The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1900-10-14

carried on steadily while the army of
clerks have never stopped their work, and
has thus presented peculiarly difficult
| and tedious architectural and engineering
! feat. In the near future the new Southern
building will thus be ready for house
| warming. In its new form it is one of the
| finest Office buildings in the District.
| The structure fronts 100 fee; on Penn
| sylvania Avenue, and is seven stories high.
! One portion of the building runs back the
| entire depth of the square on which 1t is
| situated, 100 feet to d Street. and the
, mainder has a depth Of 100 feet on Thir-
| teenth Street. There are an average Of fif-
| teen rooms on each floor, making a total
OF over hundred rooms. The building
| furnishes ample accommodations for the
immense central office force of more than
800 officers and clerks. 1t is more than
| double the size OF the old structure.
Two additions have been made to the
| old edifice, one twenty-five feet front on
! Pennsylvania Avenue by the depth Of the
square to D Street, and the other TWEEN
| ty-five feet front on Thirteenth Street
| by 100 feet deep. Another large addi-
ton of space has been secured by adding
story to the structure.
The interior changes are also inn
portant. The entire central stairway
and elevator shaft have been removed
and are being replaced by another hand
some stairway and two large elevators.
All the three elevators hereafter will
be run by electricity. All; machinery has
been removed and hereafter everything
in the running OF the building will be
done by electric power secured from the
United States Electric Lighting Com
| pany except the heating. The new
structure is semi-fireproof, nearly all
the interior construction being of thing
and steel beams.
The manner in which the big Southern
force was to be housed and allowed 20
continue its work during the year or
more In which the large changes were
to be made was a most interesting prob
lem for the architect, H. 1. Cobb. Dur
ing the greater part Of this year the
interior has been q mere shell with
fringe of rooms next to the walls. The
stairway has been torn down and only
| one of the elevators has been running
and this in the rear of the building and
in the new western portion. In addition
to this difficulty the management of the
Southern has thought II desirable to
get large part of the force into the
building that heretofore has been seat
tered in different offices throughout the
| city. A number of clerks and officers
were in the Washington Loan and Trust
! Building. others in the Builders Ex-
change, and still others in the cid Darby
building. These have all been given
room.
Mr.. Cobb has had especial success with
the stability of his new walls. He had
| some misgivings before he began the work
as to the foundations that might be re-
quired for such heavy walls in the very
soft earth formation prevalent on the
south side of Pennsylvania Avenue. a
test taken a few days ago showed that
| during all the construction of the past
year there has not been a difference in
settlement in the walls of an eighth of
/, an inch. Mr.. Cobb says that the old walls
of the structure were simply run down
into the mud few feet and had no
foundations whatever.
The present force of officers and clerks
! of the Southern Railway general offices
is the largest employed by any one pri-
vate concern in the District. The force
| varies somewhat in size from month to
month, but averages about 900 men. it is
| said. One of the officers Of the COM
pany estimated that these people repre-
sent very nearly II not quite 1000 people
added to the population of the District
| The payroll of the company in the city is
| about 100000 a year, or 200 week
| The Southern Railway is the only one of
| the great systems having lines through
| Washington that has its central offices
| here.
| The new Southern Railway structure
was originally the old National Repub-
| lican Building 1t was erected for the
National Republican" many years ago.
| when that paper was at the height OF
| its popularity and success and was at that
| time one of the finest newspaper build
In, tha nj q
structures of any kind in the District
The building was bought by the old Rich
mond and Danville Railway for Its general
! offices, and, in 1894, when the Southern
Railway system was formed, was taken
over for that system from the Richmond
and Danville.