The commonwealth. (Greenwood, Miss.) 1896-1923, 1908-03-06
REBUILD IN GRANITE
NATIONAL TREASURY BUILDING
TO HAVE NEW FRONT.
Sandstone Originally Used in Its Con-
struction Has Not Stood the Test
Of Time and Must Be
Replaced.


The treasury at Washington is TO
come down. Within a few weeks the
demolition will be begun, and the his
toric editice--a,i of it. that is to say.
that stood before the civil war-will
&c reduced to q wreck, the entire front,
including the 80 great Ionic pillars up
holding the roof of the Fifteenth street
facade, being torn away.
For this purpose congress has ap-
propriated 1850, 600. The contract has
been awarded to a New York firm.
and quarrying has already been begun
at Milford, n. H., for granite which is
to take the place of the sandstone of
the present structure.
This sandstone which was brought
from Acquia creek, in Virginia, in
1910, is poor stuff, and shows a dispo-
of the portico have been falling from
time to time, narrowly missing peo-
pies heads, and 1t was finally decided
that the whole facade, pillars and all,
Hpulu HdN6- ~ Ut ltIloNtu anu lC-
placed with stronger material.
1t will be understood that the treas
Try as 1t stood in the '40s and early
SOS, was a long building, fronting Oh
Fifteenth street and of no great depth,
which to-day forms the middle sec
ton of the east side of the huge rec
:angular structure occupied by the
financial department of the govern
nent.
AS originally erected it was a copy
If the Temple of Pallas Minerva at
Athens, and its site was chosen by
that irascible and obstinate old gen.
tleman, Andrew Jackson. Congress
left the matter to him, and one day,
as 1t is related, he walked over from
the White House, thrust his cane into
the ground, and said:
This is the best place for the build
ing. Put il here!"
Now, the intention had always been
that Pennsylvania venue should run
in a straight and undertaking line. In
fact, it had always done so up to that
time, extending directly from the capt.
tol past the front door of the White
House, which in those days was on
the south front of the presidents
dwelling, and not on the north as at
present. But the building of the treas
ury in this badly chosen spot broke
the venue in two, so that it loses
itself for a couple of blocks in a man
ner puzzling to the stranger in Wash
ington.
Which reminds one to say that Wis
itors at the national capital are much
impressed, not u~nnaturally, by the in
formation, conveyed to them by pro-
fessional guides, that the gigantic pill
lars which uphold the roofs of the por-
ticos on the north, south and west
sides Of the treasury, are monoliths,
the largest in the world, each of them
being hewn out of a single block of
granite.
They are further astonished when
told that these pillars were brought
all the way from Dix Island, near
Rockford, in Maine, being put aboard
sailing vessels, landed at Georgetown,
and hauled to the building site by
teams of IS oxen.
The treasury as 1t stands to-day is
a building of ~granite-save only for
the old and original sandstone struc-
ture which, as already explained,
forms the middle section of its east
side. 1t Is now intended to remove
the entire front of this ancient edifice.
Architecturally speaking. there will
be no alterations; it is simply a mat
ter of substituting n material for
another. However, incidental TO the
operation, the sandstone pillars, which
are composed of series of s~uperposed
cylin irical sections, will be replaced
by & ianite monoliths.