Evening star., 1956-08-18
The Power to Destroy
(See editorial, "A Strange
StOry'l

You may well ask why our
Columbia Historical Society
is not now in the house
so generously given us by our
late life member, Mrs. Chris
tian Heurich. Well, here is the
strange story.
Back in March, just to make
sure, / asked confirmation at
the District Assessors office of
the fact that our society's real
estate would be exempt from
the real estate tax under Sec.
47-80Ia, Part v of the D. c.
Code as a nonprofit educa-
tional. charitable and scientific
institution. I was shocked and
astounded to be told mo" and
advised to seek legislation for
such exemption.
Representative Howard w.
Smith of Virginia and Senator
Matthew M. Neely Of West
Virginia graciously introduced
the bill to give us such exemp-
ton. Hearings were held in the
Senate. Not persuaded by our
plea before the Board of Com
missioners for them not to OPP
pose this legislation, they did
oppose it. The assessor really
went to town in his opposition
to our bill,, ending with. the
suggestion that our library and
collections Of Washingtoniana
and historical source material
be turned over to the Public
Library, which he surmised had
plenty Of room and personnel
to make them more useful to
the public.
This hardly seemed likely, as
we are under notice from the
library to vacate even the
space in the attic of 499 Penn
sylvania avenue, where our
collections have been stored
for a few years. because sorely
needed by the District. Prompt
inquiry of the librarian con-
firmed the fact that, while he
might be able to accept the
books and make them available
to the public, he had neither
the space nor suitable file cases
for the remainder: nor did he
have the personnel required. 1t
was noteworthy that the re-
uuired trained personnel would
cost the District annually at
least twice as much as the real
estate tax on the Heurich h
property; and then there would
be the cost Of new equipment
for the preservation and dis
play of our collections! The as
SCISSORS suggestion would not
prove practicable or economi-
.calIy beneficial to the District.
Thanks to the understand
ing of the situation by the
committee members handling
the legislation in Congress and
our showing that the States,
counties and cities throughout
the country which have his
torical societies have exempted
them from taxation, or been
forced to recognize their tax
exempt status by court de-
cisions, the legislation exempt
ing the Heurich property from
the real estate tax passed both
houses in June and was ap-
proved by the President on
Monday, July 2. The District
authorities now indicate that.
because the act was not ap-
proved before July /, We are
not exempted from the tax for
the current tax year. which be-
gan July II While in the past
the real estate tax has been
S2,726.28, it is now raised to
something like $3,200.0O. a
sizeable amount for our society
to be called on to pay Just be-
cause our convalescing and
overburdened President, while
moving from the hospital to
Gettysburg on Saturday June
30, left signature Of the bill
until the following Monday.
At the end Of May a ruling
was obtained from the Board
Of zoning Adjustment for an
occupancy permit, the house
being in an area zoned resi-
Dental c. 1t seems likely that
the special protective altera-
tions that will be demanded by
the building inspector may
cost as much as $4,000. The
matter Is being investigated
now.
After our legislation had
been introduced. our vice presi-
dent was cautioned that we
would have to pay the Inherit
ance tax, in spite Of the fact
that we thought ourselves also
exempted from this by the
general law. SO on advice Of
counsel. It seemed best to as
certain definitely what claims
might be made against the
!