Evening star., 1938-05-19
JEFFERSON PLAN
CHANGED AGAIN
Arts Commission Project,
Once Approved, Ditched,
Letter Reveals,

Further confusion was added today
to the already confused situation re-
garding the proposed Thomas Jefferson
Memorial by the release of a letter
written on February 10, 1888, by Rep
resentative John J. Boylan, chairman
of the Thomas Jefferson Memorial
Commission, to Gilmore Clarke. chair
man of the Commission Of Fine Arts,
which said that the Memorial Com
mission had unanimously approved
treatment of the memorial which would
have resulted in abandonment OF the
Pantheon scheme-the Pantheon
scheme having evoked Nationwide
protest. Later, however. the COM
mission apparently reversed itself and
went back to the Patheon design.
The text of the letter addressed to
Mr. Clarke follows:
Il am happy to inform you that the
Thomas Jefferson Memorial Commis-
sion unanimously adopted the open
scheme of memorial presented yester-
day and advocated by you. There will
be no announcement before we see the
President, probably Wednesday.
LAS we understand the site and
design are acceptable to your COM
mission. would appreciate now hav-
ing a brief statement to this effect
expressing affirmatively the merits of
the site and the design. We under
stand, of course, that details Of the
design can be worked out further with
your assistance"
Followed Clarke Letter.
That letter, it was recalled today,
followed a letter from Chairman
Clarke. in which Mr.. Clarke reiter-
ated the fact that the commission of
Fine Arts was unable to approve the
Pantheon design for the memorial
prepared in the Office of the late
John Russell Pope. Mr.. Clarke in
formed the commission that another
study prepared by your architects
showing a more open treatment pro-
viding two semi-circular colonnades.
seems to the commission more emf
nently fitting for the site and COM
mends this design to the Jefferson
Memorial Commission as one more
suitable, after further and more de-
tailed study, to memorialize the great
contributions which Thomas Jefferson
made to this Nation"
Mr.. Clark said that the site for the
memorial calls for low, broad. archi-
tectural mass. the central axis open
or partly open, with notable central
figure or other sculptural composition
dominating the surrounding structure
designed to partly inclose an area
which will become the shrine dedicated
to the writer Of the Declaration of In
dependence" Mr. Clark wrote that
the Commission of Fine Arts submitted
its suggestion with the sincere belief
that confidence in our studied consid-
Grafton of this most important prob
lem will be fully justified"
Mr.. Boylan's letter to Mr.. Clark a
few days later said that the Fine Arts
Commissions suggestion had been
unanimously adopted" Since that
time, however, the Fine Arts Commis-
sion has reversed itself again and gone
back to the much criticized Pantheon
design originally adopted and which
lacks Fine Arts Commission approval.
Change Commented On.
In an article to be printed in the
forthcoming issue of the Magazine OF
Art, F. A. Whiting, jr., the editor,
comments at length on the unex-
planned change Of plans by the Jeffer-
son Memorial Commission and en-
phasizes the fact that the present
Pantheon design has never been &C
cepted by the Commission of Fine
Arts. In the article he quotes from a
letter written by Mr.. Clarke to the
President which declared that 'it is
regrettable that lay commission has
found it desirable to proceed to build
upon the last great site in the Ma
tional Capital a structure which, in
the considered judgment Of COM
mission of artists, is unsuitable"
Mr.. Whiting asks in his article:
would it not be to the public interest
to reveal its facts as candidly as has
Chairman Clarke?"
Pending in the House now is a bill.
introduced by Representative Keller of
Illinois, chairman of the Committee
on the Library. proposing that a COM