The Washington times., 1901-10-07
BADFOR EAST WASHINGTON
Opinions Relative TO Removal of
Penal Institutions.
The Views of Citizens nrd Propertr
holders on the Subject-RecIamn
ton OF the Anacostis FIatS-The
Argument of n Real Estate Dealer.

4
the minds of the District Commissioners
through correspondence and otherwise is
the lack of the growth of the city east
| OF Lincoln Park and the territory below
/ Thirteenth Street cast The matter 10
discussed every year by the East Wash
| inston Citizens Association and bv Others
interested in the development of that sec
tion OF the city.
ihe causes usually assigned for failure
| OF people to seek homes in that part of
| the District are the condition of the Ana
costa Flats and the presence of the
/ Washington Asylum and the District Jail
on the banks of the river. Complaints
against these conditions have been long
ana persistent. The Commissioners
nave been petitioned to act and
! Congress has been called upon to appro-
pirate large sums for the reclamation of
| the fats and for the removal of the pub
lie institutions to some other part OF the
| District
At recent meeting of the East Wash
ington Citizens Association the president
OF that body gave the following express
sion to the purposes of the association:
Inc Committee on Charities will work
with the Committee on Reclamation of
the Anacostfa Flats, and it will work
through the encouragement of its mem
pers and of all good citizens of the Dis
trlct In its efforts to remove from the
eastern border of this section the United
states jail and the workhouse for GRIM
lnals, the smallpox hospital and other
similar buildings bordering upon the An
acostia River. The Committee on the Re-
clamation of the Anacostia Flats will
continue its work before Congress
and the Commissioners, and with
the Committee on Sewers and Sani
tation, can look forward to this winter
with encouragement for legislation by
Congress which will start the filling in of
the malaria breeding places of the Ana
cosua RIVER and the widening and deem
enlng OF the channel for commerce.
AT the same meeting of the association
resolution was introduced protesting
aeaihst the erection of the new male
workhouse on the grounds of the Wash
lngton Asylum, and calling for the re-
moVal of all the institutions above men
uoned TO d remote part of the District
The author of this resolution severely
rraigned the authorities, including the
commissioners and Congress, for starting
the new building, which it was said would
cost S600,0OJ before il was comDleted Tho
ac.iOn OF the authorities was designated
as a thrust against the welfare of the
eastern section of the CITY because hoth
the commissioners and Congress had been |
informed Of the feeling of the citizens and |
mad been petitioned earnestly not TO do I
what Is being done before its inception.
The views above expressed serve to |
snow the sentiments of the residents and |
property holders of East Washington |
upon the subject of the removal of public |
institutions 1t is matter of firm belief |
thst their presence has retarded and will |
retard the growth of the city eastwardly |
me citizens hold that these institutions |
and the swamps bordering upon the river
are obstacles of progress which must be
removed.
Over against this view can he pIaced tho
expression of certain opinions by an op-
orator IN real estate and a man who has
observed widely and is intimately ac-
quainted with the progress of the Dis
trlct IN all directions. He is pecuniarily
interested in the extension of the city
eastwardiy. and declares he knows where
OF he speaks. In order to avoid con-
troversy and to escape whatever notoriety
might attach to the expression of his
views he requested the Withholding of his
name.
1T is customary" he said, ito attribute
the stopping of building operations at
Thirteenth Street east to the Washington
Asylum, with its aggregation Of public
and to the conditions existing
along the banks of the Eastern Branch |
In my opinion the good people of East
Washington have hit upon a coincidence
and not cause-at all events not the |
cause of the evil complained Of OF |
course, the flats operate to keep back the |
of the city in that direction |
There can be no doubt that It is danger
niasms arising from those tide-washed
wastes. The fact is shown in the preva-
lence of malaria and teVers among the
few who do live there. 1t is shown in
the condition of the old people confined |
In the almshouses, and the unsanitary
prevailing there was the
strongest argument used to convince Con-
gress last winter of the necessity of
the almshouse from the other
of the Washington Asylum
and of locating it elsewhere. am heart
ly in favor of the reclamation of the
fats and the combining of the stream OF
he Anacostia to a narrow channel.
But l do not believe that the Jail and
-he Washington Asylum cut any percep- |
tible figure in the progress OF the city |
zastward 1t is a well-kept institution, |
with its buildings well scattered over a ,
arge tract of land. The grounds are |
attractive, and aside from the locati of !
ho male workhouse so near the public '
street in front, l can nothing objec- | {
ionable in the institution. When the |
male prisoners are removed to the new | .
building far back from the street, and | ,
Then there is room enough provided so | ;
hat they will not have to be herded like !
ardines in box the really Objectionable |
eature Of the asylum will be eliminated |
n few years the almshouse will have |
'een removed. and with that and the |
lew male workhouse in operation there
will be no more reason for objection To |
he Washington Asylum than to the
.oveJoy, Maury or Webb school build
ngs.
|
he noise and confusion resulting from
he storage of cars and their shifting |
bout on the tracks is a far greater nui-
ance than the Jail. the warehouses;, the
mallpOx hospital and the potters field
ombined. l would rather take my
hances for quiet and peace on Seven
eenth Street in front or the Jail than in
ny of the squares fronting on the car |
arms. The Navy Yard and the freight
ards Of the Pennsylvania Railroad have
roved no bar to the building up Of the
ity in proximity to them. and l think ii
moonshine TO claim that the Jail and |
Washington Asylum will do so when |
thSr causes are removed, If indeed they |
an be removed. To my way of think |
lg there many things already in the |
ection under discussion which are more |
bjectionable than the public buildings of
he asylum.
The real cause of the stoppage in the
Spansion of the city at Thirteenth Street |
as the inordinate selfishness of the own
RS of property years ago, who thought |
ley had the city in their vest rockets |
nd placed such high prices on their
md that nobody could buy it The |
rowth OF the city and District was in
MS way forced into the northwest and |
nd to the northward The movement
nee started could not be headed off even |
Y the lowering of the prices of real es-
ate The property holders of the east
rn section have themselves to thank for
le conditions which exist there They |
rst drove homeseekers into the north
est by the ridiculous prices placed on
md. Then certain neighborhoods grew
p In the southeast and the nortf6ast |
nat gave the whole section, including the
asst, a bad reputation. 1t is this cause
orknG out TO It's natural and logical is
le that is accountable for the slump in
roperty values and the vacant fields of
asst Washington.
Certainly the removal of the public in
itutions would not save East Washing |
hrfF h4g itg a rod TaC I