Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1889-09-02

| 500. In 1892 the average sal
airy paid to clerks was $500,
but about the time of the removal
to Washington there was an increase in
the scale of salaries, SO that while the
number of the clerical employees at the
seat of government was about the same
in the year 1890 as IN 1892, the total
amount paid for clerical service had in
creased by some $50 900. AT the earlier
period it was the custom to employ clerks
for portion Of the year only, which
partly accounts for the large roll and the
small expenditure as compared with that
yof the year 1900. The employees for the
first year in the new city were appor-
toned among the departments as follows:
State department, s clerks. Treasury
department, 70 clerks, divided as fol-
lows: Secretary g office, 8 clerks; con-
troIler, 10; auditor, IS; treasurer, 4;
commissioner of revenue, 8; register,
Is; superintendent of stamps, 10; mis-
celIaneous, 3. War department, u.
Navy department, l6. Postmaster-gen-
eral, 10. Total, 49,. (
THE GOVERNMENT Buildings.
The accommodations prepared for this
force of officials were two brick buildings,
each two stories high, with basement and
attic. The war Office was located south
west OF the White House and like the
treasury building, to which it was SINH
lar in design, contained thirty rooms.
Both buildings were enlarged in later
years. The treasury Office was destroyed
by fire thirty years later, but the old
war Office was only taken down a few
years ago to make room for the west
wing of that splendid pile which now
accommodates the state, war and navy
departments.
ERECTING THE DEPARTMENT BUILDINGS.
The plans of these buildings were
drawn by George Hadheld, at that time
the architect of the capitol building, and
were approved by Gen. Washington while
president. The treasury Office was begun
at once and practically completed by the
time of the removal of the government.
1t was not until 1899 that the foundations
Of the war Office were laid, and
IN consequence the building was
not prepared for the reception
of the furniture and archives Owing
TO the rather incomplete condition of
the two department buildings q large
part of the government effects was tenn
porariIy stored in the ware house,
erected by Col. Tobias Lear near the foot
of Twenty f1fth street.
The clerks, no doubt, suffered some
discomfOrts in occupying buildings where
the workmen were still engaged in COM
pletinff the construction. But they were
not alone. The president and Mrs.
Adams found the White House only par
TALLY finished, while both houses OF con-
gress were crowded into the south wing
of the capitol, which was the only part
of the bvilding then completed.
THE TREASURY BUILDING
being in more advanced state than the
building of the war office, as many of
the employees as possible were quartered1
there. The practice of renting buildings
was then begun. The war office at first
occupied n three-story house on the south
side of Pennsylvania avenue, between
Twenty first and Twenty-second streets,
nearly opposite to the hotel kept by
William O'Neale, whose daughter,
Peggy, gained much notoriety during
jackson 5 administration. In that
building was also located the general
posto1ice and the city postofice. The
occupation of this building was brief
BURNING OF TIE POsTOFFICE BUILDING.
On the night of November s ;, 1900, a
defective flue in the adjoining house
caused a fire which totally destroyed the
building and the records The war Office
building was by that time sufficiently
completed and the department. took
refuge there The rooms, however.
were shared with the officials connected
with the state and navy departments.
The general pOstoffice and the city post |
office were Plso CHARTERED in the same |
building, and the war office was |
the center of a large proportion of
the public executive business. As the |
service expanded, which it did gradually |
from the reorganization of the govern |
ment, private buildings were rented to |
supply the demand for additional rooms. |
There was much complaint about the |
scanty quarters, but it was not until |
some seventeen or eighteen years later |
that relief was afforded by the erection |
of two buildings, similar in design, di- |
rectly north of the two already erected. |
They were known as the war and state |
buildings.
STREETS THROUGH TOBACCO FIELDS.
During the nine years that had elapsed |
since the site of the new capital city had !
been selected Washington had acquired |
a population of some $500 souls. Through |
the tobacco plantations some stseets had.
been opened and the trees here and there |
had been removed. About the capitol |
the president S house, III the vicinity of |
q eeEgetowu and Greenleaf's2 Point, a I
few houses had been erected. The
of the District, IN a
communication to President Jefferson,
stated that on May 10, 1900, there was
100 brick houses in the city and 263 frame
houses. The removal of the government
had given an impetus to the building
Opertions during the following year, and
aighty-fOur brick houses and I51 frame
houses were completed. In addition the
report that there were +
seventy nine brick houses and thirtyzf1ve /
frame houses in an unfinished condition,
making a-grand total of 721 houses in the
3ity on the 10Th of November, 1901.