Ten Years In Washington by Mary Clemmer Ames

Author:Mary Clemmer Ames [Ames, Mary Clemmer]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Geschichte
Publisher: Jazzybee Verlag
Published: 2019-05-19T22:00:00+00:00

IT is one of the traditions of Washington that Andrew Jackson decided the exact site of the present Treasury Building. After the third destruction by fire, in 1833, of the early Treasury Buildings, a great strife came up concerning the location of the new Treasury. Worn out with the claims of "rival factions," it is said that President Jackson walked out a few rods from the White House one morning, and thrusting his cane into the ground, exclaimed: " Put the building right here! " This ended all disputes, and the end of the " old hero's " cane marked the north-east corner of the present site of the Treasury of the United States.

Though nearly approached by the Patent Office, the Treasury Building, in architectural splendor, ranks next to the Capitol. Its corner-stone was laid in 1834 by Levi Woodbury, then Secretary of the Treasury. The original building was designed by Robert C. Mills, whose long and discolored colonnade on Fifteenth street is still visible. It was built of the freestone brought from near Acquia Creek, Virginia, which has touched with premature dinginess too many of the Federal buildings of the Capital. But in the Treasury its long line of smut is lost in the marble splendor of the extensions. The extension of the building was authorized in 1835, and built from the designs of Thomas W. Walter. It embodies the most perfect Grecian architecture, adapted to modern uses. It surrounds a hollow square, on which its inner offices look out on green grass and cooling fountain through the summer heats. Instead of cooped-up cells, the lower stories of the Treasury are filled with airy apartments, in which privileged mortals serve their country and earn their bread and butter. The new Treasury is built of gleaming granite brought from Dix Island, on the coast of Maine.

The walls of the extension are composed of pilasters, resting on a base which rises some twelve feet above the ground on the southern or lower side. Between the pilasters are antae or belt-courses, nobly molded; the facings of the doors and windows bear moldings in harmony. The southern, western and northern fronts present magnificent porticoes. Its lofty pillars are of the Ionic order, and the entire building is at last surmounted by a massive balustrade. The south wing was completed and occupied in 1860. The west wing was completed in 1863 — the north in 1867— the whole at a cost of $6,750,000. The exterior is four hundred and sixty-four feet by two hundred and sixty-four feet.

The Treasury was begun and consummated on a truly magnificent scale, and with the expectation that it would meet every demand of its own branch of the public service for at least a century. Like every one of the public buildings, it is already too small to accommodate the overcrowded bureaus of its own departments, several of which, for want of room in the Treasury Building, already occupy other houses in different parts of the city; and yet there is not space left for those who remain.

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