Evening star., 1938-05-08
Bv William A. Millem.

bSU1leHeIQ, Lc CIlC UdoAo AOA O
4 spirited controversy raging
over a hitting memorial to Thomas
Jefferson, author of the Declaration
of Observation-Disclosures age, anoth-
er hemisphere.
For John Russell Pope. the late New
York architect, whose design for the
Thomas Jefferson Memorial was ac-
cepted by the Congressional Commis-
sion set up to erect it, is said to have
taken as his pattern that ancient
Roman temple-the Pantheon, in the
Eternal City. 1t is related that
Thomas jefferson himself fancied such
. temple.
At this point, however, abolition OF
the commission, which has been
storm center since it selected the Tidal
Basin site for the memorial two years
ago, is proposed in a bill recently
introduced in Congress by Chairman
Kent Keller and it is now extremely
doubtful II the design ever will be
executed.
Men today invoke that ancient edi-
fee, the Pantheon, to support their
contention and they call upon Gen.
George Washington and Maj. Pierre
Charles L'Enfant who laid out the
City Of Washington, to prove their
case.
Ancient edifices, olden men, are
figuratively thrown into the maelstrom
that swirls about the proposal to az
ford-after all these many years-an
adequate memorial to the man who
was the first President of the United
States to be inaugurated here, and
who brought to the United States
millions upon millions of dollars IN
real value, through his consummation
of the Louisiana Purchase from Ma
poleon.
DROVERBIALLY ingrates, republics
have failed fittingly to honor their
heroes, and the United States and
Thomas jefferson are no exception
to the time-honored rule. For Thomas
jefferson, born in April, l743, died
on July 4, 1926. Sporadically since
there have been efforts to honor him
appropriately But the plans have
thus far come to naught. Despite the
fact that the Democrats have over
Whelmingly had control of Congress
for the last five years, they have failed
signally to honor Thomas Jefferson,
their patron saint in tangible me-
mortal in this city with which he had
80 much to do-both before and after
its birth.
But, curiously enough. one of the
SOL &c i0r,
of the Thomas Jefferson Memorial at
Nhe Tidal Basin site-one of the
choicest major locations left in the Ma
tional Capital-has been the Repub-
lican, DR.. Charles Moore. until recently
the chairman of the Fine Arts Com
mission. He is now sojuorning on the
Pacific Coast. He was closely iden-
titled with the Mcmillan commission
Of 1901, and served as secretary to
that Republican Michigan Senator who
made that plan for the development
Of the city a reality.
While some are citing George WASH
ington and L'Enfant and the commits
sion Of 1901, others swear that Wash
ington of today should not be ruled
by dead hands-that the architecture
OF Greece and Rome are fitting enough,
but that the memorial to Thomas
Jefferson should take a mold more
appropriate to the twentieth century.
They say, in particular, that there
should be competition held to decide
the winning design for the memorial,
now that John Russell Pope is dead.
And anyway, they argue, Pope has
had enough in Washington-what with
4 the Scottish Rite Temple, the Archives
Building, the Pharma ceutical Building
and Constitution Hall to his credit.
But of these, only the Archives Build
ing is a public structure, and the
Mellon Art Gallery, now under con-
struction just eastward of his classic.
the Archives structure is being built
at private eXpense-and Pope was
architect for that, too.
RUT Pope's friends say that he had
logical reason for choosing the
ancient temple of Ro2e as the basis
for his efforts to honor Thomas
Jefferson. For Jefferson himself used
such design in his plan for his home
at Monticello, near Charlottesville, Va.
where stand the first buildings of
the University of Virginia, fashioned
under his hand
For this versatile man, Jefferson,
was an architect. among many things.
He was appointed Benjamin Frank
Inns successor as Minister to France
in 1785 and lived in that country
until October, 1889. During that period
Jefferson devoted much time to the
study of architecture. One of his
most revered deliberations was his
admiration of the Maison Carree, at
Mines, in Southern France, dedicated
to Gaius and Lucius Caesar, adopted
sons of Augustus, according to the
historians. This Roman temple gave
Jefferson the inspiration for the new
State capitol for Virginia and he is
credited with squirting the classical
revival in the United States.
For Jefferson was not alone the
architect of the Virginia State capi-
tol and the original structures of the
University of Virginia. but he aided
in the construction of number of
fine homes in the Old Dominion. With
President Washington. Jefferson, his
Secretary Of State, achieved a domi-
nant role in preparations for the
Capitol, White House and the laying
out of the National Capital Friends
Of the classical order of architecture
assert that Washington and Jefferson
chose that type for the City of Wash
ington-and it has been followed in
the main since.
When Washington and L'Enfant
located the White House where it is
to-day there was a magnificent vista
down the Potomac River-the con-
trolling consideration for its erection
at that site. But the years have al
tered the situation since.
The Potomac flats have been filled
In south Of the White House by the
Army engineers. Potomac Park has
been created through reclamation and
the Highway and Railroad Bridges