As to the fitness of what you are going to do at Montauk it has to be considered from two opposite points of view—one being that of the great natural landscape as seen from the proposed cottages; the other that of the aspect of each cottage and of the settlement as a whole in respect to suitability and attractiveness in itself.

Much the most powerful impression of the scenery is to be had from the higher ground. Every cottage placed on the lower ground would not only be an injury to it but the cottage seen under these circumstances would appear lonely, bleak, incongruous and unsuitable.

By placing the cottages as I have proposed along the hillsides, you avoid the first objection wholly, and through the appearance of companionship and mutual support gain a great advantage in respect to the second.

All this I pointed out to you and I also argued the value of fences and outdoor furniture in manifesting the fact of family and domestic independence in the constituents of the community. What I did not explain sufficiently is that all my advice (as to the general design) had in view also the esthetic advantage which is always gained in placing a richly intricate body of detail upon a field of great breadth and simplicity. To secure this you need the two elements of unity (to be served in this case by an obvious close association and connection of the different houses) and of intricacy (to be served by variety in the patterns of houses and the outdoor furniture which will more or less occupy the spaces between and before them.)

But there is something to be gained also by the same means with respect to the landscape from the cottages. Without forming any essential obstruction to the view seaward, appropriate objects in front of them will serve the purpose which leads painters to desire to bring emphatic fore-ground features into pictures; that is to say to soften the middle distance and give increased effect of aerial perspective to the back ground.

I shall hope to see a certain continuity apparent between each house and the road, so that the design of the house may seem to be supported and carried out in the arrangment of approaches, hand rails, fences, shrubbery, trellises &c. Each private ground being thus furnished there will, in general effect, be a connection between it and the next on each side, and the unity of the community more fully expressed.

When you come to choice of lots to be built upon, it will be well to have compactness of settlemnt a little in view, avoiding unnecessary vacant lots, and it will help the desired effect if the Association will undertake at once to form a continuous fence along the entire street line.

This may be in part a hedge, in part a low trellis, to be overgrown with [556]

View of Montauk Association cottages, designed by McKim, Mead, and White, Montauk Point

The advantage of the wall is that, made of the neighboring field stone, you are sure at once of a thoroughly respectable & satisfactory result, modest and appropriate to the circumstances, while with hedges and vines the effect desired will be delayed and the result not perfectly certain.

I write this however not to urge any special measure so much as to commend certain principles to {be} had constantly in view.

When the new wings of the Capitol had been built, much of its due value was evidently lost because of the incongruous objects by which it was surrounded and the unfavorable circumstances under which it had to be observed. Congress then ordered the demolition of the nearest adjacent buildings and a design to be prepared for a suitable laying out of an enlarged Capitol ground.

At this time the earth thrown out from the foundations having been heaped up within geometric outlines and grassed over, had begun to be known as the terrace. In the climate of Washington a semblance of turf laid on a steep formal bank is often for long periods as devoid of verdure or of any quality of beauty or architectural dignity as a dust-heap. Under the most favorable circumstances it must appear but a shabby make-shift for a terrace suited to the situation and adapted, as such a terrace would be, to support and augment the grand effect of so august a structure as the Capitol. The term thus rather suggests what is left lacking than what is supplied by the earthwork in question.

At once impressed with this consideration, when I had the honor to be asked to prepare a plan for laying out the ground my first step was to ask your assent, as Architect of the Capitol, to the introduction of a feature at the base of the building designed to remedy this defect. Your assent having been promptly and cordially given, and the general character of the structure for the purpose provisionally agreed upon, the entire plan of the grounds was afterwards worked out with constant reference to it.

Before presenting the plan to the joint committee of Congress having oversight of the work, scaffolds were set up to indicate the dimensions of the proposed terrace and to aid judgment of its effect on the building. The committee, after taking counsel with you, called in, also, with reference to the particular question of the terrace, your venerable predecessor, Mr. Walters, and the then Architect of the Treasury, Mr. Potter, both of whom warmly supported the proposition.

