Evening star., 1939-07-14
Land Contracts
ToExpand Park
AreApproved
Planning Body
Completes Columbia
Heights Area

Contracts to buy land needed to
complete the Columbia Heights rec
reation area at Sixteenth and La
mont streets NV. were approved to-
day by the National Capital Park
and Planning Commission at its
one-day July meeting.
Condemnation was authorized in
instances where prices are not &C
ceptable to the commission, Norman
c. Brown, land purchasing agent,
announced.
The area in question surrounds
Powell Junior High School and is
bounded, roughly, by Hyatt place,
Sixteenth street, Park road and
Lamont street in a congested area
of the city which is in need of more
play space.
Purchase of a number of row
houses is involved in the acquisition,
1t was revealed.
Contracts calling for land acquisi-
ton in the area bounded by Eads
place, Fiftieth street, Forty ninth
street and Washington place NE.
were also approved. This area has
been designated as the recreation
. center for that portion of the city.
Other Contracts.
Other land acquisition contracts
approved were for Is acres of the
land needed to complete Fort drive,
Fort Totten and the District line,
land in the Bureau of Standards
valley to the east of Connecticut
avenue through which park con-
nection with the avenue is to run,
and several small areas in Palisades
Park along the Potomac. 1t is
through the latter park that the
George Washington Memorial Park
way is to run.
John Nolen, jr., director of plan
ming, presented to the commission
today tentative plans for a program
OF land purchase for the year 1941.
AS usual, the commission will not
disclose the program except as the
purchases are made at some future
date.
Following adjournment of the
morning session, commission mem
bers drove to the site of the new
National airport at Gravelly Point
to observe the proposed relocation of
Mount Vernon Memorial highway
where 1t interferes with the airport.
The new route Is staked out ten
tatively between the Bureau of
Public Roads Research Center and
the railroad tracks. The old road
way will be used to provide access to
the airport.
Navy Building Plans.
Other important matters which the
commission was to consider today
included preliminary studies of the
new Navy Department Building,
which have been prepared by the
Procurement Division of the Treas
ury.
The commission also was to con-
slider the proposal of Senator Glass
OF Virginia to place toll bridge at
Great Falls. Tentative plans for
bridge at this point to connect the
Virginia and Maryland sections of
the proposed George Washington
Memorial Parkway already have
commission approval and it is
thought the commission will lend a
favorable ear to bridge proposals
near the falls.
Still another matter which was to
be discussed by the commission was
the possible effect passage of the
Kennedy bill to reorganize the Dis
trict government might have on the
commission.
Bill Is Before Congress.
Tentative studies for the new
= Navy Building call for large struc-
ture in the style of the new In
terror Department Building, to be
located In the tract of land bounded
by Twenty-third street, Constitu-
tion avenue, F street and the Po-
tomac River. Supplementary to it
will be a naval museum and berths
Tor the permanent housing of four
historic United States ships.
A bill authorizing $23,466,OO0 for
construction of the new building
group is nov before Congress with
every chance of approval. When
approved it is expected that Con-
gress will be asked to appropriate
$3,000 900 so that work on the build
ing may be started. This procedure
has already been followed in rela-
ton to the new War Department,
which is to be situated in the Fed
eral rectangle between Twenty-first
and Twenty-third streets, c and D
streets NV.