In 1871 the building was conveyed to the Federal Government, and has since housed, not only the District Courts, but also the offices of the U. S. District Attorney, U. S. Marshal, Register of Wills and Recorder of Deeds. The old eastern court-room has been the scene of many historic trials, including those of Dr. Gardiner and Richard H. White for burning the Treasury Building; Julian May for killing a man in a duel; Daniel E. Sickles for the murder of Philip Barton Key (p. 188), and Charles Guiteau for the assassination of President Garfield.

The building having become through long neglect badly out of repair, underwent in 1917 a thorough renovation. This necessitated the temporary removal of the District Court to the Emery Building, formerly occupied by the Census Bureau, at B and 2d Sts. In the course of repairs the S. façade or main front, was somewhat remodeled.

In front of the Court House stands a marble column, 35 ft. high, surmounted by a full-length marble statue of Lincoln, modeled by Lot Flannery of Washington, said to have been a self-taught sculptor, and once a Lieutenant in the U. S. Army. The statue was unveiled April 15th, 1868, the third anniversary of Lincoln's death. A bill to replace this statue with another is now pending in Congress (May, 1922).

The District Court of Appeals (Pl. III-E4-No. 100), situated immediately N. W. of the old Court House, constitutes the first of a projected series of Municipal buildings which will flank the two sides of Judiciary Sq. It was erected in 1910 from plans by Elliott Woods, assisted by W. D. Kneessi and August Eccard.

The architectural style is adapted Georgian; and it is interesting to observe how closely and judiciously the architect has followed Hadfield's work. The whole structure harmonizes with the old City Hall; and the stone work of the two basements, especially in the window arches, is practically identical. The material of the new building is: for base and approaches, Woodstock granite; for upper stories, Bedford Blue Indiana limestone. The main entrance is on the N. façade. The main staircase, on the left, leads up to an impressive foyer, from which corridors, to R. and L., give admission to the Judges' Retiring rooms. The Appellate Court Room is in the center, and is windowless, being lighted through the ceiling. When the Court is not in Session the attendants in charge will gladly admit visitors to the Court Room and the Judges' Retiring Rooms.

Prior to the erection of the Pension Office, several Inaugural Balls were held in Judiciary Square, in temporary

structures built for the occasion: namely, that of William Henry Harrison, in 1857; the first Inaugural Ball of Lincoln, in 1861; and the second of Grant, in 1873. At the outbreak of the Civil War, the Lincoln ball-room was still standing at the corner of 5th and E Sts.; and was used as an emergency hospital for the first wounded soldiers.

The Pension Office (P1. III-E4), erected in 1883, stands in the upper portion of the Square, above the line of F St. It is a huge, ungainly structure of red brick, notable chiefly for its multitude of windows. It is said to have been adapted from the Farnese Palace at Rome. (General M. C. Meiggs, U. S. A., architect. See marble memorial tablet on wall of South entry.)

Open to the public weekdays, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. There is, however, nothing to interest the tourist excepting the big central hall.

The Pension Office contains the offices of the Cominissioner of Pensions, who supervises the examination and adjudication of all claims for service in the army or navy rendered wholly prior to Oct. 6, 1917; claims for bounty-land warrants based upon services rendered prior to March 3, 1855, and claims under the Act of May 22, 1920, providing for the retirement of employes in the classified Civil Service.

The building forms a parallellogram 400x200 ft., surrounding a roofed-in Roman cortile. Surmounting the third story are four gables forming a cross. Height to cornice, 75 ft.; to central ridge of roof, 149 ft. The cost was approximately $900,000, and 15,000,000 brick were required in course of construction. It is completely fire-proof,-a fact which, when repeated to General Sheridan, evoked his historic comment, "What a pity!"

The one artistic feature of the building is a spirited threefoot terra-cotta bas-relief frieze, extending unbroken around all four sides, and portraying successively the various branches of the Service: the Marching Infantry, the Cavalry, the Boys of the Navy rowing ashore, the Army Supply-wagons, and the Wounded being assisted to the rear. (Designed by C. Buberl; executed by the Boston Terra-cotta Company).

