for nine years after the abandonment of the Institute's botanic 

 garden in 1837 until the site for the Smithsonian Institution 

 was selected between Ninth and Tenth Streets, Southwest. 



Design of the Institute's Garden 



Still, during its early years, the Institute was able to make 

 several major improvements to the five-acre tract granted 

 by Congress. First, a board fence five feet high was erected 

 to enclose the garden, and then honey locust seeds (Gledit- 

 sia tricanthos) were purchased for planting along the inside 

 perimeter of the fence. The intention was to remove the 

 board fence after the honey locust had grown high enough 

 to create a sufficient barrier. Later, the Institute unsuccess- 

 fully sought money from Congress to erect an iron or brick 

 fence around the garden. 



Several other improvements, however, were initiated and 

 completed. The land was drained by the municipal commis- 

 sion and an elliptical pond, 144 by 100 feet, was formed with 

 an island, 114 by 85 feet, in the center. A conduit was built 

 from the pond to Tiber Creek, allowing the water to pass 

 from one to the other. Four walkways were laid inside the 

 garden, three of which were around its perimeter— one on 

 the North side, the second on the South side, and the third 

 opposite the circular road that formed the western bound- 

 ary of the Capitol grounds. All three measured 20 feet in 

 width and were bordered with beds 26 feet wide. The fourth 

 walkway, 15 feet wide, was laid through the center of the 

 garden and led to the elliptical pond. 



These improvements did not, however, meet with univer- 

 sal approval. A complaint made to the Institute by the Com- 

 missioner of Public Buildings on June 9, 1827, reflects several 

 of the problems deriving from the Institute's improvements. 

 The Commissioner contended that the improvements to the 

 garden were visually incompatible with the new section of 

 the Washington Canal that had recently been 'laid out along 

 a line drawn through the middle of the Capitol and of the 

 Mall. The foot- way, canals & plantation in the garden/' he 

 felt, "did not coincide with the line, but diverge from it at 

 an acute angle. This discrepancy [was] so glaring and so 

 offensive to the eye" that the Commissioner was convinced 

 "every person visiting the Capitol would be grateful for its 

 removal." 



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