NOTES AND REVIEWS 
T HE people of Washington are disturbed 
and disappointed by the decision of the 
Pennsylvania and the Baltimore and Ohio 
Railroads to use “white granite” as the mate¬ 
rial of the new terminal station instead of white 
marble. That the act authorizing the build¬ 
ing contained no condition that marble should 
be used, that the district authorities never 
had a definite understanding with the rail¬ 
road company upon this point, is one of 
many instances in which the control exerted 
by local bodies over the corporations they 
present with franchises is theoretical only. 
The bill was doubtless drawn up with the 
belief that the railroad would regard the 
recommendation of white marble for future 
buildings which the Senate’s Park Com¬ 
mission made in its report upon the plan 
of the city early last year, and to which no 
dissent has been heard. 
Mr. Burnham, the architect of the new 
station, was the chairman of this commis¬ 
sion, and gave his approval to the material 
mentioned as well as to the style of the 
buildings which were to distinguish the new 
Washington. The recommendation of classic 
architecture he has followed in his design 
for the station, and it is probably no choice 
of his that granite should now be substituted 
for marble in this the building of greatest 
public importance to be erected since the 
well-known plan for the improvement of the 
city was made. Rather is it a decision of the 
railroad company whose head has lately issued 
a general order for the retrenchment of ex¬ 
penditures. A saving of $300,000, it is 
claimed, can be made by the change of 
material, and the citizens of the Capital are 
fearful lest their station should not cost so 
great a sum as the terminal bill requires 
($4,000,000), and in view of which they have 
made liberal concessions of land and money. 
While there can be little doubt that white 
marble is to be preferred for esthetic reasons 
to anv other stone, we fail to see the dis- 
astrous results of substituting a very light- 
colored and equally serviceable stone for 
it. Judging from the press of the city, 
local disappointment seems to concentrate 
upon the probability of the building fall¬ 
ing below the announced figure of cost. It 
is here that local sentiment magnifies a 
detail. To condition expense alone is but 
a crude method of authorizing a building ; 
and some day, perhaps, a better means will 
be discovered. Of far greater importance 
are the design, the practical adequacy, the ac¬ 
cessibility and the general effect of the 
building. At the hands of Mr. Burn¬ 
ham the new terminal is likely to possess all 
of these and to possess them to a degree 
never before equalled. Suppose the wall 
should not be faced with marble, that the 
building should differ by a slight change of 
tone from the Capitol or from other build¬ 
ings of the National or District Govern¬ 
ment, is it a great misfortune that the 
vestibule to the city should be a degree less 
brilliant than the polished monuments within? 
d'he station is, after all, a semi-private struc¬ 
ture; its function differs from that of others: 
why should not its material indicate this 
difference, so long as it does not produce a 
harsh contrast ? 
Vain regrets at this minor change in the 
station plans may be spared; and instead, we 
may regard the beneficent results which will 
flow from the planning of this improvement 
upon the broad scale and upon substantially 
the same site as that recommended by the 
Park Commission in 1902. It will be a 
departure from other railway terminals of the 
country, inasmuch as the surroundings have 
been considered almost to the extent of the 
building itself,—such a focus of travel re¬ 
quiring the accommodation of crowds out¬ 
side the station as well as within. The 
people of Washington are to be congratu¬ 
lated upon having for themselves and their 
visitors a station which they proudly and 
justly describe as “the greatest in the world.” 
With the completion of the work we believe 
the effect upon other cities will be marked 
and immediate. The building will truly be 
great in the scale of its accommodations ; 
3 ° 7 
