Evening star., 1943-04-25
Potomac Park, a Half Century AGO.
BY John Clagett Proctor.

BY John Clagett Proctor.
There were persons among those who
witnessed the recent dedication of the
Thomas jefferson Memorial who had
but the faintest idea of what this vicin-
ity looked like less than half century
ago, though feeble effort was made
at much earlier date ito reclaim the
nnalarial marshes in front of Washing
ton and change this festive nuisance
into thing of beauty and usefulness"
E An old Washingtonian, in describing
this area at time when the Capital
was, indeed, a city in embryo, had this
to say:
"The fiat, or bar, on the south side
Of the Tiber and from the Washington
Monument, in a westerly direction to
hear the Potomac channel. and thence
in a southerly direction to near the
Long Bridge, including within its linn
its, perhaps 16 or 18 acres, was, in the
early age of the city taken up and
claimed, so 1t was said, by the late DR..
William Thornton, he having, he
thought, the best title thereto, by right
of discovery.
He calculated that, in a short time,
1t would be filled up by deposits from
the Potomac. To cause it to fill up
more speedily than it naturally would,
he planted number of little saplings
and bushes along and near the channel.
and in various parts of the fiat, so as to
define the bounds of his domain.
These saplings and bushes remained
there for number of years, and some
of them until the years 1913 and 1874
when we were encamped on Observatory
Hill; for I remember that we used to
select the largest of them as targets to
fire at when the guard were discharged
each morning; but I suppose there is
not sign of any of them now.
IT was always Of the opinion that this
fiat was either the property of the Cor
poration Of Washington or Of the United
States-more probably that Of the
latter"
Reclaiming the Flats.
An early beginning in retaining the
Potomac Flats took place during Presi-
dent Grants term of Office when he ap-
pointed Bvt. Brig. Gen. Orville E. Bab-
cock to serve as superintendent OF public
buildings and grounds, the Office he held
from 1873 to 1877, during which time
certain portions of the Mall and Flats
were considerably improved, especially
that part of the Mall nearest to the
Washington Monument.
An old picture of that period, in the
writer's collection, shows just how close
to the Monument the water once came
and one can hardly realize that the area
where the beautiful Lincoln Memorial
now stands was, during Gen. Babcocks
term of Office, substantially part
of the Potomac River. Here may also
be seen, to the right, Babcock's Lake,
named for the general, and still re-
membered by ever so many Washing
tonians who have grown to that age when
memory finds pleasure in living in the
past.
1t is especially recalled, because of the
pleasure it afforded during the winter
months, when 1t was sufficiently frozen
over to permit of skating, and when the
lake would be crowded from early
morning till late at night by the young,
the middle aged and the old. Though
quite young at the time, yet the writer
cherishes among his memories the many
occasions he INDUCED in this sport on
this lake. and he recalls, too, some of
those who would go there to earn a few
dollars by sharpening skates, for which
their usual outfit consisted of just a
three-sided file or two
No doubt the present generation enjoys
itself equally as we'll during wintertime
skating on the Rejecting Pool, to the
east of the Lincoln Memorial, where
terminates the westermost part of the
Mall, only few hundred feet from the
river, and though this ground was once
covered with water yet there is no danger
OF the memorial ever settling, for the
reason that-like the very Government
In which we live-it stands upon a bed
rock foundation.
Department of Agriculture.
Another familiar sight in this old
picture IS the original building of the
Department of Agriculture, erected in
1868 and removed in 1880, when the new
TIL wv II