The three-foot squares comprising the frieze are cleverly matched, so as to permit of various arrangements and repetitions, thus making it possible to bring a different branch of the service over each of the four central entrances, which are accordingly named respectively: 1. North side, Gate of the Invalids; 2. West side, Gate of the Staff; 3. South side, Gate of the Line; 4. East side, Naval Gate.

In the pendentives of the doorways are symbolic figures, also in terra-cotta: 1. (repeated in E. and W. entrances) War, represented (on R.) by Mars, with chariot and horses; Minerva (on L.), fully armed and accompanied by the Owl of Wisdom; 2. (repeated in N. and S. entrances) Peace, symbolized by Justice (on R.), with scales; and Truth (on L.), with torch; beside her are the discarded masks of Tragedy and Comedy.

Interior. The vast inner court, 316x116 ft., and rising 120 ft. to roof, is surrounded by arcaded galleries resting on two tiers of imitation marble columns, 152 in number, the lower tier being Doric and the upper Ionic.

The floor of the court is now occupied with tiers of drawers. containing the papers of applicants for pensions. The cases on file exceed one million. The work has been so thoroughly systematized that the entire record of any pension case can be furnished within five minutes after inquiry.

The Pension Building has been the scene of many inaugural balls, at which no less than 18,000 people have been entertained. The list includes the inaugural balls of President Cleveland, 1885 and 1893; Harrison, 1889; McKinley, 1897 and 1901; Roosevelt, 1905; Taft, 1909.

The Pension Bureau Reference Library is of recent origin. established July 18th, 1910, by the authority of the Commissioner of Pensions. It is a reference library for the use of the employees of the Bureau; but its privileges are extended to any one having business with the Bureau.

The site originally chosen for the Pension Office was on B St., at Louisiana and Ohio Ave.; but this was found to be unsafe, because it consisted in part of filled-in ground of what was formerly the Washington canal.

On 5th St., facing the Square, No. 416-18, the Columbian Building occupies the former site of Trinity Episcopal Church, upon the removal of which in 1851 to its present site (p. 132), the old edifice was taken over by the then newly organized Congregational Church. The latter was short-lived, but for a brief time in 1854, just after the publication of Uncle Tom's Cabin, it was the scene of some stirring revivals and antislavery demonstrations.

No. 420, the Law Department of Howard University, erected 1892, contains a large auditorium, known as the William H. Evarts Hall.

This side of the Square is ooccupied by many law offices. The N. W. cor. of 5th and E Sts. is occupied jointly by the Columbian Title Insurance Co. and the Real Estate Title Insurance Co. Diagonally opposite, on E St. S. E. cor. of 6th St., is the large brick structure of the Law School of Georgetown University. The old-fashioned square brick dwelling on the opposite N. W. cor. of 6th St., was formerly the home of Justice Salmon P. Chase, also of Senator William Sprague, who married Kate Chase, daughter of the Chief Justice.

Continuing N. on 5th St. we pass, at S. E. cor. of F St., the unpretentious drab brick structure of Wesley Chapel (M. E.), organized in 1823. The original edifice was destroyed by fire, and the present chapel erected about 1856, at a cost

of $16,000. Just N. of Judiciary Square, on the E. side of 5th St., between G and H Sts., we may see the short, heavy spire of the German R. C. Church of St. Mary, the only German church of that denomination in the city, and consequently without parochial limitations. The interior is rich but somber, with many memorial windows representing the Saints of the church, grouped in pairs. The principal window in the apse represents the Virgin and Child. Near the entrance is a memorial tablet to Matthias Alig (1803-82), born in Switzerland, the founder and first rector of this church. The present structure, early Gothic, of trap-rock, dates from 1890.

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Further N., at 6th and G Sts., stands Adath Israel, the oldest Jewish synagogue in the city, founded in the early fifties by Mannasses Oppenheimer, from Bavaria, one of the eight Jews then in Washington. The present building dates from 1873.

