Evening star., 1940-04-21
Fifty Years Ago
In The Stdr
After hhany years OF wrangling over
the erection of city post once in WASH

tne ereCAon OF clty posi- ONCE IN wash
ington a favorable report,
Post Office approving site at Ninth
Bill FoiIs street and Pennsylvania
avenue was made to the
Senate. Suspicion then arose that mis-
Ssading information regarding the suit
ability of the site had been furnished,
and on April 10, 1890, the Senate recon-
mitted the bill to the Committee on Pub
lie Buildings and Grounds. In its issue
of April 20, 1890, The Star makes the
following editorial comment:
"The Senate Committee on Public
Buildings has withdrawn its assent TO
the House proposition of a local post
Office at Ninth street and Pennsylvania
avenue, and the city's strong hopes Of
speedy settlement of the question are
destroyed. The wrangle which has para
lyzed all action for many years will now
be resumed. The representatives of con-
tending site owners will proceed as of
old to cut the threats of one another's
projects; the advocates of the sacrifice Of
park to bricks and mortar will club the
site which promises to survive the throat
cutting; those who wish to utilize the
urgency of the need of local post Office
to secure an extension of the general
Post Office Department with temporary
accommodations on one floor for the city
Office, will be on hand to stab in the back
the project which has run the gantlet
of the throat-cutting and the clubbing,
and the Capital will continue to be dis
graced as In the past by the discreditable
and dangerous rented accommodations
which it provides for its post Office.
"The objection which seems to have
been viewed as fatal to the House propo-
sition is that of lack of adequate ground
space. Abundant floor space is offered,
but the postmaster is reported to have
insisted that the $4,000 square feet of
space required must be on the ground
floor. The report of the House commit
tee states that the supervising architect
Of the Treasury had estimated that the
plan of post Office building upon the
proposed site would afford $4,000 square
feet of floor space. exclusive of the base
ment, or $4,000 feet more than was now
needed, and so planned and built that sew
eral stories could be added to it If found
necessary In the future. The present
unsuitable rented quarters furnish 10000
square feet Of floor space. The necessity
will arise of making it very clear to the
people of Washington that accommoda-
ton on the ground floor is so essential
to all branches Of the post office that it
is better to retain the present rattletrap
than to secure building to cost $500 900
in a convenient location with four times
the present floor space. merely because
it will have only 11,000 feet of ground
floor space instead of the $4,000 feet OF
an ideal post Office in another CITY, If
this showing can be made then the action
of those who have deprived Washington
of million-dollar post Office will be JUS
titled, for the new building would be
practically worthless; otherwise very
heavy responsibility will rest upon those
who have interferred to throw the post
oflice discussion back to its starting point,
and Washington will be in a mood to
hold them strictly to this responsibility.
'It is supposed that the Senate COM
mittee will now take position in favor
Of housing the local office in a new build
ing with the general department, to be
kicked into the street when its rooms are
needed by the general Government after
the fashion in which it was ousted when
it occupied quarters with that depart
ment once before. Representatives will,
1t is expected, oppose the proposition, as
in the past, by the advocacy Of various
distinct purchased sites for the post
ofiice, or q location on Judiciary Square.
The sooner q conference is reached the
better. The proposition of disinter-
ested commission to select site will be
favored by everybody in the District who
cares more for securing post ONCE than
for booming particular site. The advo-
Gates Of various locations will not agree,
however, to the appointment Of COM
mission composed of men who are known
to be committed to a particular method
of settling the controversy or to par
ticular site. They will undoubtedly con-
tend that all should have fair chance
in the tossing Of pennies for the site.
Washington asks the Senate to yield to
the House, and the House to yield to the
Senate, and, II neither will yield, that
they leave the settlement of their dlf-