Evening star., 1938-06-05
Capital Sid.elights
BY WILL p. KENNEDY.

Olo maps ana pictures showing that
the entire Southwest section of Washing
ton was at one time an GLAND and that
slzaoie schoonerS brought the stone to
the very foot of Capitol Hill for building
the Capitol are being displayed to mem
oers OF Congress by David Lynn, archi-
tect of the Capitol These old records
are the result of research by Mr.. Lynn.
william A. Frederick, landscape archi-
tect in charge of the Capitol Grounds,
and Joseph Robinson, engineer who are
IN charge OF developing the parkway and
new quick-trafdc highway along the site
OF the old James Greek Canal, from
Second street and Independence avenue
S,W. to Virginia avenue Sc. This con-
stltutes the start of a major project for
improvement of the entire section south
OF the Capitol to the river.
This island was formed by canal
from the mouth of Tiber Creek near
the present line of Seventeenth street,
Just south of the White House Grounds
and near where the Lincoln Memorial
now stands, which ran along the line of
Constitution avenue to Four and One
half street and Joined with the James
Creek Canal from Buzzards Point on a
line with Third street S.W, north
of Maryland avenue. Another branch of
the canal ran from South Capitol street
and Virginia avenue to the river at Sec
ond street Sc
Along this old canal, long since filled
in, the major supplies for the embryo
Capital were brought in by boats
market products, wood, coal and the
stone from the lost" Wiggingston Island
in Acquia Creek, unloaded near the site
OF the present Botanic Garden and
hauled by oxsn for construction of the
original Capitol Building about 1890
One of these old pictures shows the
Capitol with the dome partially con-
structed and the old Botanic Garden
conservatory only partially completed.
The Capitol Grounds are full of large
trees where there is now an open vista
from the Grant Memorial west along the
Mall, and in the foreground, where the
plateau of the Mall stretches, is a large
schooner which has just unloaded
cargo of lumber. A companion picture
taken at the same time shows the iron
fence across what is now the plaza on
the east front of the Capitol, where
throngs gather for the Inauguration
ceremonies.
These studies, in which members OF
Congress are taking a deep interest,
show that the present Capitol Hill and
site of the Capitol was known as Dud-
dington Manor, the home of Daniel Car
roll OF Duddington, and the area stretch
Ing south from the Capitol to the river
at Buzzards Point was known as Dud-
dington Pasteurs or Carrollsburg. The
rivers name was spelled differently in
the old maps-Patawmack, then Poto-
max and finally Potomac. A river-front
suburb between the White House and
Georgetown, about where the Naval Hos
pltal and the brewery are now located,
was then known as Hamburger, and at
an earlier date was called Funkstown.
The charts show the property lines in
those days running out into the water.
William A. Frederick, who is now di-
rectly in charge of the Botanic Garden,
under the Joint Committee on the Ii
brary, explains that the Botanic Garden,
now one of the beauty spots most ad-
mired by Capitol visitors, was founded in
1920 under the auspices of the Columbia
Institute for the Promotion of Arts and
Sciences, which was an outgrowth of
the Metropolitan Society, which received
its charter from Congress in 1918. The
Botanic Garden, however, received its
real start from the botanical collections
from the South Seas brought to Wash
ington by the explorer, Capt. Charles
Wilkes, 1882. The first greenhouse
was constructed in 1842 and can be seen
in one of the old prints under direction
of the Joint Committee on the Library,
which still has charge of the Botanic
Garden.
Representative Louis Rabaut of Michi-
gan, who will succeed to the chairman
ship of the Subcommittee on Appropria-
tions for the Legislative Branch of the
Government in the next Congress, and
who is especially interested in the de-
velopment Of the Botanic Garden, is
making special study of this historical
material He has announced that he
will arrange for Having all of the old
greenhouses at the foot of Capitol Hill,
between Second and Third streets, In
dependence and Missouri avenues, re-
moved to the nursery at Poplar Point,
Anacostia, so that the new quick-trafic
artery along the line of old Canal street
can be cut through to Maryland avenue
at Third street S.W., where there is now
. meek Of the bottle" impeding through
trafic.