an additional opening into each wing, 14 feet 5 inches 

 high by 9 feet | inches wide, is provided on the common axis of the 

 pavilion, and above it, in the second story, is a balcony opening into 



