Evening star., 1960-05-29

inadequacy of facilities for the
performing arts. and I might add,
the sciences, in our Nations Capt.
tai. We note, for instance that
the adult cultural efforts of the
District of Columbia Recreation
Department and the Children's
Theater, also sponsored by the D.
c. Recreation Department, are
presented not in a well-located,
adequate, Government = owned
theater, but in the Roosevelt High
School Auditorium, uptown at
18th and Allison streets, NV.
1t is our most sincere hope that
the present need for an adequate
facility for the performing arts
and for lectures and other public
forums will be recognized by the
subcommittee and that you will
support restoration of the Belasco
Theater. 1t is our understanding
that this can be accomplished with
a capital outlay Of less than Phila-
delphia's annual appropriated ex-
penditure for fine arts.
Parenthetically, we wish to point
out that an operating opera house
or theater, such as the old Belasco,
would serve eminently to give the
arts groups a pilot plant operation
in preparation for the reality of
national cultural center to which
we all fervently look forward. We
do not feel, though, that the cul-
tural center can be a reality for
perhaps 10 years, and the dis
graceful paucity of facilities for
the fine arts cannot be permitted
to continue for so long an interim
period
Would it not be a matter for
great pride if a President of the
United States would be able to
walk out of the White House
with state visitor, cross a corner
Of Lafayette Square, and enter a
refurbished and elegant state
theater for a recital by some
great American artist, or to at
tend with a guest one of the
highly professional performances
by the Opera Society of Wash
ington or the Washington Ballet
Guild. Certainly if Khrushchev
can have his BolShoi in Moscow
in which to show of the Soviet's
pride in artistic accomplishments,
If De Gaulle can have his Paris
Opera House, if practically every
other capital in Europe can have
Its state theater or opera house,
the United States surely can afford
similar facility and can afford
it now without waiting for con-
Struction and completion of the
cultural center.
Money Spent Abroad
We spend $118 million a year
through our United States Infor-
nation Agency to counteract
around-the-world munist
propaganda that we are an un-
cultured, materialist society in
terested only in making money
and hardware. Yet here in our
Nations Copital-the free worlds
No, l shoWcase-we spend $4,000
a year for the performing arts
and don't have single publicly
owned building in which to show
our cultural heritage and interest
in these art forms.
I also would like to state that
our committee also is interested in
saving the Dolly Madison House
and Benjamin Tayloe House.
These two buildings also front
on the east side of Lafayette
Square. They lend greatly needed
quiet and provide a traditional
atmosphere to the White House
area and can we'll serve a needed
function as well-located galleries
for art exhibitions and for other
graphic arts purposes for which
we do not now have adequate ia
cilitieS.
The Benjamin Tayloe House, we
have been informed by the Ma
tional Trust for Historic Preserva-
ton and others interested in this
building, justif1eS saving. In addi-
ton to its public utility and in
addition to the atmosphere which
it lends to the White House park,
because the building itself meets
all Of the statutory criteria justi-
flying preservation. 1t is one of
those too few remaining buildings
in Washington which give the city
historic interest and its preserva-
ton would not be simply antiquity
for antiquity's sake. 1t can yet
serve many useful purposes. and
we feel that the razing of this
building would be an unnecessary
and waSteful incursion into the
historic tradition of Washington.