Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-12-21
Bureau to Revise
Room Numbering
Rated "Scientific''
Confusion to Public at
Internal Revenue Build
ing Cause of Decision.

The so-called scientific and efficient
system of numbering rooms in the new
Internal Revenue Building has proved to
be such a labyrinth and puzzle to the
army of taxpayers and their attorneys,
coming to Washington from all parts of
the country, that it has been found nee
essary to throw the whole system into
the discard
SO many were the protests from peo-
pie who could not find the rooms they
were seeking that the numbering, which
is said to be in use in some of the big
office buildings in New York, will be en-
tirely eliminated, and the gold numbers
will be scratched of the doors for an
entirely new set.
One stranger recently complained that
he had been wandering round and
round for more than a half an hour,
and still was in search of his deStina-
ton. Attempts were made to guide the
bewildered public by means Of traffic
signs" carrying detailed descriptions.
They helped somewhat, but they didn't
remove the deep-seated trouble.
Departed from Custom.
The principal difficulty seemed to rest
in the simple fact that people generally
are used to finding rooms in a building
in something like numerical order.
Most buildings have the even numbers
on one side of hallway and odd num-
bers along the other side.
But the Internal Revenue Building was
different. All the odd numbers are in
the west half of the building, and all
the even numbers are on the east side.
The big hallway running down the mid
die of the building from north to south
provides this great divide between the
evenS and the odds. But the system did
worse than playing evenS and odds with
the public, it played ducks and brakes"
with their sense of direction and numer-
ical order. 1t had them wandering
round in circles, up and down corridors,
until they completely lost their sense OF
direction and found themselves going
west instead of east.
In the ordinary course OF events
stranger in an Office building can find
room No. So somewhere near room No.
81, logically across the hall or around
q corner.
Some Rooms Far Apart.
In the system at the Internal Reve-
nue. Building, some consecutive numbers
are two blocks apart For instance,
room No. 3091 is at the west end Of the
middle corridor on the third floor near
Twelfth street But room 1892, instead
of being around the corner or across the
hall is at the other end of the building,
two blocks away, on Tenth street.
Decision has been reached to wipe
out the old numbers early next year.
Bids probably will be advertised for
next week by H. j. Bounds, inspection
engineer in charge of the building for
the Treasury Department, and Will be
opened some time early In the new
year.
The simple plan used in numbering
streets will be put into effect IN the long
corridors of this huge building. Odo
numbers will be on one side OF corrl-
dor and even numbers on another.
Room 1000 will be located In the SOUTH
west corner first floor, and the numbers
will then run eastward in sequence |
from Twelfth to Tenth street. The f1rst |
figure of the four digits will represent |
the floor. all the numbers between |
1000 and 1000 being on the first floor, |
all the 1000 numbers being on the sec
ond floor, and so forth on up to the |
seventh floor. The second figure on |
the room door will represent the corri-
dor. each corridor being given desig-
mated number, and the last two figures |
will represent the room itself.
The traffic signs put up in an en-
deavor to help the public out OF the /
maze of the present system were tried
out only on the third and fourth floors.