The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1910-04-30
FIGHT TRUCK MARKET
Commissioners to Hear Co.
lumbia Heights Protest.
FATHER MCGEE TAKES LEAD
Pastor of shrine of Sacred Heart
Canvasses Territory About Old
Car Barns for Data TO Prove Pro-
posed Trading Place Would Be
HuPtfuI-Cause OF Objections.

The District Commissioners have granted
hearing Monday morning to residents
OF Columbia Heights who object to the
establishment Of a market in the old car
barns in Fourteenth street. between Irv-
ing street and Park road.
Father MCGEE, pastor OF the Shrine OF
the Sacred Heart. at Park road and Four
teenth street, who Is leading tho OBJ
Jectors has been making an investigation,
and has discovered that many Of those
who signed the application for the market
company live far from the area directly.
Not only are they nOnresidents in that
sense, but many Of them. he believes. have
been misie1 as to the character OF what
is proposed. He calls attention 10 the
fact that the market company. within a
few hours Of the granting Of the condi-
tional permit, inspired publication TO the
effect that the company would be pre-
pared, by May Is. 20 accommodate far
mers bringing produce to sell.
Difficulty He Discovers.
Since that time he has suggested TO
those living in Park road. Sixteenth, and
other streets. that. in order TO get their
produce to market early. they must be-
gin arriving at all hours between mid
night and dawn That being the case,
Father MCGEE has asked the owners Of
houses in that vicinity how they would
like 20 have farm wagons rumble along
Sixteenth street on their way from Vir-
ginia 70 the stalls In the market. along
about o'clock on summer mornings.
Inasmuch as the back OF the proposed
market house joins the grounds Of Powell
School. in School street. he has asked the
property owners in Lamont Seventeenth.
and Mount Pleasant streets how they
viii like 10 have to send their children
10 that building and Johnson School.
across the street. He has also asked the
owners OF property west Of Fourteenth
street and north OF Columbia road how
they relish the idea Of having Park road
blocked with farm wagons going into the
market from the proposed Park road
entrance. which is alongside Of the resi-
dence Of Capt. Markham the Assistant
Engineer Commissioner. Park road. which
is the street designated 20 be used by the
fire department in going westward from
Fourteenth street. is narrow at that
point
Congestion OF Wagons.
Even without the proposed market. the
DIRECTORS point out. # is congested with
the delivery wagons belonging TO estab-
lishments just around the corner from
Fourteenth street. The congestion IS such
at times that automobiles and carriages
en- route from Rock Creek Park 10 the
Soldiers Home. or vice versa. are held
up and compelled 10 proceed at a funeral
pace
From the law point OF view. the OBJ
jectors assert that change in the build
ing regulations was promulgated the very
day the conditional permit was granted.
That is. before any OF those whose inter-
ests would be adversely affected could
possibly know in the change in the law
the conditional permit vas granted.
Even waving that they insist there
can be no compliance with those parts
Of the regulations not changed, FOR the
reason that the Commissioners have not
the power 10 erect buildings on the play
ground OF Powell School. in School
street. Unless buildings were erected on
that playground there could be no com
plance with the terms OF the regula-
tions They require that the site OF the
proposed market shall be surrounded by
buildings Ghe word was dwellings be
fore the change coincident with the
granting Of the conditional permit. so as
10 hide it from the view Of confronting
property.
Cause OF Their Objections.
The property owners OF the vicinity are
contending that II is neither decent nor
equitable that they should be forced to
consent TO a depreciation OF the value Of
their holdings. to the end that the owners
OF the old car barns. who were under no
cOmpulsion 10 buy them. shall have a
profitable investment. Father MCGEE es-
Inmates the value OF the church holdings
at about $4,000. on which It is his desire
to erect a 100000 church.
Much Of that would be destroyed. he be-
lieves. through the ruiz of the neighbor-
hood as a residence section by the estab-
lishment OF a market. He merely points
TO the property surrounding other mar
kets for confederation OF HIS declaration
that a market Of the kind proposed would
result in the deterioration Of values in the
section bounded on the south By the en-
bassy and legation buildings erected by
former Senator Henderson. on the west by
Nineteenth street. on the north by the
Sixteenth street bridge spanning Piney
Branch, and on the east by Eleventh
street.