Evening star., 1925-03-18
HAMMER TO URGE
PARK PLAN ACTION
Approaches to City Should
Be ,Beautified at Once,
He Declares.

Several important projects that
form integral parts of a comprehen-
SlVe development of the National
capital are urged for action. in the
next session of Congress by Repre-
sentative William c. Hammer, Demo
crat, of North Carolina, a member OF
the House District Committee, in q
careful survey of CITY Planning for
Washington" which appears in the
Congressional Record.
The Mount Hamilton -Anacostia re-
gion should be made a park entrance
to the National Capital, he says; the
long proposed memorial boulevard to
Mount Vernon grows more desirable;
the movement for Il drive connecting
the chain of forts around the city
should be pushed vigorously; the
palisades of the Potomac should be
preserved as part of the park system
with a broad. well policed boulevard
TO Great Falls.
Representative Hammer has made
an extraordinarily comprehensive
study of the development of the Capt.
tai and challenges his colleagues in
Congress that they are only trustees
of this city of Washington for the
present and that they must do their
conscientious part in passing the
trust along to future generations
properly improved. He emphasizes
that every year sees progress to-
ward an ideal of the American people,
that Washington shall be unsur-
passed among the great capitals Of
the world"
In pointing out the Improvements
that the incoming Congress should
advance, Representative Hammer
SAYS:
"As the Arnold arboretum is a por-
tton of the park system OF the city
of Boston, so the Mount Hamilton
Anacostia region could be made a
park entrance to the city of Wash
ington by diverting through it the
pleasure traffic to and from Balti-
more"
In discussing the parkway con-
Meeting Potomac and Rock Creek
Parks, recognized as desirable by
Congress so far back as 1892, and
favored by the Washington Board of
Trade in 1889, he points out that
about rs per cent of the land neces-
sary has been purchased. The re-
naming obstacle is the Chesapeake &
Ohio Canal Co.'S rights, which are
in such a complicated and indefinite
condition that probably legal action
will be required to determine them
and to secure the necessary pentra-
ton.
the plan for the open treatment of
the parkway can be carried out eN-
peditiously. Thus the park areas
Will be consolidated and their avail
ability increased MANIFOLD. At pres
ent pleasure traffic circles about the
Lincoln Memorial and returns to the
city through the narrow throat OF
Seventeenth street. The paving of
New Hampshire avenue to the river
should be supplemented speedily by
the Improvement OF the short con-
nection between that avenue and
Potomac Park. Thus needed en-
trance to and exit from Potomac Park
will be made available
Garden Mt Monument Base.
Representative Hammer also urges
that the Washington Monument
should be given a proper garden set
ting. He says that ''at present the
immediate sure undings Of the Monu-
ment are so inadequate as to cause
the beholder near at hand to lose
that very sense of grandeur which it
inspires when seen from g distance:
and the lack of harmonious relation
ship between it and the great struc
ture with which it comes into juXta-
position disturbs ones sense OF fit
ness.
NO portion of the task set before
the commission has required more
study and extended consideration than
has the solution OF the problem of
devising an appropriate setting for
the Monument; and the treatment
here proposed is the one which seems
best adapted to enhance the value of
the Monument itself.
Taken by itself, the Washington
Monument stands not only as one of
the most stupendous works of man,
but also as one of the most beautiful
of human creations Indeed, it is at
once so great and so simple that it
seems to be almost work of nature.
Dominating the entire District of
Columbia, it has taken it's place with
the Capitol and the White House as
one of the three foremost national
structures"
He also advocates cleaning up un-
slightly Virginia vicinage as part of
the Arlington Memorial Bridge pros
peCt, saying:
BY dredging, a large area of land
adjacent to the Arlington farms has
been created. This area should be de-
Neloped as part of the park system
of the District. The private owner
ship in AnalOstan Island should be
determined and purchased. Such own
ership is a threat and a menace. The
proposition before the District Com
missioners is to place on Analostan
Island a gas holder 212 feet in height
when inflated. The gas holder is the
most brutally ugly structure devised
by man. 1t is more blatant than
power house, a water tank or an ILL
designed and smoking chimney.
Its realization will carry along
with 1t the cleaning up of all ap-
proaches to Arlington and Fort Myer
nd a. tn
of the reclaimed areas adjacent to the
Virginia shore of the Potomac"
The public building program. which
failed in the last Congress, included
the housing of Government activi-
ties in Government-ow buildings,
and Representative Hammer includes
this as one of the most imperative
features of Washington City planning.
He declares:
There is no element of more vital
moment to the effectiveness of the
development of Washington than that
of proper Government buildings to
complete the White House group. This
matter should have first consideration
in the building program about to be
formulated and undertaken"
Mount Vernon boulevard.
In discussing the contemplated
Mount Vernon Boulevard, Repre-
sentative Hammer argues that the
desirability of a boulevard to Mount
Vernon has become greater with the
growth of sentiment among the
American people, while the necessity
for an adequate road has been en-
phasized by the development of Bel
voir, the former seat Of Lord Fairfax.
into Camp Humphreys, which was not
taken advantage of to force the dedica-
tion of lands sufficient to create such a
bOuleNard. This project shnuld he