Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1897-07-01
CITY POST OFFICE WORK.
Temporarily Suspended Pending De-
cision of Certain Questions.

A portion of the work on the Washington
city post office building has been tenn
pCrarily suspended pending the determi
nation of the question as to what changes
are necessary in the interior construction of
the building in order TO accommodate the
general Post Office Department.
Congress, at its present session, provided
that the general Post Office Department
should be transferred to the building erect
ed primarily for the city post office, in or
Ger to allow of the occupancy of the gen.
eral post office building by some of the
bureaus of the Interior Department. Mr..
SImonson of the supervising architects Of
flee is now in consultation with a commit
tee, of which Mr.. Wheeler is chairman
representing the general post office as to
what changes, if any, needed to make
the building suitable for the use of the Post
olfice Department. The resumption of
work and the length of time it will take TO
complete the building will depend alto
gether upon the character and extent of
the changes desired by the Postmaster
General. The officials of the Treasury De
partment say that they are unable to pro-
cced rapidly with the work, under existing
conditions.
The main question to be determined is
whether the building shall be completed
under the original plans or whether the re-
vised plans of Supervising Architect Aiken
shall be adopted. The latter plans contem-
plate the making of about sixty additional
rooms. and We're based OH the idea of pro-
vdinS accommodations for several out
lying offices Of the Treasury Department
now occupying rented quarters. The
changes in these plans apply only TO the
six upper stories. The basement, first iioor
and meZZanine floor were designed for the
exclusive use of the city post office, and
consequently are not likely TO require any
alteration, except in the possible contin-
gency that the Post Office Department may
consider it nee essary to entrench thereon.
r1,s ,,l,t
essary to make the building suitable for
the Post Office Department., regardless of
which of the t"o plans is followed but in
neither case will it DC necessary to make
any radical change III the general plan of
the building already constructed.
This sta tement is made On the authority
of Mr.. kemper, who is acting supervising
architect pending the appointment of a
successor to Mr. Aiken, whose tenure of
Office terminated today. Mr.. Kemper said
that he had no information of any in:cn-
ton on the part of the contractors to re-
duce their working force or to reduce the
hours of labor. Everything depended, he
said, on the wishes of the Postmaster Cen
eral. The Treasury Department had no in
formation as yet as to what changes he
desired, and consequently it was impossible
to say anything about future work on he
building. The probabilities are he said,
that changes will be necessary in the heat
ing and plumbing apparatus on the six up
per stories. inasmuch as the proposed
change in the use of the building will nat
urally require a general Encouragement.
many of the rooms having been con-
structed for purposes other than those for
which they will be used.
1t has been found impracticable to trans
fer the city post office to it's new quarters
on the LIST of October, as was originally in
tended, and the lease of the present quar-
tiers in the Union building on G street will
be renewed for short period, either six
months or year. 1t is also settled that
tho new building will not be completed dur
irg the present calendar year. How much
later il will be before the structure is ready
for occupancy will depend entirely upon the
extent of the new work required in coase-
quence of the transfer to it of the Post Of
flee Department.