Evening star., 1897-02-09
GOVERNM ENT BUILDINGS
An Explanation Of How the Treasury Does
the Work.
Supervising Architect Afken's De-
scriptiOn of the Office He
Now Fills.

From VIM. NJ. Aiken in the Engineering Magazine
1t has been constantly asked why this
bureau of construction should be branch
of the Treasury Department. 1t should be
remembered that cur country has not al
ways been so large, SO densely populated,
OR so well acquainted with its own re-
sources. IS 1t now is. When, in 1853, Sec
retary Guthrie undertook to organize such
a bureau and made application to the
Secretary of War 'for a scientific and
practical engineer" to Capt. Alexander H.
Bowman of the engineer corps of the army
was fntrusted the duty, of providing for
the repair and preservation of twenty
three buildings belonging to the govern
ment and of supervising the designing
and construction of fifteen more for which
congress had made appropriations. where
as at present 316 buildings completed and
occupied. are in charge of the supervising
architect, to say nothing of sixty-six more,
the construction of which has been order
ed by Congress. In those days the duties
were confined mainly to the making of
plans and estimates for custom houses,
mints and marine hospitals, and the gen
eral superintendence of their construction.
Since custom houses were intended for the
use of collectors of the government in
ccme, and mints for the coinage of cur
rency it was but natural that the Sec
retary of the Treasury should control their
erection. By degrees the construction of
appraisers stores, post offices, court houses
and quarantine stations have been added
to the duties of this Office. In 1863 the an
nual report was made by Mr. Isaiah
Rogers, who seems to have been the first
officer to subscribe himself as supervising
architect" and who previously had been
employed to design the custom house at
Boston and certain other government build
ings.
The incumbents of the office up to the
present time have been the following:
Isaiah Rogers, appointed June 10. 1863: A.
B. Young. appointed 1865; A. B. Mullett.
appointed May -. 1866; VIM. A. Potter. ap-
pointed January 20. 1875: James G. Hill,
appointed August II. 1876: NJ. E. Bell, ap-
pointed November 10, 1888; Will A. Freret.
appointed July 81, 1887; James H. windrim.
appointed March 2S, 1889; W. j. Edbrooke,
appointed April 20. 1891; jeremiah
O'Rourke, appointed April 20. 1893.
The initial movement toward the erection
of government building is the framing of
a bill by one or more members of Congress
from that section of the country in which
the proposed building is to be located
which bill is formulated upon information
received from officials of the various de-
partments contemplating the occupation of
such building. together with the approxi
mate estimate of cost furnished by the
supervising architect This bill then under
goes the scrutiny of the committee of pub
lie buildings and grounds. as well as that
of the appropriation committee of both
houses, after which. to become law, it
hhuSl receive tle approval oI the PRESIDENT
A portion of the appropriation is set aside
for the purchase of the site, and. after Il
has been purchased. and the title has been
approved by the Department of Justice,
and the property rights have been vested
in the government. the preliminary draw
ings and estimate are prepared f.r the sig
nature of the Secretary of the Treasury.
Postmaster General and Secretary of the
Interior, whose approval is required by
law before any working drawings can be
made. The supervising architect has, in
the meantime. visited the site in order that
the design may conform as accurately as
possible to the requirements of the pur
poses for which the building is intended
end that the environment may be- given
proper consideration. The influences which
now chiefly affect the character of the de-
sign proceed from causes climatic, geolog-
ical and Observation-Disclosures which have
always existed between local conditions
and logical design even from prehistoric
ages and in every part of the world.