Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-01-23
D. c. ART GALLERY
BEING CONSIDERED
Board of Trade Groups Are
Told of Project for North
B Street.

The proposed erection of a large and
monumental fine arts building or art
gallery on the south side of North E
street between Twelfth and Fourteenth
streets is being considered in connec-
ton with street plans and Federal
buildings in the Pennsylvania avenue
Mall triangle developments.
This was brought out by Frederic A.
Delano, chairman of the National Cap
1tal Park and Planning Commission, in
an address yesterday before a joint
meeting of the Traffic and Streets and
Avenues committees of the Board of
Trade.
Mall Entrance Asked.
Mr.. Delano announced that the
Planning Commission had recon-
mended that Thirteenth street be con-
tinued through the great triangle of
Federal buildings as an inlet for vehicles
and pedestrians into North B street and
the Mall from the north.
The street, now one of the main
north and south traffic arteries, he
said, could not be continued farther to
the south than B street, however, be-
cause of the contemplated fine arts
building and also due to the fact that
the new Department of Agriculture
Building, south of the Mall, is on the
direct line of Thirteenth street.
Mellon Believed Interested.
Andrew w. Mellon, Secretary of
Treasury is said TO be personally inter-
eSted in the proposed art gallery.
The Board of Trade has conducted a
vigorous campaign against closing Thir-
teenth street at Pennsylvania avenue,
as contemplated in the original plans
for the Federal buildings in the Mall
triangle. The heavy traffic on the
Efranf roOrIiraI 10 s.-1
Into the Mall in order to relieve con-
geStlon, destined to be increased as
more of the Federal buildings are COM
pleted south of Pennsylvania avenue, it
was commended.
Mr.. Delano said that the Board of
Supervising Architects now was at work
on plans for continuing Thirteenth
street not as main traffic artery but
as smaller vehicular inlet to the Mall
Proposals call for great arches in the
connecting links between the Federal
buildings, under which the road would
pass
Relief Seen in New Street.
South-bound Thirteenth street traffic
will be relieved also, Mr. Delano said,
by the opening of a new E street south
Of Pennsylvania avenue, running from
Thirteenth street west past the present
District Building and the north end OF
the new Commerce Building and south
OF the grounds of the White House to
join with New York avenue
Plans recommended by the Park and
Planning Commission, Mr. Delano said,
also call for the development of "open
cuts" or depressed and widened high
ways on the lines of Twelfth Four
teenth and Fifteenth streets from South
F street to North B street. These de-
pressed thoroughfares would constitute
'subways" only Sor about 400 feet, he
said, where they pass under the Mall.
Mr.. DeIanO Is Praised.
The change in Fourteenth street is
planned for the near future and the
others for later development
Theodore P. Noyes, chairman of the
Traffic Committee of the trade body.
and George V. Graham, chairman of
the Streets and Avenues Committee,
presided jointly over the meeting. Mr..
Graham urged that the campaign for
continuing Thirteenth street through
to the Mall be kept alive. There is
overwhelming evidence, he declared,
showing such a need. The gathering
praised Mr.. Delano for his efforts in
this direction.