The times., 1899-01-07
A REPORT SUBMITTED.
The Comn,issiOners' Views on the
Extension of Fourteenth Street.

The CommissiOners' Views on the
Extension of Fourteenth Street.
The District Commissioners have made
their report to Chairman Babcock of the
District Committee of the House, on the
bill now before Congress which provides
for the opening O. Fourteenth Street from
Whitney Avenue to the Spring Road.
The street will pass through three sep
arate holdings Beginning at Whitney
Avenue 1t viii take some $1,000 square
feet from the Mattingly tract, which at
current prices is believed to be worth 60
cents per square foot, or $50, 600. 1t will
next pass 4hfough the Lehman tract, of
which so 200 square fee: will be taken, the
estimated value being 30 cents per square
foct, or $4,000. The third tract, the one
nearest Spring Read, is in the name of
Saunders & Lipscomb Of this 46, 200 square
feet will be taken which, at current prices,
is believed TO be worth about 10 cents per
square foot, or $500.
Messrs. Saunders & Lipscomb offer to
dedicate TO the District the portion of the
street which runs through their tract, and
Mr.. w F. Mattingly has said that he
will dedicate the land necessary, provided
the District supplies sidewalk, curb sew
ers, and water mains and grades the
street without cost TO him.
can be secured through the Lehman tract,
and condemnation will probably be neces-
sary.
The opening of the thoroughfare would
extend Fourteenth Street to Spring Road,
and would open up a portion of street
which is necessary for the development
of this section, which is apparently des-
tined TO become the street-car outlet for
this portion of the District
The Commissioners regard II nc nc
tablishing troublesome precedent to ac-
cept dedications contingent upon improve
ments such as Mr.. Mattingly requests.
1t is believed that dedications should be
made Internationally, and that the ap-
preparation for improvement of streets
should follow as rapidly as the develop
ment of the streets and the appropriations
by Congress permit.
The Commissioners cannot see their way
clear TO recommend the acceptance of Mr..
Mattingly's dedication. The street can.
however, be opened through the Lehman
and Saunders & Lipscomb tracts without
affecting the Mattingly tract. and this
would perhaps be the cheapest solution of
the case provided the Mattingly tract por-
tion were not dedicated.
In this connection attention is invited
10 the provision in the act 10 regulate the
subdivision of land in the District of Co
lumbia, approved August q. 1888, to the
effect that nossubdivision without the lin
its of the city of Washington should be
thereafter recorded in the surveyors office
unless made in conformity with the general
plan of the city OF Washington. Fourteenth
Street, as laid down on the map, is in
cluded in the highway extension plans ap-
proved by the Commissioners, and no sub
division of the land affected by it could be
approved by the Commissioners and admit
ted 10 record unless provision were made
for dedicating to the public the portion of
the land within the lines of the projected
street.
lnc'osed with the report were several dec
uments showing the advantages to be de-
rived from the proposed extension, together
with several maps and letters from Messrs.
Saunders, Lipscomb and Mattingly