Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-11-03
BEAUTIES OF WASHINGTON.
ChnnEes and improvements That Are Making
the National Capital the Handsomest
City in the WOrId-An Era of Progress
Streets and Suburbs Trausformed.

WASHINGTON, November I-Resdents and
visitors are forever singing the praises OF
Washington as the most beautiful city in the
woIld-something of an oVergrown village, to be
| sure, but still the most beautiful-and yet few,
even of the residents, appreciate the vast work
that is being done constantly to enhance the
| beauty of the place, and what must unavoidably
be done in that direction in the near future.
Those who call Washington beautiful now will
have no adjective to express their admiration
| 10 or 20 years from now. It does not require the
| inspiration of the prophet to foretell what Is
| going to happen in this instance.
Washington is beautiful now in its broad
| streets and avenues lined with trees: parks in
| front of nearly all the residences planted with
flowers and vines and shrubbery; the houses
| various in their architecture; the great masses
! of public buildings seen from distance giving
/ the eye q sense of the grandeur that is en-
bodied in all pOnderous things except ponder
! Gus intellects; the whole relieved by fine church
| towers. the shaft Of the monument. the dome
| of the Capitol-and with all this, the admira-
BILE expanse of landscape, the view down and
| up the river from the score of surrounding
| htlls-al combining to make up a very lovely
| spot This landscape never will change except
| for the worse, through the pulling down and
building up by the tireless real estate specula-
ful outlines, but reduces every thought and
action to the level of dollars and cents.
Some Recent improvements.
The material improvements in progress in
Washington at this time would do credit TO the
richest and most rapidly advancing city of the
country-Pittsburg, for instance. Whole blocks
of vacant land are suddenly built up with fine
residences. On block lying above @ street.
between Seventeenth and Eighteenth, there is
now being finished row of upward of 40
dwellings, costing from $1,000 to $4,000 each,
some with mixed stone and brick fronts, some
all brick, some all stone, each having its own
design and its own individuality, ana alto
gether one of the most attractive rrows'' Of
the city. Thus whole blocks are being i'm
proved at once, and what was desert is
transformed in night SO that it blossoms like
the rose. The same thing on lesser scale is
going on in every part of the city. Fine man
sions are everywhere springing up in the midst
OF the cottages and novels Of the poorer class,
uprooting the latter and driving their occu-
pants from these streets destined for the
abodes of the comfortable and rich to more alb
scure corners
This is the present blight of Washington
that fine dwellings are necessarily intermixed
with miserable novels, destroying the harmony
OF the streets. contrasting expensive artificial
1ty with primeval simplicity, derracting from
art on the one hand and DESTROYING the pictur-
sequences chat Is found in decay and simplicity
on the other. Such Is the unavoidable condi-
tlon at some stage Of the growth of all new
cites. Of course this is changing every day.
Each year whole streets are transformed, and
1t will be but few years before all of the prin-
clpal streets OF the city viii be built up with
1ous and yet various.
Additions to Public Buildings.
In the matter of public buildings there must
be vast change within 10 or ID years. Not
withstanding the recent additions, and the new
building of the War State and Navy Depart
ments, every department is crowded for room,
and Is spread out in private edidces all over the
city. There is hardly single department
which will not of necessity have double its
present space within the next 20 years. A new
postofice and other district buildings are
greatly needed at this time and will probably
be provided for in the appropriation bills of the
next Congress. The construction of these
has been deferred for SO long that when they
are built they will doubtless be designed with a
view to the growth of the city and the public
business for a century to come, and will, there
fore, be on grand scale.
Congressman can see now what the city il
destined TO be and can provide for the future.
They no longer look on the national capital as
a town which will always have the likeness of
a country village set in the mud. The build
ing for the National Library now in course of
erection, will be one of the finest library piles
of the world, and will make the Capitol look
less lonely in its sky-piercing glory.
New Parks and the 800.
AS to parks, the whole country has heard
time and again of what is contemplated in that
line. The Geological Gardens are already pro-
vided for. The land has been surveyed and
practically purchased and, within year the
most beautiful part of Rock Creek valley will
be peopled with specimens of every kind of
animal known to America, and as time passes,
with those of the whole world. The remainder
of the valley of Rock creek will undoubtedly
soon be purchased and devoted to a public
park, and doubtless also that part of the valley
OF the Potomac lying between Washington and
the Great Falls including some of the most re-
mantle scenery of the East, and at the Falls
one of the most extraordinary geological for
nations to be found outside OF the valley Of the
Yellowstone.
From the city to this spot grand boulevard
will be constructed similar to that one soon to
be made extending from Arlington to Mount
btehg Avs of the world riyaIlinS in bea1rv the
famous Champs Elysees, and far exceeding
that boulevard in the beauty of its scenery.
Advance in Real Estate Prices.
It is sure sign of rapidity of growth and
prospective greatness Of population when the
people of city begin to reach out to the
suburbs, and this Is being done in Washington 4
as in few cities Of the country. Outside the
city to the north for miles hills are being cut |
down and valleys filed up. Streets are being
extended out from the city, with paving and
sidewalks. Syndicates, Notwithstanding the |
of crash IN the price of real estate, |
90 on spending tens and scores of thousands Of |
dollars in cutting streets and grading and paw |
ing. Nine miles out in the country land Is SELL
ing, not by the acre, but by the square foot.
Poor men, or those who were poor few |
years ago, have recently sold little farms on |
which they had starved for long years. not |
knowing how to make out of them the fortune |
that lay in garden farming, Tor thousands OF |
dollars per acre and are now rich and spending |
their money as people always do who have no |
idea of the value OF money.
Growth of the suburbs.
To reach these suburban places electric rail- |
roads are being built One reaching four miles |
out to Brightwood, close to one of the most |
beautiful spots on Rock creek, is already |
finished and in operation, temporarily with |
horses. One is in operation on New York
avenue, to lexington, directly north Of the
Capitol, and will shortly be running cars to the
northeast entrance to the Soldiers Home and
the new Catholic University. In the suburb of |
lexington asphalt streets have been laid |
beautiful cottages are springing up. and lots
are selling as high as in some Of the desirable
quarters of the city.
Old Georeetown is also being walked up by /
the construction of an electric railroad. 1t is
to extend to Tenleytown. and on its route are
to be had some of the most beautiful views of
the city and the Lower Potomac as far as
Mount Vernon. A short distance from the
house Of the late President Cleveland
the road will intersect with the extension Of
years will have all the aristocratic air of
Piccadilly and Hyde Park.
Street and Steam Railways.
Within the city the smooth asphalt paving is
being extended as fast as discretion win per-
nit. Pennsylvania avenue has recently been
and is now as smooth as floor.
At the same time the street car tracks have
been improved with the best available rails.
and the Seventh street line is almost ready to
exchange its poor horses for the latest form of
the cable road It is intended within the near
futura m change all the horse railroads TO
electric or cable lines.