Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1956-02-12
Doto Due | omorrow
On DC. Income Tax
Architect Hits
Plan toChange
Capitol Front
BY FRANCIS P. DOUGLAS

BY FRANCIS P. DOUGLAS
Another contender in the
battle of the Capitol has entered
the lists against the proposed
changes in the east front of the
venerable building.
He is Prof. James Grote Van
Derpool of Columbia University,
president of the Society of Ar
chitectural Historians. He re-
ferred to the projected face
lifting of the old part of the
building-urged for almost 100
years-as "the proposed demo-
Ilition of the east front Of the
central block of our Nations
Capitol"
Writing to Speaker Rayburn,
he said: las this part of the
facade stands, it is a great origi-
NAL American architectural docu-
ment, which speaks with honesty
and directness about the high
architectural quality prevailing
in the early days of our young
republic. It offers incontro-
vertible testimony of the quality
of achievement possible at the
time our laws were framed and
our Nation took form.
Cites Historical Value
Three of our most important
architects, historically speaking,
CDR. William) Thornton. Ben
jamin H. Latrobe and (Charles)
Bulfinch, engaged on the design
OF this part of the Capitol. If
we destroy their work. an his
torical document has been in
validated. What replaces it
will only have the value of a
20th-century forgery of an
original work"
Speaker Rayburn's reaction to
the letter was a statement that
the work would be carried out.
He added that his ambition is
to get rid of the clutter of auto
mobiles parked in front Of the
building.
The reconstruction plans are
expected to include a redesign
of the Capitol plaza, with pro-
vision underground for park
ing. The plaza then will no long
err be a giorified parking lot
with the Nations most cherished
building as a backdrop.
S. Million Appropriated
Five million dollars have al
ready been appropriated for the
first work Of moving forward
the east portico and the walls
Iof the original building. The
proposed budget for fiscal 1857
includes SIC million for the
project.
Whether the present portico
is to be faithfully reproduced
or redesigned is a question to be
resolved as the plans mature.
One design proposed N the past
calls for a portico7 with 10 COL
umns across the front. At
present there are eight.
The 10-column plan is based
on the belief that the center por-
Itico should be the most impor-
tant of the three.
Opponents Of a change base
their arguments on several
points. One is the preservation
Iof the Nations architectural
heirloom. Another is that the
present east front forms court
providing a dignified setting for
Iinaugurations and other cere-
monies. Still another is that
moving the portico forward
would tend to hide the dome
which now scars above the east
front and ceremonies held there.
'tBOondoggling" Charged
| Douglas Haskell, editor of the
Architectural Forum, wrote in
that magazine recently that the
reconstruction would be piece
of architectural boondoggling
and folly" He said that despite
its faults the Capitol is a build
ing with "a unique and remark
able pleasant personality"
How much of the original ex-
terror Of the center section will
remain is a question. Francis
p. Sullivan, architect and head
of the American Institute of
Architects committee on the
Capitol. testified in 1885:
There is no one today who
can say that any particular part
of the present exterior stone
work existed at the time of the
original construction.
This probably applies to the
old Senate and House portions
of the original building rather
than to the central section with
its portico. The structures &C.
cupied by the two chambers
initially were connected by a.
wooden arcade,
Section Finished in 1927
The central section with a.
modest dome and the portico
were completed in 1927, covering
over two wells which had pro-
vided water for those legislators
addicted to it. The whole is of
Aqua sandstone. porous and
given to crumbling in the
weather.
The two sections of stone in
1914 were damaged when the
Capitol was burned. In the re-
pairs. the exterior surface of the
sandstone was chiSeled down.
according to Mr.. Sullivan, and a
considerable part was replaced
The cornice and balusters have
been replaced entirely.
In 1898 there was an explosion
of gas used to illuminate the
building. 1t occurred in the SUBJ
basement on the Senate side of