Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-02-22
New Tests Will Be Made Near
Memorial Shaft to Test
Foundation.
MALL WILL BE RAISED
IF PROJECTS ADOPTED
Parkway in Vicinity of Fourteenth
Street Will Be Elevated at
Least Is Feet Soon.

Two new plans for improvement o.
the Washington Monument grounds
considered yesterday by the Nationa
Capital Park and Planning Commits
sion, soon will set the engineers boring
again to determine feasibility of the
program.
Mai D. H. Gillette, assistant to Lieut.
Col. U. S. Grant, Sd, vice chairman
and.executive officer of the commission
is preparing to open bids March 2, fol
the boring of six or more holes within
a radius of 300 to 500 feet of the
Monument. The commission is con-
cerned principally with the probable
effect of placing several tons OF earth
on the east slope of the Monument.
Mall May Be Raised.
Two plans, prepared by Frederick Law
Olmsted. landscape architect OF Brook
line. Mass, and William A. Delano, New
York architect, both members of the
commission provide for raising the Mall
several feet as far as Fifteenth street
On the west side of the Monument
under the So-called formal plan, low
balistrade would be erected, while under
the informal plan there would bt
little change from the present status
On the east side, the formal scneme
contemplates an earth fill about OF
feet west of Fifteenth street, while
the informal plan would drop off from
the elevation to the present grade, with
a wall erected at Fifteenth street.
Under both plans there would be
fill on the Mall of about Is feet between
Fourteenth and Fifteenth street.
Low Balistrade Planned.
On the west side of the Monument
under both plans, there would be only
a Encouragement OF roads and trees
the difference being that in the formal
nlan a low balistrade directly around
the Monument would be constructed
while the other program contemplate:
nothing but grass.
Under tentative plans, F1fteentr
street would traverse the Mall as
depressed thoroughfare. as Is contem-
plated for Fourteenth street.
Under the informal plan, there would
be little change to the Washington
Monument, the Mall development end
ing at Fifteenth street.
Under the formal plan little alteration
would be brought about in front o!
Washington Monument, looking toward
Lincoln Memorial.
On the east side. the Mall develop
Monument itself Under the formal
plan there would be no further raise
between Fifteenth street and the Mon
ument.
Other Plans Faulty.
The commission recently directed the
borings be made around the circular
roadway that surrounds the Monument
and as a result of this inquiry, 1t wa!
determined that 1t would be inadvlsablt
to excavate appreciably from around tht
base of the Monument, which does moi
rest upon dead rock.
The Mcmillan plan Of 1901 contem
plated the construction of ambitious
sunken gardens around the base OF tn
monument but the recently completed
scientific inquiry determined that thi
program cannot go through, as it might
endanger the safety of the shaft.
Harvey Wiley Corbett, New Yorl
= architect, laid before the commission
his revised plans for the design of tn
Masonic temple on the Dean tract a
Florida and Connecticut avenues. Tn
commission decided that the layout j
acceptable provided the open space
around the memorial building can b
preserved as shown in the program.
The commission was advised OF thu
latest developments in the program Il
erect memorial entrances to the Dis
trict of Columbia. 1t was told that thu
design with eagles, prepared by thu
ONCE of Public Buildings and Public
Parks has received the Endorsement O.
the Fine Arts Commission. The
memorial entrances are designed to fol
low the general character of the pylon!
of the Arlington Memorial Bridge
project.
Numerous land purchases were con-
sidered by the commission at its after.
noon session, but in keeping with it.
customary practice, no public informa.
ton was forthcoming on this phase o.
the PROCEEDINGS