Plan of shops on the ground 

 floor, east unng of main builditig, 

 from United States National 

 Museum Bulletin 80 (1913). 

 This was drawn before the ice- 

 making plant was installed. 



the preservation of collections, and was operated for 

 decades. The Annual Report of the Smithsonian Insti- 

 tution dutif ully recorded that in f iscal year 1947, 186.7 

 tons of ice were produced at a cost, apart from labor, 

 oi $1.16 per ton. After this entry, all the shops dis- 

 appeared from the official records, and except for the 

 opening of exhibit halls or major construction, the 

 building is no longer mentioned. The ice plant func- 

 ti(Mied at least until 1948, but was gone by the early 

 1950s. Ice was stored in tw(j rooms behind the rotunda 

 so that a wagon could drive into the tunnel and be 

 loade{l with ic e foi the other buildings. G. Arthur Cooper 

 recalls the pitchers of ice he used to keep photographic 

 solutions cool in the sweatbox of a darkroom in the 

 corner of his office. For a time bottled water in iced 

 coolers was provided for the staff cfuring the awful 

 Washington summers. 



Maintenance 



Contractors before World War I were no dif f erent from 

 those of today in leaving problems behind. Consider 

 this, for a building five years old: "Serious leaks in the 

 upper story of the building were traced to and neces- 

 sitated the repointing of joints in the three courses of 

 stone adjoining the roofs in the west court, and also in 

 the outer stonework of the west range above the main 

 cornice. The exterior metal framework and sills of all 

 the first and second story windows in the courts were 

 painted, as were the walls of the auditorium which had 

 become defaced through the seepage of moisture. For 

 the protection of floors showing wear, a part of the 

 wood surface in the corridors of the third story was 

 covered with a preparation of cork, while all of the 

 cement paving in the corridors in the ground floor was 

 treated with cement paint."' 



All this maintenance work was done by workers in 

 the shops. While old-timers of the scientific staff think 



fondly of the days when the ground floor took care of 

 everything from heat to ice, a look at salaries provides 

 a rather jarring trip down memory lane. In 1918 the 

 head of the paint shop got ninety-five dollars a month 

 (fifty-five cents an hour), and the painters made three 

 dollars and seventy cents per day. In the sheet-metal 

 shop, two men made eighty-five dollars a month, one 

 was paid sixty dollars, and another was paid fifty dol- 

 lars. To give the wages of the plumbers at that time 

 would bring tears to the eyes of any present-day home 

 owner. In 1927 the Annual Report noted the great rate 

 of turnover of labor, especially among the temporary 

 help, who got the lowest pay and no leave. 



Like everything else in the building, the shops have 

 changed their locations. The carpentry shop is the last 

 remnant of the old days, both in appearance and lo- 

 cation, occupying much of the south side of the east 

 wing in the main building. The sheet-metal and awning 

 shops at the west end of the carpentry shop have gone, 

 the awning shop falling victim to air conditioning and 

 the sheet-metal work moving into the new east wing. 

 The paint shop at the east end of the main building 

 also moved to the east wing, and its former place was 

 decked over for offices and locker rooms. Old-time 

 cabinetmakers like Mr. Becker and Mr. Fischer are long 

 gone, and their descendants are now in the exhibits 

 shops. The area where the plumbing and mechanical 

 shops once were has been decked over, mainly for of- 

 fices. On the east end of the main building, where the 

 electrical shop used to be, are more double-decker of- 

 fices. The old furnace room now houses the saws used 

 to section large meteorites and rocks, creating a new 

 job for the chain hoist that was originally installed to 

 move carloads of clinkers and ash. 



On the courtyard side, an office now occupied by 

 Buildings Maintenance was a supply room undl the 

 early 1960s. Clayton Ray, a vertebrate paleontologist, 



160 



The Museum 



