Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-01-05
PLEADS FOR UTILITY
States Building Advocated as
a Lincoln Memorial.
VIEWS OF AN ARCHITECT
F. W. Fitzpatrick Criticises the Art
Commission.
OPPOSES HACKNEYED DESIGN
Declares There Is a Surfeit of Use
less So-Ca,led Monuments
in Washington.

The construction in Washington of a
great states building as a memorial to
President Lincoln is advocated in an ar
tfcle by +. w. Fitzpatrick a Washing
ton architect, published In the American
Contractor.
Criticising the art commission for its
tendency to stick to the "hackneyed peri
style, colonnade, vault, statuary or other
funereal and perfectly useless 'monu-
ment. and declaring that the capital
already suffers from a surfeit of monu-
n1ents, Mr.. Fitzpatrick asserts that q
states building, In that 1t would tend to
bring the states together, would be a
particularly fitting memorial to the mar
tyred President.
1.-The report Of the art commission In
regard to suitable memorial to L ncoln,
for which Congress has authorized S2,COO,-
600, has just been made public" Mr.. Fl. 2
patrick says in his article.
TT is scholarly. quite long. and I'M
doubtedly has been given much and able
study. Rightly it discourages anything
that would compete with the Capitol or
with the Washington Monument. But it
shows tendency on the part of the COM
missioners to stick to the commonplace.
the usual. for they undoubtedly will fall
back upon some hackneyed peristyle, col
onnade. shaft, vault, Statuary or other
funereal and perfectly useless m nu-
ment somewhere upon the Mall, where
it will probably balance something else
and be upon some imaginary line or axis
of still something else, an academic,
student solution Of a great problem that
deserved q better fate at their hands.
Surfeit of Monuments.
Here in Washington we suffer from a
- 81 Wa
have colonnades. peristyles. shafts, men
on horseback, anatomical studies In
bronze, fountains, horse troughs and such
scattered SO promiscuously and SO many
of them that they give US the nightmare
and that without the intermediary Of
welsh rarebit. To add to that collection
of Junk smacks of cruelty to the natives.
We respectfully protest.
1.-Two sensible projects had been sug,
gested: one great Lincoln memorial
highway to Gettysburg the other me-
mortal bridge to Arlington. Either would
have been a fitting tribute to the great
President, sensible and sentimental IN
that 1t meant something and linked the
present to his time, while like the rugged
greatness it cOmnemorated, 1t also served
for practical, daily use. But on account
of some legal or other obstacles the COM
mission sets both of those projects aside.
There Is still suggestion that seem
ingly has not been made to or considered
by the commissioner great states build.
ing. This project has often been advo-
Gated, a permanent exposition and states
offices for all the states. No one ever did
more to preserve the Union than did Lin
coin. so what more fitting monument
to his memory than such states build
ing that would materially bring the states
into still closer bond socially and CONNER
and often exploited. Some of the south
ern states already have an Office building
here. They realized the necessity of more
representation than the merely legislative
at the Capitol the central point,
Worth Of Big Nucleus.
'It is only a question of time when 9TH
er states will do the same thing, and
we will have the usual small units, scat
tered efforts. instead of something big
and really worth while. If the federal
government started with this $2,0OO.Oc0
fund all Of the states would willingly
contribute their quota and we would soon
have an exposition and states building,
vast inaugural and convention hall-for
Washington Is par excellence the great
convention point Of the country-that
would serve practical purpose and be
a fitting tribute and memorial to Lincoln,
q real monument to a great man.
perhaps the commission Is set In its
ways and will insist upon q terrace some
steps, a lot of weeping mermaids few
cannons, four cross-eyed infantrymen, a
granite shaft. bronze laurel wreaths and
other vegetables. and. Of course. a quad
riga. for, remember. no perfectly self re-
specting monument can possibly be deem
ed complete without at least one quad
riga. But. perhaps again it may still
think of a states building. Let us pray
1t may do that or something hospital,
an old peoples home, anything out of the
terrible rut of the ordinary. The con-
ventional, the proper caper for a monu-
ment to which we have become SO slavish-
ly bound