Evening star., 1942-03-21
Planners See
Partial Answer
In Barracks
Arlington Contonment
Building Advanced as
Worker Dormitory

The National Capital Park and
Planning Commisson believes t has
found in the abandoned soldiers
barracks at Arlington Cantonment
a partial substitute for President
Roosevelts plan to house war work.
ers in temporary dormitories on the
Mall.
The Arlington barracks can ac-
commodate 1000 persons as COM
fortably as the kind of dormitories
Mr. Roosevelt suggested for the
Mall. it was agreed, and have been
vacant since the men were trans
ferred to Fort Myer.
1t developed before the Federal
planners adjourned their monthly
sessions late yesterday that they
had on tap some 40 available sites
in the Washington area, many of
which are more suitable than the
Mall for temporary housing. The
Arlington site and some others, per-
haps, will be submitted for the ap-
proval of John Blandford, director
of the National Housing Agency,
and w. E. Reynolds, commissioner
OF the Public Building Administra-
ton.
Soldiers Home Suggested.
Sections of the Soldiers Home
grounds. the National Training
School for Boys, the newly acquired
tract in Suitland, Md, and some
Of the grounds of Galludet College
were among those suggested as suit
able for housing.
Before it adjourned the commits
sion approved a compromise pro-
posal by which it favored giving
the Washington Navy Yard per-
NIT to use IS acres of Anacostia
Park for the duration of the war
only. That approval, however, does
not definitely settle the matter.
Secretary of the Interior Ickes
and the National Park Service have
the final say and it was not known
whether they would agree to this
use OF the park area for the erec-
tion Of training school for l,400
men as the Navy Yard proposes.
The area in question is now occu-
pied by an Army recreation camp
for colored soldiers
The Navy Yard had sought a per-
manent transfer of 10 acres, all the
area below the Eleventh Street
Bridge to the point reserved for
bridging the Anacostia River to
South Capitol street. The Planning
Commission, however, refused to
sanction the demand for fear it
would lead eventually to removal of
the District and United States Bo-
tanic Garden nurseries in the ex-
treme southern portion of the area.
May Get Recreation Facilities.
One inducement that led to
approval of the transfer of the camp
site is the chance that after the war
the Navy Yard would relinquish to
the National Capital Parks the rec
reation facilities it plans to erect in
the area.
Members of the commission visited
some of the 40 sites singled out by
j. c. Nichols. another member, to
make study of those deemed suit
able for housing and new Federal
Office buildings. Chairman Frederic
A. Delano accompanied them.
The Arlington site was advanced
after the commission had found
three primary objections to using
the Mall for temporary dormitories
These objections were:
TnoIer1ocu ,,ro1y;IoI
by the center panel of the Mali,
which nets no more than 10 acres of
land
2. Danger to occupants of inham-
able buildings in the event of air
raids on the Capital.
3. The Mall was said to be one of
the hottest spots in Washington
during the summer.
Pictured as Ideal Target"
The planners are vigorously op-
posed to cluttering the Mall with
more buildings, regardless of the
need. because they contend a con-
centration there would provide an
ideal target for bombs. New Office
structures already have been reared
in sections of the Mall and these,
too, have no protection from air
raids.
At Arlington. it was said, 1000
workers could be housed in barracks
within few hundred yards of both
the new War Department Building
and the Navy Building already
erected there 1t would be conven-
lent and would entail little expense
to accommodate workers in these
barracks. The barracks have two
floors with running water for wash
rooms. President Roosevelt sug-
gested somewhat similar arrange
ment for the proposed dormitories
on the Mall.
The commission approved an ex-
tension of the Fort Reno Reservoir
to supply the needs of the growing
population in that area. Plans we're
submitted by the United States
Engineers Office and the water
would be furnished only to civilians.