Evening star., 1951-08-23
An Elegant White Elephant

The most imposing and most expensive white
elephant in the District of Columbia is the
National Guard Armory. It has meant a raw
deal for local taxpayers ever since it was built
The Commissioners they had no reasonable
alternatiVe-have closed the door to making it
anything else.
When the armory project was first seriously
discussed in the late 3Os the theory was that as
the National Guard in the District is a purely
Federal organization, in contrast to the State
National Guard organizations under local control
the Federal Government would contribute gen.
erouSly to construction of an adequate armory
The Federal Government supplied the site,
paid for largely with local funds But the
building was financed from local revenue with
no extra contribution from the Federal Govern
ment. It cost more than 50 million. But as part
of the campaign to convince Congress and the
community that this would be money we'll spent,
there was lot of talk about the great COM
munity meeting place that it would provide for
crowds of 10000 people and more.
The architects designing the building, how
ever were not in on this talk. Nobody seems to
have told them. They planned the armory
gorgeous drill hall-the best that money could
buy. The designs were completed in 1910 and
the building itself was finished in February of
1942-two months after Pearl Harbor The FBI,
not the National Guard, took it over and 1t was
used as Federal office space during the war and
afterward, until the middle of 1947.
Then the awakening. There had been, in
1912, the tragic Cocoanut Grove fire in Boston,
in which 400 people lost their lives All over the
country municipal officials began Tightening up
on their building regulations, including those
fixing, in relation to the size and number of
exits, the capacity of crowds which could sit or
stand together under one roof. When the tight
ened regulations were applied to the armory,
after 1t was turned over to the District, it was
found that 4825 was the top number of people
who could be admitted at one time. Thus num-
ber was later increased, under an amendment,
to 5,310-far short of the audiences of 10000
or more that the promoters of the deal were
talking about when they got the legislation and
money to build the armory.
There was, in the meantime, long dispute
between the Commissioners and the National
Guard over who controlled the building dis
pute resolved by legislation setting up board,
which operates the building for any public use
that does not interfere with the National Guard
Last year the board turned in to the District
about $4,000 as profit" on its operation. This
year it may turn in more But 1t costs the
District $209,0 year to maintain the building
and any thought of making it carry itself, by
public use, is now out of the question
The Armory Board wanted the Commission
erS to amend their egresS regulations and double
the seating capacity. thus making more use of
the building and making more money. The Com
missioners had no recourse but to turn down the
request, for otherwise they would be repudiating
their own safety regulations. Had the building
been designed as combination public assembly
hall and armory with the required number of
exits, Washington might have come nearer
realizing its great need here for public audi
torium Of sorts. AS it u.s. the building is an
expensive waste, structure that exceeds the
real need of the National Guard and falls far
short of meeting public need. Instead of
blessing, it turned out to be a blunder