The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1909-04-28

FOus events Transporting within the
month in the national capital mark TO the
American public the growing strength OF
the nationwide movement for better and
more beautiful cities. Today the body OF
Major J. Enfant. that genius who planned
the city Of Washington, lies-On the way
/ TO reinterment in Arlington cemetery-a
short while in the rotunda of the capitol,
whose site he had selected. On May VIII
be unveiled the statue to Alexander
Shepherd, sometime president OF the
beard of public works in Washington,
and under whom the city received its first
impetus toward its present beauty On
May q general conference, with rep
resentatives from many cities. VIII be held
in Washington for the purpose of discuss
ing the better planning Of cities During
this month. Mrs. TAFT, wife OF the presi-
dent inaugurated a series of afternoon
band concerts on the waterfront, lending
q bit of old world attractiveness to
Washington life, and at the same time in
Producing to the people of the city the
beauties of Potomac park that most eX-
Quisite proof Of the possibilities in re-
claimed land and sand bars that lie in the
power Of every riparian city
A soldier Of France. a follower Of La
fayette in the cause Of American liberty.
Oh aver of plans for Buffalo, designer OF
that perfect city plan that has made
Washington good pattern for all new
cities in the making. Major Pierre Charles
L Enfant, died a pensioner on the hospi-
tally of the Carroll family of Maryland,
and was buried in the family burying
ground on Digges farm nearly a hundred
years ago. 1t was jefferson who sug-
gested L Enfant's services to Washington,
and during week spent at Mount Yer
non, with maps of many old world cities
before them, the president and the French
engineer worked out the plan for Wash
ingtOn. the only time in the history of the
world that the capital city of any nation
has been planned beforehand and built
according to the plans. St. Petersburg.
III * 10 site pbOEare
in l10Ss with the view to its being the Rus
sian capital, but when that city was built
in the marshes. il was with the object of
having a key to the northern seas, and
the idea Of beauty was minor consid-
eI alton
Washington had seen no European city
Glenn Brown asserts that if any Ameri-
can city offered suggestions to Washing
ton in its plars. they may have been An
napolis and williamsburg. Annapolis, it
is remembered. was built somewhat after
the plans suggested by Sir Christopher
Wren for the rebuilding of London, after
the fire of 1856. the two focal points with
radial streets being from Wren's plans,
while Williamsburg has a distinctive mall.
that may have suggested to the first pres
ident the mall for his federal city. Len
FAINT knew the old world better. 1t is
said that the planning of the capitol and
the White house as axes for the many
radiating avenues was suggested to him
by lie Notre's plan of Versailles. There
was an eye, too, for the possible invasion
of the capital of the new republic and
from tuese two centers cannon could be
trained down the various avenues and Of
fer impregnable fortress for ruler and
congress.
Whatever the origin of the plan. it has
proved its beauty and worth. They drew it
so that from the intersection of anv two
or more streets and avenues the horizon
can always be seen When the capital city
celebrated its centennial in 1900 and real
hGr not all
head municipality should be, a commission
was sent abroad to study other cities and
see what changes should be made in l. En-
fants plan. The commission reported
that his plan was best of all and that in
so far as it had not been permanently in
teTfered with in Washington. it should be
followed.
1t was possibly the eecentricity Of genius
that made the gifted Frenchman soon
antagOnistic to the committee under which
he was to work. for shortly after he had
drawn his plans. had engaged the stone
from the quarries and started the city's
building. he was removed. jefferson rec
commended that Major / Enfant be paid
for his services, and suggested that IL be
liberal The president thinks" so JEFF
ferson wrote to certain members of con-
gress. $500 OF $500. but leaves the de
termination to you" This was in 1892
In 1910 the engineer was voted $685.. sc, with
interest from 1872, in consideration of his
great work, Invited by Mr.. Digges to his
y
or more of his life there, refusing an ap-
pOintment as instructor at West Point in
1872, and in the year that Lafayette paid
his final visit to this country. the French
guest died at the Maryland farm, and
though the family Furying ground was
tenanted with the dead Of the Carroll and
Digges families when he was first buried
there, they were later removed, and for
many years his body has lain there in
company only with that of a mysterious
stranger who figured in. some long ago
romance, and found shelter there in death.
Today the nation honors the dust of the
engineer, long dead. and later it is be
heved a suitable memorial will mark his
new grave in Arlington.
The nation has known few men so far
seeing as L'Enfant. He planned a city Of
sixteen mile area to accommodate pop
Ulation of 10000 when all the people in all
the newly United States was only a little
over seven times that number. He looked
from London and Paris, cities q thousand
or so years in the making and saw as in
a vision. a century or so beyond his day,
a city of many beautiful buildings on the