Evening star., 1947-06-19
-
tanners Accept
GIoyer-Archbold
Park Land Price
Commission to Get
Lost Tructs Needed :
For Development
BY Rudolph kouffmonn II

BY Rudolph Kouffmonn II
The National Capital Park and
Planning Commission completed
purchase Of land for Gloyer-Arch-
bold Park today.
1t accepted District Court con-
domination jury awards for the last
two pieces of property needed to
complete the 184-acre tract. The
awards were made yesterday.
The park extends from the C. u
O. Canal to Upton street NV,
through the valley of Foundry
Branch. The commission has been
trying to complete it for more than
20 years.
Norman c. Brown. the commits
sion's land purchasing officer, said
the jury had decided 1885, 900 was
fair price for a strip Of the former
Grasslands tract, which flanks the
valley of the branch on, the north,
q short distance above Massachusetts
avenue. He said the jury had set
$23,750 as the price to be paid for
piece of the Washington City
Orphanage grounds Immediately to-
the northwest.
The two strips total about two
acres.
Settlement Accepted.
The commission today also ac-
cepted a settlement for about one
acre OF land at Bladensburg road
and Eastern avenue NE. This pur-
chase will complete acquisition of
land for the commissions contro-
versial Fort Drive in that section
Of the city.
Mr.. Brown said the owner Of the
property is Jimmy La Fontaine,
Washington gambler.
The past year has seen the plan
ming commission and the District
Government at odds over the value
Of the proposed Fort Drive. The
drive is proposed to insulate inner
Washington against unnecessary
congestion by by-passing trafI1c over
a modern dual-lane parkway fol-
lowing the line of the Capitals old
Civil War forts, now parks.
Today Thomas C. Jeffers, COM
mission technician in charge of
planning the project, was to present
revised schedule for building the
drive expected to prove more palat-
able to District officials who have
dubbed it "chimerical and useless"
May Be Built in Sections.
The new plan is expected to stress
that the drive can be built in sec
tions only as needed and grade
separations installed over a long
period of years as traffic congestion
becomes acute.
When the State Department moved
TO its new quarters at Twenty-f1rst
street and Virginia avenue NV,
early this spring, talk of extending
the building to house all State per-
sonnel was started.
Built originally as War Depart
ment building, but replaced In that
capacity by the Pentagon, the build /
ing there now represents only one
third of the building originally
planned.
The Planning Commission was
scheduled to discuss plans for the
extension with Public Buildings Ad-
ministration officials and Fine Arts
Commission members today, al
though Congress is unlikely to ap-
prove actual construction for a few
years.
Memorials to Be Discussed.
Out in Mcmillan Park there used
to be fountain in honor of James
Mcmillan, former Michigan SEN
ator, whose 1901 special commission
revived the Washington plan at the
turn of the century.
During the war, the site was need
ed for defense purposes and the
fountain was Grated up and stored
away by the National Park Service. |
Today planning and Fine Arts
Commission members, as well as
National Park Service officials, were
to discuss plan for putting the
fountain south of the rejecting
pool, where the Park Service hopes |
to put the rose garden uprooted
by the new twin Highway Bridges.
The rose garden plan must wait, !
however, until residence halls along |
Independence avenue can be torn
down. !
The two commissions also were
to talk over plans to erect an An
drew Mellon memorial near the
National Gallery of Art and whether |
the wartime canopy across the front |
of the Union Station ought to be-
come a permanent part of the sta
tion or not.
Slum Housing Survey.
In the past year Planning Com
mission staff members and District |
Health Department researchers
have been surveying slum sections
of the District to find q yardstick
to measure just what slum is.
They have been using score
board which docks a house for poor !
toilets, too many persons to room,
etc.
The planners today were to hear |
4 plan worked out by their director |
of planning, John Nolen. jr.. to add |
family composition and employ
ment conditions to the points |
scored. |
HI - M 81 = p p ? 81 II