After prolonged consideration the entire plan was approved and favorably [558] reported by the committee without a dissenting voice and subsequently adopted by Congress.

Photographic copies of the plan and the perspective sketch of the terrace have since been widely distributed. In the several years that they have been under review but one criticism is known to have been drawn out. It assumes that the terrace would injuriously intercept views of the lower part of the Capitol building as it now stands. If the assumption were sound it should have condemned the entire plan of the grounds, since mainly carried into execution. To understand its unsoundness it needs to be considered that the full proportions and beauty of a great building like the Capitol can only be comprehended from a distance at which its various parts will fall into a satisfactory perspective. Accordingly, in planning the grounds, after determining as before stated upon the general character of the terrace, the next step was, again in consultation with you as the Architect, to fix upon twelve points of view from which the Capitol would be seen to advantage in as many different aspects. The route and grade of the various roads and walks leading in from the several points of entrance determined by the abutting streets; the shaping of the surface elsewhere and the disposition of the trees and shrubbery upon it, as well as the planning of the terrace in more detail, was then determined in studious adjustment to these points of view, care being taken, of course, that no part of the building should be undesirably obscured from anyone of them.

To accomplish the object the terrace was so designed that its upper line would, at critical points, be a few inches below the height of the present earthworks, and these, from any point at which a pleasing full view of the Capitol can be had, will be found to barely obscure the granite base stones upon which the marble walls of the Capitol rest. An examination of the premises can thus easily be made by anyone interested which will show the alleged objection to be groundless.

Considering that the motive which has mainly controlled the outlay of more than ten millions of dollars on the Capitol is that of investing the Halls of Congress and the Supreme Court with suitable dignity and beauty, it will be found that the sum required for adding the proposed terrace will, as the entire structure now stands, accomplish more to that end than an equal amount has done anywhere heretofore expended on it.

For example, the terrace being supplied:

First. The western front of the building will appear as standing on a much firmer base, and thus gain greatly in the supreme qualities of stability, endurance, and repose.

Second. The marble mass, being larger in all its dimensions as well as more firmly planted, will no longer be overpowered and as it were put out of countenance by its crowning feature, the dome.

Third. The opportunity of the higher relative elevation, the more genial exposure, and the far-spreading, varied, and charming landscape of the Potomac front, now lost to most who visit the Capitol, will be turned to profitable [559] account, and the more so because of the freedom of the west side from the disturbance of carriages, and the immediate presence of a foreground harmonious in forms and color with the distant Virginia horizon.

Fourth. The larger part of the city, the Executive Mansion and the other government buildings will no longer appear to tail off to the rear of the Capitol, but what has been considered its rear will be recognized as its more dignified and stately front.

Fifth. Yet another gain is to be accomplished by the terrace, the value of which is not perhaps as readily to be appreciated in advance as those above enumerated, but which is assured by much experience. It is the augmentation of architectural effect in a structure of classic style, where there stands interposed between it and the adjacent ground a considerable feature, partaking of its leading characteristics and extending its material, yet carrying up toward it some outgrowths as it were of natural decoration. So seldom has anything been done with us to secure this advantage, and it seems so little a matter of familiar knowledge, that it is available that I will add to my assertion of it, in a note at the end of this report, the evidence of two out of many masters of art who might be quoted for that purpose.

Of the advantages of the terrace as planned otherwise than with a view to architectural effect, I will briefly refer to two only:

First. The increased convenience which it will offer to all visiting the Capitol, coming from the west on foot.

Second. The provision which it will afford of spacious, dry, fire-proof, and otherwise secure and suitable exterior vaults for the storing, handling, and using of coal and all other supplies needed for the business of the Capitol, but which cannot be brought within its walls proper, without also bringing dirt, noise, and confusion too near its halls and offices.