Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1897-04-23
L'ENFANTS' GRAVE
The Unmarked Resting Place Of
Washington's Designer.
SAD STORY OF 4 STRUGGLE
Quarels With Authorities and Dis.
appointed Hopes.
A PROPOSED MON
A PROPOSED MONUMENT


The Introduction Of bill In Congress TO
appropriate $4,000 for a statue Of Pierre
Charles LEnfant, to be erected In the city
Of Washington that he designed. promises
to rescue from oblivion one of the few
men IN the history OF the world who have
had the devising OF the stage on which
the historical drama Of q nation was to
be enacted. The others who have huildetl
capital cities. bidding them rise out Of
wildernesscs. were Clovis. who chose to
create Paris ON an island OF the Seine be-
cause the river afforded protection from
the mortimer, and Charles v of Spain,
who made Madrid a court town because
Of its natural Notifications.
Pierre Charles L'Enfant fell upon demo-
cratic times and thus has the unique dis
tinction Of being the only civil engineer
and architect who has had the privilege Of
planning the seat of government of a ma
ton: q nation Of which he was no part
but In sympathy, and government from
which he received nothing bat the ingrati-
tude said to be the Characteristic of re-
publics.
The man of genius dreamed. his dream
took shape on paper in a plan which he
1ealously guarded from private exploita-
tion. The city OF his dream arose, but the
man who conceived it was forgotten.
Within the rim of the horizon that bounds
Capitol Hill. Pierre Charles LEnfant lies
under q cedar tree and blanket of fra
grant myrtle at Bladensburg, in an I'M
marked grave given by charity.
Poverty and Oblivion.
For a generation he bore with dignity,
poverty, failure and the ingratitude of q
republic he had borne arms FOR and adopt
ed as his own country: and for three-quar-
tiers Of a century oblivion in a forgotten
grave has been his fortune. Denied full
measure .of pay and appreciation in his
lifetime he scorned the pittances doied out
to him. Now at last he is to have such
recognition as his genius and public sery-
ices have deserved.
Washington was the chief actor in the
founding of the capital He had frequent
conferences with Jefferson Adams, Madi-
son and Carroll at Mt. Vernon, Montpelier
Monticello and In Philadelphia: and he had
constantly with him Pierre Charles L En-
FAINT. who had FASTENED from France to
join the engineering corps OF Washington In
the revolution, and had rendered such dis
tinguished services in Notifications that he
had been given the rank of major Of engi-
neers.
He had been educated in the best mill
tary schools of France, and beside his
genius in the field was recognized as pos
sibly the greatest architect in America.
Vast Scheme.
AS he stood on the Georgetown Heights,
or hunted alone in the fields, followed by
the dogs. or was padded by a silent Indian
on the bright bosom of the Potomac, he
saw gradually the capital city rise fairy
like on the plain. He never for an instant
contemplated a town that would serve the
needs of thirteen colonies and 3, 900 600 peo-
city. the Mecca of fifty states and 100000.
600 Inhabitants. The old palace of Yer
sailles came frequently into his thoughts,
but Versailles was built for a king, law
civ
palace, while the city of Washington was
to be the abode of'democracy. the provinces
of the government to be differentiated and
placed safely aloof. yet bound together in
all honor and with due observance. There
were no traditions to either guide or ham,
per the engineer and architect to whom the
idea was deeply imbued with ethical sig
Yet, Versailles and the forests about
Paris, where aisles and routes meet at
broad intersections, and lovely prospect
or bit of elegant or classic architecture
closes every avenue. filled his thoughts.
In its grand plan today Washington is
French, In its minor detail Quaker. ut is
Philadelphia griddled across Versailles"
OVERLAPPING of splendor with soberness-
shows how the spirit of the time, with
which l. Enfant was as much in sympathy
as Jefferson, modified the earlier concept.
SO that the capital represents the magnif-
cent daring of the revolutionists, and also
the distinctive avoidance of ostentation
that marked q people who. for the first
time in history, had declared all men free
and equal.
Confusion In the Plan.
There was a good deal Of confusion in
the plan because of the too numerous
avenues and eccentric angles. L'Enfant
tried to make 1t clear that these would
form vistas from which the public build
ings could be seen, each the center of
diverging streets; Capitol, monument.
Presidents house and other great e1iflces,
filing the eye Of the observer down which,
ever way he looked. Magnificent dis
tance'' was a favorite phrase with the
genius whose prophetic vision anticipated
q hundred years. In derfsion some already
applied the epithet 1.-The city of magnif-
cent distances to the plain from which
the fair plantations had disappeared, and
that was now disfigured with piles of stone
and mortar and the long. sloughing gashes
in the virgin turf, where cart wheels had
cut deep wounds. It took q century to
earn title which no one now imagines
was applied in a sarcastic spirit, or that 1t
served to frrftate the builder.
During the summer of 81 the plan was
adopted. the streets iettered one way and
numbered the other, and the sixteen
avenues were given the names Of the six
teen states that then ooy1ny1sod tho J-Dfor,