WASHINGTON NORTHWEST a. THE RESIDENTIAL SECTION I. Seventeenth Street South Seventeenth Street from Pennsylvania Avenue to The six short blocks on 17th St., betw. Pennsylvania Ave. and B St., offer more separate attractions of keen interest to visitors than any other equivalent extent of street or avenue in Washington; for they include the Corcoran Art Gallery, the National Headquarters of the American Red Cross, the National D. A. R. Building and the Pan-American Union. On L. the State, War and Navy Building (p. 126), extends southward to New York Ave. Opposite, at N. W. cor. of F St., is the Winder Building, erected in 1848 by W. H. Winder, and purchased by the Government in 1854. It has been used in various capacities by the War Department, and at present houses the U. S. Bureau of Efficiency. The duties of this Bureau are to establish and maintain the system of efficiency ratings of the Executive Departments, and to investigate the duplication of work, and the methods of business in the various branches of the Government service. The opposite cor. of F St. is the site of General Grant's headquarters in 1865. West of F St., No. 1724, is the Civil Service Commission. This Commission, organized March 9, 1883, under an Act "to regulate and improve the Civil Service of the United States," consists of three Commissioners, of whom not more than two may be adherents of the same political party. Civil Service examinations are held in all the principal cities of the country, through approximately 3000 local boards. On July 31, 1921, the number of officers and employees in the executive Civil Service was 597,482. At the S. W. cor. of 17th St. and New York Ave. is the Corcoran Art Gallery (see p. 171). Opposite, extending southward to B St. is the President's Park, or Executive Grounds. On the ellipse, occupying the centre of these grounds, are four baseball diamonds, used by various amateur leagues in the District. Near the upper margin of the ellipse, directly opposite the S. curve of the White House grounds is the Millet-Butt Memorial Fountain. It consists of a simple shaft rising from a basin and bearing the following inscription: "In memory of Francis Davis Millet (1846-1912) and Archibald Willingham Butt (1865-1912), this monument has The been erected by their friends with the sanction of Congress." Millet, the well-known artist and author, was a drummer-boy in the Civil War. Captain Butt was aide to Presidents Roosevelt and Taft. They both lost their lives on the illfated White Star liner Titanic, lost April 15th, 1912. sculptured figures on E. and W. sides of the central shaft symbolize respectively Art and Chivalry, the latter in allusion to Captain Butt's conspicuous part in saving "women and children first." The architect of the Memorial was Thomas Hastings; sculptor, Daniel Chester French. b. The American Red Cross Building The National Headquarters of the American Red Cross (Pl. II-C5), on 17th St., betw. D and E Sts., is a classic white marble structure of monumental character, the main façade being broken by Corinthian pilasters rising through two stories, and supporting a massive cornice, above which rises a third or attic story. At each end, and on the main eastern front, supporting the entrance portico, are colonnades of stately Corinthian columns. Trowbridge & Livingston, architects. The idea of raising a memorial to the devoted women of the Civil War Sanitary Commission (forerunner of the American Red Cross) was first conceived by Major-General Barlow, whose wife died in 1864 from typhus contracted while nursing the wounded. It was through the efforts of Capt. James A. Scrymser, a comrade-in-arms of Major-Gen. Barlow, with the energetic co-operation of Miss Mabel T. Boardman, that the memorial was finally achieved. It was authorized by Act of Congress in Oct., 1913, on condition that it should cost not less than $700,000, of which sum $400,000 was to be raised by private contribution. The corner-stone was laid in March, 1915, and the dedicatory exercises took place in May, 1917. Hours. The building is open to visitors week days from 9 a. m. to 8 p. m.; Sundays, II a. m. to 4 p. m. Upon entering the building the visitor notes above landing of main stairway a marble tablet bearing the following inscription: A Memorial Built by the Government of the United States and Patriotic Citizens To the Women of the North That their Labors to Mitigate the Suffering of The American Red Cross. The three windows in the wall above this tablet are surmounted by broad ledges containing three symbolic busts: Faith, Hope and Charity, executed by Hiram Powers. On the second floor is a spacious Assembly Room, finished in the Colonial style, the interior furnishings being contributed by Mrs. Adolphus Busch, of St. Louis. In the N. wall, opposite entrance door, is a three-panel memorial window of favrile glass, typifying "The Ministry to the Sick and Wounded through Sacrifice." Designed by Louis C. Tiffany, after suggestions by Elihu Root and Miss Mabel Boardman. The cost was $10,000, half of which was paid by the Women's Relief Corps of the D. A. R., and the other half by the United Daughters of the Confederacy. Central Panel (joint gift of the two organizations): A scene from the days of the Crusades, showing an army of gallant Knights riding to battle with spears and banners. In the foreground is a standard bearer carrying a large white flag with the Red Cross emblem. Near him a faithful comrade is supporting a wounded warrior who has fallen from his horse. West Panel (gift of Women of the North): St. Filomena, famed for her powers of healing, stands surrounded by her handmaids symbolizing Virtues. She is robed in gray and her hands rest upon a shield decorated with the Red Cross. Hope follows bearing a banner_marked with an anchor, Mercy carrying a flagon of wine, Faith bearing a torch, and Charity a basket of fruit. East Panel (gift of Women of the South): The central figure is Una, from Spencer's "Faerie Queen," personification of fortitude, her apron overflowing with roses, emblematic of good deeds. Her three attendants bear respectively a Cross, a Lamp of Wisdom and a White Banner on which gleams a Golden Heart. Opposite the Assembly Hall, in the S. Transcept, hangs a painting by Luis Mora, entitled "Thine is the Glory." The picture was based upon a composite photograph, by Major J. G. Kitchell, U. S. A., of several hundred Red Cross workers in the World War. In