Evening star., 1925-09-04
Trees Sacrificed i'm
Building Garages

To the Editor Of The star:
The removal OF ornamental shade
trees to make way for entra noes TO
garages should have the consideration
of the building department OF the
! District when issuing permits for the
erection of such structures. II neces-
sary construction plans should be
modified in order not To sacrifice the
trees and the beauty of neighbor-
hood before building permits are is
sued in such cases.
Some time ago a large garage was
erected on street lined with un-
broken rows of fine shade trees. The
builders obtained a permit from the
proper authorities to remove one of
the trees which. while not standing
directly in front of the entrance, stood
Immediately adjacent the curved
curbing leading across the sidewalk
into the garage, and perhaps was re-
garded as a dangerous object for mo-
torlsts who could not safely pilot their
cars through an entrance nearly wide
enough for two cars to pass abreast.
Had the building department scruti-
nizeo the plans OF this garage more
closely before issuing the permit to
construct. the entrance of the gar
age could have been made slightly
The garage has two entrances on
the street in question, the one from
which the tree was removed being
much wider than the other opening
upon an incline to the floors above.
In another instance the writer saw
an unusually large and beautiful tree
sacrificed TO make way for an en-
trance to crude one-car garage. The
tree must have been quite old, per
haps a century or so, for all but ore
OF its neighbors were dwarfs by COM
parison. 1t was the sort of tree that
is highly priced for the Identification
of parks and country estates and for
which great expense has been in
Cured in transplanting. This tree
was one OF two giant sentinels that
stood on either side Of the street and
IN times before Mount Pleasant was
cut up into building lots probably
stood stately guard at the entrance
of some homestead. Had architectural
skill or building genius been applied
TO this problem the destruction of this
ornamental growth would not have
occurred.
A lecturer on civic subjects has
stated that Washington would be a
shabby city were it not for it's trees.
ANY observer can verify this state
ment by taking stroll through a
thoroughfare where all the trees have
been removed and young, undeyeloped
trees set out in their place.
The protrusion of the garages be-
yond the established building line of
the block IN which they were built
prevented the replacement of the de-
stroyed trees, for there is not sufficient
room between the curb and the build
ing for a tree TO grow. The disfg-
urement of the locality by the de-
struction OF the trees was augmented
by the protrusion of the garages upon
| what in other parts of the block is the
courtyard or areaway of private
dwellings. True. the builders were
within their right in building out to
the legal line in order to squeeze the
last penny out of the investment, but
one wonders whether there is moral
right and whether there should be
any legal right to uglify a neighbor-
hood by uprooting its beautiful trees
and keeping out of line with other
building construction when large
sums are being spent annually to
maintain tree system and in other
ways to make Washington a city
beautiful. Certainly measures should
be devised to eliminate legal vandaI-
ism of this sort.
LEWIS l.. YOUNG.