Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1945-04-22
Capital Bl00med Under Roosevelt
President Took Deep Development Facilities
Late President To
By Maj. Gen. u. s. Grant III,
Chairman National Capital Park and
Planning Commission.

Washington has lost a great and wise
friend. His residence here before he
became President, his participation then
in the normal life of the city as place
in which to live and to work, gave him
an intimate insight into the problems
of its inhabitants and the amenities
which they enjoy or might enjoy. His
sense of fitness, his appreciation of
historic and inspirational values, his
sensitiveness to the incongruous, made
him aware of past errors in its develop
ment and enthusiastic for its possible
tiles as great capital and "the highest
expression of our culture"
Like President Washington, he was
deeply convinced of the Importance OF
sound and foresighted planning in the
orderly development of great city. He
knew the Importance of such orderly
development, not only to the economic
life of the city, but also to the happi-
ness and well-being of its inhabitants
during the two-thirds of the time when
they are not busy earning their livings
Accordingly, he gave OF his time and
of his best thought to the problems OF
the National Capital to an extent few
knew of and which now, looking back,
seems hardly possible
A unique feature of the LEnfant
plan for the new seat of the Federal
Government was his proposal for
broad park running due west from the
Capitol and intersecting the Presidents
Park, extending south from the White
House to the Potomac River. At the
intersection he proposed to locate
monument to George Washington, and
to insure the vista between this monu-
ment and the Capitol, he proposed
great avenue. On these two axes Of
parks the plan for the city was based,
instead of being based as usual on two
business streets so often called Main
street and Market street.
Approved by Mcmillan Group.
This plan also insured that, while the
White House to the north and the
Capitol to the east would be directly
adjacent to the city and its streets for
the transaction of business, both the
Chief Executive and the Congress would
overlook, to the south and to the west
respectively, the restful and interesting
incidents of a park with a distant view
ending in the hills of Virginia. After
a careful study of other American
cities and of the best-known cities
abroad, the Mcmillan commission in
1901 adopted L'Enfant's idea as inspired
and outstanding, and recommended the
general principles on which it should
be developed in our Capital City, which
In the 100 years had already outgrown
President Washington's and L'Enfant's
expectation.
Their plan was so fine and inspiring
that many of its features were success
sively carried out throughout the years:
The Lincoln Memorial. the Arlington
Memorial Bridge leading to the me-
mortal entrance to Arlington Cemetery
and pointing the vista to the Arlington
Mansion beyond, the Grant and Meade
Monuments at the foot of Capitol Hill
terminating the Mall avenue at its east
end, and the frame of monumental
buildings that had been built in previous
dGlOllS 11OWCNC1S VAC ACFS1oP-
ment of the Mall had been carried east
ward from the Washington Monument
for only one block. President Roose-
velts enthusiastic appreciation of the
very original and beautiful plan for
this central composition of the city in
spired his personal interest and par
ticipation in the steps necessary to
Il.
it. and to bring about the location and
appropriate setting of the Jefferson Me-
mortal as the terminal of the formal
north and south axis The completion
of the Mall was one of the first jobs
| undertaken with an ALLEGATION of ST.
1000 made by him to relieve unem-
ployment
Kept Pentagon Away.
Similarly he took a personal part in
determining the location of many Fed
eral buildings, insuring their being in
harmony with the approved plan for the
central area. His intercession in the
location of the Pentagon Building, so
that it would not be an intrusion on the
central area, but would adequately meet
the unitarian needs of the emergency,
was notable reconciliation of practical
conditions with esthetic and historical
requirements. His insistent instructions
that the temporary buildings, including
those still remaining from the First
World War, should be removed promptly
on conclusion of this war, is policy
which it is to be fervently hoped will
be carried out, so that the great central
composition of our Capital, as dreamed
of by LEnfant and designed by the