Evening star., 1947-06-19
WASHINGTON AND VICINITY
THURSDAY, JUNE 10, 1947
|GIoyer,ArchboId
Land Deal
Up 10 Planners
Price Fixed on Tructs
Needed to Complete
Development
By Rudolph Kouffmonn II

Development
By Rudolph Kouffmonn II
Two pieces Of land needed to com.
plete Glover-Archbold Park after
more than 20 years of DEVELOPMENT.
are ready for the National Capital
Park and Planning Commissions
acceptance today.
A District Court condemnation
jury yesterday brought in purchase
awards to round out the spacious
park reaching from the G. g. o.
Canal up the valley Of Foundry
Branch to Upton street NV. The
action came just day before the
commission opened Its two-day June
meeting.
The jury named $e5,ooo as a fair
price for a strip Of the former
Grasslands tract, lying along the
north side of the branch valley q
short way above Massachusetts, ave-
nue.. It set $23,370 as the price for
a smaller strip OF the Washington
City Orphanage Immediately to the
northwest.
As soon as the commission accepts
the award, the entire tract of more
than 180 acres will be ready for de-
velopment by the National Park
Service as part Of the city's growing
park system.
The project started in 1924, when
Mrs. Anne Archbold and Charles
G. Glover, owners Of the branch
valley from Massachusetts avenue to
Reservoir road, offered 80 acres of
the valley as gift to, the Govern
ment. The gift was accepted by
Congress on June s of that year.
Since then the commission has
obtained another SO acres for the
park. 1t is now one Of the larger
parks In the city. It's mission is to
provide recreation space for the
residential area surrounding 1t. and
If the District Highway Depart
ment has its way, to provide a right
OF way for the proposed Arizona
avenue expressway.
heVamp fOft Drive Plan.
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 traffic over
a modern dual-lane parkway fol-
lowing the line of the Capitals old
Civil War forts, now parks.
Today Thomas G. Jeffers, COM
mission technician in charge of
planning the project, was to present
a revised schedule for building the
drive expected to prove more palat.
able to District officials who have
dubbed 1t "chimerical and useless"
The new plan Is expected to stress
that the drive can be built In sec
lions only as needed and grade
separations installed over a long
period of years as traffic congestion
becomes acute.
State Extension Discussed.
When the State Department moved
to its new quarters at Twenty-f1
street and Virginia avenue NV.
early this spring, talk of extending
the building to house all State per-
sonnet 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-
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 Sem
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 snear 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
ton or not.
Slum Housing Survey.
In the past year Planning Com
mission staff members and District
Health Department researchers
nave been surveying slrlm sections
Of the District to find yardstick
TO measure just what slum is.
They have been using a score
board which docks q house for Door
'oilets, too many persons to room,
etc.
The planners TODAY were to hear