Evening star., 1935-11-10

| for view down the Potomac River
from his departmental building.
with an avenue $50 feet wide-but
this has not yet come about. His
public park" has found realization
in part of the Washington Monu-
ment grounds. A landing, south OF
the White House, has its counterpart
in the Water Gate of the Arlington
Memorial Bridge.
The vistas from the Presidents
House which L'Enfant saw. in his
minds eye find fulhllment today in
/ the sweeping view to the EllipSe and
| the Washington Monument Grounds.
/ A fountain he planned south of the
/ Executive Mansion finds reality in the
/ beautiful jet squirting to the heavens
amid the greenwood. with the White
House as its setting.
THE executive buildings L'Enfant
foresaw on either side Of the Pres
ident's House are reflected today in
| the Treasury Department and the
State. War and Navy Building.
L'Enfant's Square to the Presidents
House" has fulfillment now, appro-
priately enough. in Lafayette Square,
which honors another great French
man.
The canal that L'Enfant visualized
ran with the waters of Tiber Greek.
but as such this Is now no more. for
its waters run in the line of Constitu-
ton avenue, crossing Pennsylvania
avenue about Second street. but far
below the street level, in the city
drainage system. There is reminder
of the old Chesapeake g. Ohio Canal,
| with which Tiber Creek connected,
however. in the little lock keeper S
house of stone, at Seventeenth street
and Constitution avenue, used as a
lodge house by the United States Park
Police.
L'Enfant's open squares find actual
ity in Farragut and Mcpherson
Squares. placed in the line of avenues
converging at the White House. His
| projected memorial due north of the
Executive Mansion has achievement
today in Scott Circle. at Massa-
chusetts avenue and Sixteenth street
He established direct post road
| across the city in K street, eliminating
the necessity of going around the
Capitol and Pennsylvania avenue,
and this thoroughfare today is one
of the arterial highways of the
metropolis, serving many bus lines.
But the French engineers national
theater is still non-eXistent, and this
is true also of his national church.
His grand fountain" also is lacking.
1t was to be situated on Pennsylvania
avenue, about the site of the Archives
Building, at Seventh street. The
national church was planned two
blocks to the north of this, the edifice
being intended for national purposes,
such as public prayer, thanksgivings.
funeral orations, ETC., and assigned
to the special use OF no particular
sect or denomination" This is about
where the old Patent Office stands.
The references to the LEnfant plan
say of it: 1T will be likewise proper
shelter for such monuments as were
voted by the late Continental Con-
gress for those heroes who fell in
the cause of liberty and for such
others as may hereafter be decreed by
the voice of a grateful Nation"
With the increasing demand for
memorials to the Army divisions IN
the World War-and there we're
nearly 100 of them-and other mon
umentS to the Nations great women
and men, some such American West
minister Abbey may soon have to be
planned. Something akin to this,
however, is rising in the Cathedral of
SIS. Peter and Paul on Mount st.
Alban, at Massachusetts, and Wiscon-
sin avenues. There, in that EpiSco-
palian house of worship, patterned
after the Old World cathedrals, sleep
such heroes as Admiral George Dewey,
President Woodrow Wilson and others.
THE equestrian statue to George
Washington" took on life in the
later years in another form-the state
ly shaft that today is the Washing
ton Monument. It is located where
L'Enfant placed the memorial on his
plan. There is an equestrian statue"
to the Father Of His Country at Twen-
ty-third street and Pennsylvania ave-
nue., in Washington Circle. L'Enfant's
lawn 400 feet wide" is coming true
In the greensward of the Mall and
the expanse Of the Washington Mon
ument grounds, part Of which have
just been raised as part of the flood
control project for the Federal build
ings.
Concerning L'Enfant's five grand
fountains" he comments that there
are within the limits CT the city about
IS good springs of excellent water.
abundantly supplied in the driest sea-
son of the year" Washington today
has such outstanding fountains as the
Chevy Chase Circle, the Columbus
Fountain, in front of Union Station;
the new fountain, with its enhancing
green and yellow lights at night. re-
Gently completed as rart of the Union
Station Plaza development near the
Senate ONCE Building; the Bartholdi
Fountain and the Rainbow Fountain