The Washington herald., 1920-12-26
Classic Building
Arts ShoUn Here
Styles of Ancient Days
Mingie NTH Codrser
Modern Modes

The glory that was Greece. or Athens,
and the grandeur that was Rome, prior
to the hurried though impressive visit of
Attila- and the Xandsls, find a partial
transplantstion on the sod of the District
OF Columbia. Also the might that was
Gothic and the graeiousness that was
Tudor. ..... ..
White marble and gray granite in col
umn, arch and tower impress in Washing
ton the desthless ideals OF the classic
peoples and the later fabricators OF mar
vcls in stone.
That the TRANSPORTATION is but partial
is due largely to the mad and merry archi-
tectural ganbols OF the mid-Nictorian
building-plsnners The regrettable hiatus
between the noble days of Colonial con-
ception and execution and the undoubted
renaissance OF American architecture now
blossoming is shown in none Of our cities
more clearly than in Washington. Here
'prs-;srsl constructors, OF the small and
bold head type, toiied nightly with scarlet
brick and wrought iron to produce strange
cubical affairs for housing the govern
ment. For nearly half century they
have been eXcitant OF Homeric laughter
on the part OF sensitive guests. had they
heart for laughter. The prosecution rests
its case upon the Pension Office at Fifth
and G street northwest and the Court of
Claims Building at Pennsylvania avenue
and Seventeenth streets northwest as EN-
hibits A and B.
'7os and Sos is now an active process and
even Congress is interested in putting
up structures that are something more
than substantial. Having passed down from
the classicism of days when the republic
was founded and through the throes OF
ugly architectural times which were not
even formative, Washington, a magnificent
nj fnr fttll sc
ing the period of fulhIlment. The answer of
the twentieth century to the prophecy OF
the late eighteenth and the apostasy Of the
latter nineteenth is epitomized in such an
affair of undenisble beauty and power as
the Lincoln Memorial In itself II is a
sermon and sword against the unworthy
buildings of people.
Working silently and with diplomatic
skill. the Commission on Fine Arts has
made itself a most potent factor in the
planning and execution OF government
buildings. II has led Congress to gaze
through its unsparingly analytic glass at
all Federal structural projects IN Wash
ington and elsewhere. No more can the
architecturally misconeeived or unadapted
be reared IN the Capital perhaps to stand
a century as a monument to lack OF genius
or judgment. IL was in 1898, years before
the commission and its sway came to be-
ing, that legislators were patting them
selves on the back as they gazed fondly at
the latest wonder, the Postoffice Depart
ment building. II remained for one Of their
number, Senator John Sharp Williams, Of
Mississippi to characterize il twenty years
later as a mixture OF medieval castle
and a modern brewery"
= =
"rhe mistake of a young nation" Ar
mold Bennett, British author whose works
include Your. United States" is quoted as
saying when he had studied the Washing
ton Monument. Yet this shaft is not TO be
condemned by one pronouncement. 1t has
its powerful and discerning friends. II is
| the product Of sincere belief and honest
aspiration. Ii panders to no reverenced
| standard and hence achieves fame through
its very individuality.
| The main reinsurance regarding Wash
ington, srchitecturally speaking, is that il.
molders OF the present day are striving
and are dissatisfied. They mock at the poor
examples and accept the good, enthusins
over few or mono That they will leave tC
future generations, when the plans of
dreau-oity in white marble and green for
est has como to fruition- PA o
On Bod or Bill!