Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-07-20
BUILDINGS
Col. Bingham's Annual Report Made
Public.
INTERESTING CHAPTER ON PARKS
Greater LiberaIity in Appropriations
is Urged.
MORE WATCHMEN NEEDED

MORE WATCHMEN NEEDED
The annual report of Col. Theodore A.
Bingham, the engineer officer in charge of
public buildings and grounds, of operations
during the fiscal year just ended was made
public at the War Department today. 1t is
complete resume of all the work done
during the past year on the Executive Man
sion, Washington monument and other
public buildings in charge Of this officer
we'll as detailed statement of the work
performed for the preservation and orna-
mentation of all the public parks and res
ervatfons in the District of Columbia.
A brief summary of the more important
items Of work accomplished during the
year is given, as follows:
Executive Mansion-The entire exterior
repainted. A new police cali service installed.
The automatic telephone exchange placing
the mansion in direct communication with
cabinet officers, commenced in April, 1898,
completed. New drapery curtains placed
at the windows of the east room and the
furniture of the apartment, consisting of
tWenty-six pieces, repaired, re-uph OILS tered
and recovered. One of the bed chambers
repapered and repainted.
An entirely new system of underground
mains of all kinds, sewer, water gas and
>iSS'iAN, piuIeo III cOUCTele tunnel, con-
structed. An additional green house con-
structed.
Washington monument - improvements
made In the expansion arrangements on the
main steam pipe. Permanent telephone
connection of the. top of the monument
with the engine room boiler house and eIe-
vator made. Iron frame work stiffened
from base to 350-fcot level.
Public Grounds
An additional green house and a pit ad-
dltlon to the propagating house constructed
IN the nursery grounds, and nc, 600 bedding
plants propagated for planting out in the
pubic parks. An asphalt pavement with
vltrif1ed block cutters covering an area of
600 square yards construct ted upon the
roadway east and south of the State, war
and Navy Department building.
Asphalt pavements in the parks extended
by 1894 square yards Of roadway and ,243
square yards of foot walk; 4,O2O square
yards OF asphalt roadway and 500 square
yards Of asphalt foot walk repaired and
resurfaced. Eight electric lights installed
IN the Executive Mansion grounds, and
twelve in Monument Park. Eighty-six feet
OF cobbiestone cutters constructed and
!,23l feet of drain pipe laid. Granite
blocks, with the letters ~. s. cut in their
upper surfaces, placed in the ground at
the corners of eighteen of the small tr-
angular reservations.
One hundred and fifty-two young trees
and 7o9 shrubs planted. Three hundred
~
and chains and PA iron posts and bars in
fences inclosing reservations, 216 lamp posts
and lamps and eighteen flower vases paint
ed. Twelve hundred and sixty-three feet
of additional water pipe laid. Four hun
dred and ffty-four applications for permits
for projections beyond the building line in
vestigated and reported upon. The granite
pedestal for the equestrian statue of Gen.
sherman constructed.
Value of the Parks.
In a general chapter on the public parks
Col. Bingham says:
The close of the nineteenth century is in
enc regard distinguished from all which
have preceded it by the prominence given to
the study of the social problem Never in
the history of the world has there been
such d feeling of charity and good will SO
universally disseminated. This has shown
itself IN the very large amounts of money
expenc ID for charitable purposes, for the
study and conquest of epidemic diseases,
the increase and publication of water sup
ply, the introduction and improvement Of
drainage systems. &c.
THE hard lot of the toiling masses crowd
ed together in cities and prevented by the
struggle for life from improving their sur
roundings has appealed to the growing
k1ndliness of those more fortunate. More
than one-half of the worlds population
lives In cities, where, in consequence land
has become too valuable not to be covered
by buildings. This has resulted not only In
iHtellectual ueSTeuatlon, out In physical de-
generation, and 1t has been recognized
throughout the civilized world that, for
good health and happiness in life, people
must have certain amount of contact
with nature. Hence, the opening of the
twentieth century is marked by strong
movement to introduce into crowded city
life little touch of the outside country
Valuable properties have been bought in
large cities and turned into parks, and
there has been a very sensible increase in
the number of small spaces in large cities
left open and cultivated so far as might
be. No city in the world has as many of
fngton, already available for use of the
present and of a very much lenser popu-
lation. 1t might be said, indeed, that the
laying out of Washington city embodied
an ideal toward which the charitable and
benevolent efforts of the nineteenth CEN
fury in this line have been directed.
PROVISION has been made as time passed
by Cor sress for the exter sion of this sys-
tenn, which is in every way beneficial to
population, not only physically and INTEL
lectually, but morally well. While, how
ever, the park lands of Washington have
been kept and slightly added to during the
past fifty years, Congress has not seen fit
to develop, by appropriation for improve
ments, the latent possibilities of the park
system in Washington.
Need of Greater LfberaIity.
with the close of one century and the
opening of another-considering the unex-
pectediy new ana grand future opening be-
fore us as the leading nation in the pro-
gress Of humanity. charity and good will
toward all others-it is not only my duty
but it seems also fitting time, to call the
particular attention Of Congress to the
needs of greater liberality in developing
and identifying the parks of our capital
city.
1.-The so-called Potomac flats will one day
become public park and form the western
end of the beautiful system planned by the
originators Of the city, to extend from the
Capitol to the Potomac river
TT should here be noted in passing that
the Botanical Garden, which logically be-
longs to this system, should eventually be
thrown open, improved by walks and drives
and made part Of 1t.
Some day, probably, the Anacostia flats
will be improved. and proper provision
should be made tor additional parks in that
section Of the city. The eastern end of
Pennsylvania avenue is susceptible of being
made extraordinarily beautiful.
"A proper regard for economy dictates
that the parks in and around Washington
f,r, to ,alJ