Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-11-09
THE NAVAL OBSERVATORY.
Recommendations That the Site BE
Kept From Encroachment.

Kept From Encroachment.
Admiral Bradford says in his annual re-
port that the buildings at the naval observ-
atory are in excellent condition, only minor
repairs having been required during the
year. The grounds are not yet In a salts
factory condition, however, never having
been completed. He submits estimates of
$4,000 for two additional residences for
officers attached to the observatory, their
night work requiring that they should live
near at hand; an estimate of 100000 for
continuing grading, extending roads and
paths, clearing and improving the grounds,
and an estimate of s., 800 for the construc-
ton on the grounds of building suitable
Tor dwelling for the foreman and CAP
tain of the watch.
In an accompanying report Capt. c. H
Davis, L. 5. N, superintendent of the naval
observatory, makes the following state
Inent in regard to the buildings and grounds
of the observatory:
- The buildings are in excellent condition
me small appropriation for repairs has
peen Sufhcient to keep the buildings in
order. With material saved from year to
year, and with the balance of the years
appropriation for repairs a new harm has
been erected for the two dwellings of OH
servers. a house for the meridian mark
Tor the new transit circle has also been
erected.
The underground passage from 4ba
polIer house to the stables and suDerin-
| tendents quarters, appropriated for last
| year, has been completed; the steam mines
| ara electric wires have been established in
| II ana 1t has become possible to do awav
with the overhead wires and to make 4
return OF condensed water from steam
heaters. which formerly ran to waste To
the boilers, 1t is believed that this win re-
suit in an economy of fuel.
An order has been made for the first
S Sline Tor the purchase of a portion Of the
land belonging TO the observatory, living
outside the observatory circle the con.
Gemndtlon and sale of which was provided
Tor by the act of August 1, 1894. In this
connection desire to renew nv recon-
incnddtIon, already made to the d4part-
| ment, that no further sales except the sim
gle one now under consideration be made
OF these lands. The act above referred to
protects the observatory from encroach-
ments within the limits of the prescribed
circle. but it does not of necessity conneI
the observatory to part with the land lying
outside those limits, nor to acquire the sec
tons not now owned by the observatory
which lie inside the circle
The che act is made conditional on the
GlheT- Neither does the law contemplate
the completion of the public roadway about
the boundaries of the circle except the
small segment of the circle contained in
Massachusetts avenue extended on the
north The application of the law in so far
as II re'ated 10 the sale of outside and Dur-
| chase OF inside land was rendered impos-
s!ble by failure to receive the price fixed
by the board of appraisal
proposed
by certain property owners to extend the
roadway to complete another portion of the
circle AS L understand it, the agreement
or the department is necessary to this OBJ
Ject, and ! most strongly recommend that
that agreement be withheld or withdrawn.
| The proposal was made solely in private
interests.
Il would remind the bureau that it was
an exactly similar experience, viz. the
needless encrO&chm6nts in its neighborhood
| which helped TO make the former site OF
the observatory untenable. In 1873 the
speculative grading of adjacent streets.
which have remained unfinished ard unoc-
cupied to the present day, together with
the condition of the Potomac flats forced
the observatory to seek a site where it
would be free from such nuisances It
would be an act of folly with this expert
ence knowingly to permit similar encroach-
ments tending to defeat the very object of
the law of 1894 in the new site if they can
be prevented. ] recommend that the whole
question of the observatory circle and the
disposal of the land, and the laying out OF
roads, be allowed to rest and remain as 1t
now Is until the extension of population in
the immediate neighborhood operates to
legitimately advance land values and COM
pels reconsideration of the question and
that then and not TIL then the question be
reopCned and reCOnsidered under the law Of
1884. / except from this recommendation
the proposal above noted, now under con-
stderatton."