the basement is a Museum, established as a memorial to the services of the Red Cross workers in the World War, which was opened in Sept., 1919. It contains a series of miniature models, including the famous "Tent City" in Paris; the first Emergency Canteen opened for refugees returning to the devastated area of France; a Surgical Dressings' Workroom, etc. C. D. A. R. Memorial Continental Hall *Memorial Continental Hall (Pl. II-C5), the headquarters of the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution, is situated at the N. W. cor. of 17th and D Sts., midway between the Pan-American Union and the American Red Cross Building. It is an imposing structure of white Vermont marble, designed on the classic order of architecture prevalent in colonial times. Edward P. Casey, architect. History. The Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution dates from October 11th, 1890, when its original eighteen members met in Washington to organize it. At the expiration of the first year 816 persons, constituting the Charter Members, had been admitted. On February 20th, 1896, the Society was incorporated by Act of Congress, which required that it should file an annual report with the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, and permitted it to deposit, either in that Institution or in the National Museum, its collection of historical material. During its first twenty-five years the Society increased to a membership of more than 114,000, with upward of 1430 Chapters, exclusive of those in Cuba, Mexico and the Philippines. The first practical step toward the erection of the Memorial Continental Hall dates from June 4th, 1902, when the building committee voted to purchase the present site, formerly occupied by the city resi dence of Captain Thomas Carberry, Mayor of Washington during 1822-24. In January, 1904, Mr. Casey's plans were accepted, and on April 19th of that same year the cornerstone was laid with Masonic rites, the gavel used being the historic one used by Washington for laying the cornerstone of the Capitol. The work was pushed so rapidly that the central portion of the building was sufficiently advanced by April, 1905, to allow the fourteenth Continental Congress to be held there. The whole building was practically completed by the spring of 1907, and the greater part of the interior decorations, furniture and window hangings were in place by 1910. In 1914 began the purchase of additional ground back of the Hall; and the society now owns practically the entire block bounded by 17th, 18th, C and D Sts. When war was declared this ground was offered to the Government, and was used for the offices of the National Council of Defense. On Nov. 12, 1921, the first plenary meeting of the Conference on the Limitation of Armament, as well as the closing meeting three months later, were held in the Memorial Continental Hall. The flagstaff penholder made of native wood from 28 states and territories, with which Secretary Hughes signed the treaty is preserved in the society's museum. The Hall is a rectangular structure consisting of a basement, two stories and an attic. It has corner pavilions and two notable porticoes. The larger one, occupying the centre of the main, or eastern façade, rises through the two main stories, is supported by sixteen massive drum columns on the Ionic order, and surmounted by a pediment. The four columns on the N. and S. sides respectively are grouped in pairs, leaving a sufficient central space for a driveway. The second, or memorial portico, projects from the S. façade and is semi-circular in form. It rests upon a spacious marble terrace, to which a stairway ascends. Like the east portico, it rises throughout the main superstructure, and is supported upon thirteen monolithic, fluted, Ionic columns, which were the gift respectively of either the Society Chapters, or the Legislatures of the thirteen original states, and stand in the order in which these states entered the Union, namely: 1. Delaware; 2. Pennsylvania; 3. New Jersey; 4. Georgia; 5. Connecticut; 6. Massachusetts; 7. Maryland; 8. South Carolina; 9. New Hampshire; 10. Virginia; 11. New York; 12. North Carolina; 13. Rhode Island. At the main entrance are three pairs of memorial bronze doors, the central pair being in memory of the Society's Founders and Charter Members, presented by Mrs. Francis Berger Moran, while the N. and S. doors were respectively the gifts of the Society's Connecticut and Massachusetts members. These doors admit the visitor directly into: THE ENTRANCE HALL. This is a spacious parallelogram whose white marble walls are divided into panels by ten pairs of Ionic, fluted pilasters. In the centre of the inlaid marble floor is sunken the coat-of-arms of Pennsylvania in bronze, the Entrance Hall being the gift of the Chapters of that state. The sole furnishings and decorations in this chamber are two benches and four chairs, upholstered in green leather, a fine old hall clock and a number of marble busts. A few of the latter are on pedestals arranged along the wall, and include: 1. Martha Washington; 2. Oliver Ellsworth; 3. Thomas Jefferson; 4. Benjamin Franklin; 5. Mrs. Mary Hammond Washington, the first "real daughter." Ten other busts occupy the circular niches in the panels forming the frieze. These, with the organizations presenting them, are as follows: 1. George Washington (D. A. R., Washington State); 2. John Hancock (John Hancock Chapter, Mass.); 3. Edward Hand (D. A. R., Kan.); 4. Isaac Shelby (D. A. R., Ky.); 5. James Edward Oglethorpe (D. A. R., Ga.); 6. John Adams (John Adams Chapter, Mass.); 7. Ethan Allen (D. A. R., Vt.); 8. John Stark (D. A. R., N. H.); 9. George Clinton (N. Y. C. Chapter, N. Y.); 10. Nathan Hale (D. A. R., Conn.). On the W. side of the Entrance Hall, facing the main entrance, are the doorways opening into the AUDITORIUM, which rises throughout the height of the building, and is lighted by a ground-glass ceiling, divided into twenty-five panels. The Auditorium contains three large galleries on the N., E. and S. sides respectively, and has a seating capacity of approximately 2000. All the furnishings of the Auditorium, including the platform, boxes and rest-rooms, are the several gifts of Chapters and individuals, the complete list of which may be found in the Society's Handbook. (For sale in the Entrance Hall, price 25 cents.) Note especially the large tables, one of which is a facsimile of the historic table |