New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1912-02-25
Washington Impressions
IS PROGRESS TOWARD PLANNED AND ORDERED
BEAUTY.
Copyright, 1912, by George W. smaIey)
London, January 81.

.no,ght New York new 1 thought
-t.4,,+o1 newer still. The city
o6 20 have taken a step toward
ssot manned and ordered beauty which
~. late Charles F. McKim' Win MS
ia imagination, beheld in a completed
w.. q hundred years hence. 1t has
We been q city Of great spaces ana
r.st and splendid possibilities The
have grown greater. and the
hPS.ndid possibilities seem nearer. re-
,,nor washington when Lafayette
ea,,ore and Connecticut and Massachu-
&c avenues. with half dozen cross
.t,oets and as many circles. were the
roos+ important parts OF what the auc-
,Io,oers call the residential quarter Inc
<.-.bssf and flnest-still the hnest-
xorss was Mrs. Townsends, with us
perfectly proportioned facade Mchim 5
,.orr. looking on a wilderness. An arcnl-
,.ct who had at least originality RICH
ordson had planted his red brick houses
:, grass plots. and they stood for what
r,,s incest and best in that quarter; not
oroUded together. certainly, but not lar"
.rreadng. Mr.. Hays was the pest OF
them.
Earlier and later came mansions more
or less Colonial and Of style less dehnlte
than Colonial. with attempts at late
renaissance; and the British Embassy
lifted its composite ugliness into view
~ neither British nor any other known
form Of domestic architecture. me
Letter mansion, i'm Dupont Circle 'he
Walsh mansion. beyond, and the Larz
Anderson mansion, beyond that STOOD
as examples of domestic ambition, each
fine I'm its way, but not examples winch
are likely to be initiated. Propor''on'
restraint. symmetry were not among
their distinguishing merits. Our Amerl-
"a, passion for something new was
then. and still is, a passion. Each new
mansion was a new experiment not al
ways successful.
The White House itself was, IN us oaS'
al experiment: with its tremendous por-
,ico which looks as II 1t had been aooeu
IN by accident; an afterthought whlch
has no true relation to the FACADE as
whole. But the White House Is l sup
nose a public building and belongs IN
tbat category Of edifces to which Greek
colonnades were reckoned Indispensable
Washington is full Of them. Many Oh
then, are admirable, but the impression
Of them as whole is not precisely WHAT
the American patriot would call Amer
lean. Nor could it be, Tor is there nor
a. vnu still accent the oracles Of more
or less discredited prophet, VIII there
over be. an American architecture. SKY
scrapers are not architecture. MT Rus
kin long since announced that there are
FIVE orders of architecture and can III
the nature Of things be no more. II Is
therefore only left TO us to copy or 10
adant: unless. like one New YORK archl-
tect, name to me unknown. you ike 10
take q log cabin in limestone as the OASIS
NJ a superstructure itself blend OF
homogeneous STYLES. Or unless you ac-
cent that wonderful red brick product OF
the official mind Of the last generation
IN the Capital which Mr.. Hay once de-
scribed.
"The architect first reproduced the
Faruese Palace. On top OF that ne put
n railway station, and on top OF the ran
Uay station a grain elevator. Ihat u
what we are now invited to accept as a
nroof of American genius for archltecI-
ure.'
Years ago Mr.. McKim asked me 10
look over his plans for reconstructed
Washington. and explained them TO me
with that clearness of speech which com
pelled the most ignorant TO understand
His WAS a genius which / do not hesltaIe
TO call American He was, suppose
the most accomplished and by far the
nost learned OF American architects
with a power of building not only houses
but cities. He had great breadth Oh
conoprehersion and a co-ordinating rae
ultv which reduced the most complex
problems to simplicity. He attempted
great things, but not all at once nor 100
many He said:
"ThIs is what / would do II could
live hundred years, and II were
dictator. and If / had money without
stint II may never be done, but De-
ginning has been made,
There is. at any rate, the idea, and II
has been worked out, and there are the
MANS: and it depends on Congresses ana
Presidents, and in the last resort on the
American people, whether this American
concention of a capital worthy OF the
RenubIic shall ever be carried out; COM
pletelv or even incompletely. NO man
WIN has once looked upon the new
Washington as it presented itself IN
glory to Mr.. McKims imagination VIII
ever be content with the Washington OF
to-day The less so because McKim was
no anarchist who thought it necessary
TO destroy in order to rebuild. He sought
TO use what existed so far as it was usa-
bic, to add to s., and TO harmonic the
whole. II is no dream. 1t is the con-
sidered purpose Of a man who knew ana
could execute as we'll as design. TO
perpetuate the shanties and mean shop
fronts which now disfgure and degrade
the noble avenue between the nooier
Capitol and the White House was
admit no part CT his purpose.
Meantime, the jewellers in washington
have been developing for themselves
some OF the resources of their city. They
have reached out In new directions, and
reached further than ever before IN oiu
directions The city is as city winch