Evening star., 1935-11-10

plan adapts itself perfectly to modern
city planning.
Rock Greek formed the plans west
ern boundary and this waterway was
then navigable for small ships as far
as street.
I INDER the LEnfant plan. the Cap
itol faced east-as it does today
and that was to have been the main
part of the city as far as business
was concerned But there was bull
market in Washington rel estate in
those days and the spectators turned
the tide Of city growth northwestward.
The desire to create additional lots
raised havoc with the plan. which was
a rush job-flnished in about three
months.
Numerous copies of the plan were
made and sent abroad. Since its
creation it has been the subject Of
exhaustive study by students of his
tory. of city planning and of the
evolution of the National Capital.
Recently Col. Lawrence Martin,
chief of the division Of maps in the
Library of Congress. who has long
been intensely interested in the
L'Enfant plan. was called as a witness
before the District of Columbia
ginia Boundary Commission. Inas-
much as the high-water mark of the
Potomac River in 1871 is vital ques-
ton in determining the boundary. the
LEnfant plan assumes major i'm
portance today. It, of course, was
created in 1891.
When L'Enfant laid his plan before
anders Island as an island. said Col.
Martin. The Virginia interests are
contending that the land-now in
the vicinity of the Washington Hoover
Airport-was part of the Old Do
minion. Uncle Sam says it was
Alexanders Island and so part Of the
District of Columbia.
President Washington-himself a
Virginian-transmitted the L'Enfant
plan to Congress. thus inferentially
indorsing it. Col. Martin reasons.
George Washington was a surveyor
and knew this territory very well
indeed. The argument of the Federal
Government is that ne never would
have permitted such glaring error
on the L'Enfant plan, showing that
Alexanders Island was an island, if
it were not so in fact.
THE Fine Arts Commission and the
= National Capital Park and Plan
ming Commission both 60 back to the
L'Enfant plan for the present-day
development of Washington.
The L'Enfant plan is of major i'm
port in guiding latter-day planners
in the expansion of the National Cap
ital Frederic A. Delano. chairman
of the National Capital Park and
Planning Commission and uncle OF
President Roosevelt, has had the
L'Enfant plan recreated on a souvenir
handkerchief. which is being sold
throughout the Nation to aid in rails
H., funds for the George Washing
ton Memorial Parkway development
here.
The L'Enfant plan was finished
about August, 1871, but it required
months of official scrutiny before Pres
ident Washington laid it before Con-
gr on December l3, 1871. Little
over two weeks later description
of the plan vas published In the
Gazette Of the United States at Phila-
delphia on January 4, 1892. but no
map of the new city.
The second publication in tn press
of the latter eighteenth century. as
illustrated in the Library of Congress
exhibit, came in the Massachusetts
Magazine or Monthly Museum, which
appeared in May. 1892, and was pub
lished at Boston. Mass.
The third edition Of the L'Enfant
plan was in the New York publication.
the New York Magazine or Literary
Repository. printed in New York City
/ June. 1892.
CoL. MARTIN says that the fourth
~ and fifth editions of the plan
are commonly believed to be the first.
The motive for pushing the plan in
the publications of that day was to
sell land. The Government was in
the real estate business then.
George Washington and his asso-
ciates wanted to sell the erstwhile
farm land here, which had been
blocked of into streets and avenues,
to raise money to erect the new public
buildings in the baby Federal city.
Land was disposed of also by lottery.
The seat of Government moved here
l. 1900.
The later maps of the L'Enfant plan
show the numbers of the squares, and
to this day. says Col. Martin, these
lumbers have never been changed.
Edward A. Dent. the District sur
veyor, verifies this. As the city has
expanded the authorities have added
to L'Enfant's original compilation.
The later maps, too, show the depths
C. water In the Potomac River, for, IN