VI. The Modern Shopping District

a. F Street to the Treasury Building

F Street was from very early times down to the last quarter of the 19th century, a fashionable street, and even in the 70's, when President Grant and A. T. Stewart, New York's first "Merchant Prince,” prophesied that it was destined to become the fashionable shopping street of the Capital, there were few who believed it. Yet to-day from 6th St. to the Treasury Building, with the exception of a few churches, F St. is wholly given over to business, containing many of the leading shops and stores, some of which were formerly conspicuous features on Pennsylvania Ave.

Just S. of F St., at No. 522 6th St., is the Washington headquarters of the Women's Christian Temperance Union. No. 614 F St. was formerly the home of Thomas U. Walter, one of the architects of the Capitol. No. 622 F St., the Pacific Building, contains the rooms of the COLUMBIA HISTORICAL SOCIETY, an institution organized April 4th, 1894 "for the collection, preservation and diffusion of knowledge respecting the history and topography of the District of Columbia."

The Society possesses a valuable specialized library comprising ap proximately 800 volumes, and 4000 magazines and pamphlets. It is primarily intended for members, but any other students are welcome. Open every Wednesday, 11 A. M. to 4 P. M., from November to May inclusiye; at other times by appointment with the Secretary.

At the S.E. cor. of 7th and F Sts. is the Shubert-Garrick Theatre, one of Washington's high-class playhouses (p. 24).

West of 7th St. the north side of F St. is occupied for two squares by the Patent Office, and the S. side to 8th St. by the General Land Office.

The United Statees Patent Office (Pl. I—C1), which up to 1917 housed the entire Department of the Interior (p. 213), occupies two city squares, bounded on N. and S. by F and G Sts., and on E. and W. by 7th and 9th Sts. This site was the reservation set aside in L'Enfant's plan for a National Church and Mausoleum. The building is a three-story rectangle, measuring 453 ft. E. to W., and 321 ft. N. to S., with an interior quadrangle about 265 x 135 ft. The style is consistently Doric, imposing by its severe simplicity. There are four massive porticoes. The main one, fronting on F St., opposite the termination of 8th St., is reached by a lofty series of steps, and consists of a double row of fluted Doric columns, sixteen in number, six feet in diameter, and thirty-two feet high, raised in sections and flanked by immense pilasters. It is modeled after the portico of the Pantheon at Rome.

The

The ground occupied by the S. W. cor. of this building, at E and 8th Sts., is the site of the historic Blodgett's Hotel, so named from its projector, Samuel Blodgett of Philadelphia, who planned to make it a lottery prize to raise money for building a canal. The hotel was begun July 4th, 1793, from plans by James Hoban. government gave the freestone for the basement story. About $35,000 was expended in putting up the frame and roofing-in. The building, however, was not completed as the lottery scheme failed. Although known by the various names of "Great Hotel," "Lottery Hotel" and "Union Pacific Hotel," it was never used as a hotel. In 1800 a Philadelphia theatrical man named Wingall opened it as the United States Theatre, and presented the first series of theatrical entertainments ever given in Washington. The opening night was August 22d. 1800, when Venice Preserved and The Spoiled Child were enacted before an audience of about 150. For the next ten years the main auditorium was used for various entertainments, meetings and relig ious services; while the rooms of the unfinished upper stories housed the families of foreign artisans employed on the Capitol. In 1810 Blodgett's was purchased by the Government, and from 1812 to 1836 was occupied by the City Post Office and part of the time by the Post Office Department and Patent Office. When the British captured the city, in 1814, one of the officers ordered a gun to be trained upon this building. It was saved by Dr. William Thornton, at that time in charge of the Patent Office. It is related that Thornton rode up and jumped from his horse in front of the gun, demanding: "Are you Englishmen or Goths and Vandals? This is the Patent Office, the depository of the inventive genius of America, in which the whole civilized world is concerned. Would you destroy it? If so, fire away and let the shot pass through my body!"

Owing to the destruction of the Capitol by the British, when Congress was next convened, September 19th, 1814, it occupied Blodgett's for a brief period. See memorial tablet on S. façade of present building.

Another historic site is near the middle of the W. side of the Patent Office, on 7th St. Here, before the northern extension was built, stood two brick buildings occupied by the Government as