Illustrations are here presented for the more convenient consideration by your Committee of the plan of an architectural terrace, designed to supersede the present earth-work covering the unfinished base of the Capitol.

The perspective on this page {see page 578} is taken from the point which would be occupied by a man coming up the hill in a carriage, where the first unobstructed view of the building would be had. It is at this point that the obscuration of the main walls by the new construction would be greatest. A few yards farther to the eastward there would be none. As this effect of the terrace is the only objection raised to the plan, poles with cross-bars at top have been set in the ground south of the building, showing the height and position of its upper line; and in passing to or from the Capitol on the House side, the Committee may readily see what the objection amounts to. The granite base-course of the present marble walls of the Capitol will be found in looking from the road within the grounds to appear a little above the cross-bars. What remains to be seen of this granite above the line, will in the end be obscured by the foliage to be introduced upon the terrace, and the effect of the arrangement will be to re-establish a granite base on the natural surface of the ground, all the visible structure above being of marble. A better understanding of the facts may be had from the small section on the right of the third page.

The above plan {see page 580} shows the enlargement of the basement room of the Capitol to be gained through the construction of the terrace. The additional space is 1,400 feet long by 60 feet wide, divided into rooms opening from a central corridor. Ten of these correspond in form and dimensions with the best of the present upper committee rooms, each having two or three windows looking upon the existing courts in the same manner as those of the architect’s office in the present basement. These court-yards are to be made attractive winter gardens. (The rooms in question are marked A on the [578]

[579] plan, which differs from that lately submitted to the committee, in accordance with suggestions made by some of the members. A small perspective at the top of the next page shows the character of the rooms. The walls are 14 feet high to the spring of the arch). The other rooms shown are expected to be used (1) for the storage of coal and other materials now within the walls of the Capitol; (2) for the keeping, with convenient arrangements of access and reference, of the archives and documents, now stored in bulk and inaccessible in rooms within the walls of the Capitol, and every year rapidly accumulating; (3) for the temporary deposit of current documents of Congress, sorting, folding, packing and other working purposes; (4) for extraordinary committee and clerks’ rooms when needed. These rooms will be fire-proof, dry, and may be gas-lighted and steam-heated at pleasure. They will have day-light and be ventilated through the construction to be shown on the next page, and will also be furnished with deck-lights. Of the class of rooms thus described there are 78, but any number of them may be thrown into one by archways in the walls; disconnected, they vary from 20 to 44 feet in length and from 16 to 24 feet in breadth. Most of them will resemble the present basement committee rooms. The plan of this floor provides for a sub-way, by which coal, ashes, and all goods not desirable to be passed through the upper entrances, may be conveyed underground to or from a postern in the government work-yard on South B street. It also provides for an enlargement of the present boiler-rooms.

The above plan {see page 581} shows the esplanade or deck of the terrace. It is to be in two parts, the division running midway between the outer walls of the present building and the outer walls of the proposed new work. The inner one of these two parts is to be level with the foot of the several short flights of steps opening from the porticos, the outer one four feet lower. The two levels are to be connected by flights of steps opposite those from the porticos. (The arrangement will be most readily understood from the small section on the right.) In line with these lower flights, and following the division between the two levels, there is to be a channel eight feet wide and four feet deep, the bottom of it on the lower level, the top a little higher than the upper. (See section on the right.) This is to be filled with soil and planted and decorated in the Italian manner of gardening, consistently with the architectural style of the Capitol. Sufficient openings are to be made through the outer wall of this terrace garden for lighting and ventilating the corridor below. By thus setting the outer part of the terrace at a lower level than the inner part, its parapet will not harmfully obstruct views from or toward the building, while it is believed that the architectural effect to result will be in all other respects fitting and satisfactory.

The Committee is asked to consider:

That it is more than twenty years since the problem of a suitable treatment of the northern, western and southern bases of the Capitol was first forced upon Congress; that the present plan has been prepared under special orders of Congress as a solution of it; that it is five years since it was presented [580]

[581] [582] and adopted by Congress as a satisfactory solution; that while other plans have from time to time been devised for occupying the ground, none of them have met with favor, none have contemplated as small an outlay; none would involve as little destruction of work already done, and none have been designed with a single eye to support, sustain and augment the primary architectural motive of the Capitol; finally, that the merit neither of what has been obtained in the Capitol, nor upon its grounds, can be realized until the gap between the two is harmoniously closed, as it is designed to be by the proposed construction.

And in view of these considerations the question whether it is sound economy to further delay entering upon the work is respectfully submitted.

[33: 521] This circular will be addressed to a number of men who may be presumed to have had their minds for considerable periods directed to questions of a corresponding character to those which occur in public parks. It is designed to submit to their consideration without concert, a few simple propositions applicable to the managmnt of a park under the circumstances of the Central Park. The object is to ascertain whether those who have given the subject studious attention free from political biases, agree in holding such propositions to have been established and to be so far authoritative and binding that disregard of them implies culpable ignorance, negligence or perversity.

The circumstances in question to be first more particularly considered [584] are these: [33: 524] The Central Park occupies a body of land two miles square (exclusive of parts given to other than park purposes) in what is expected to be the heart of a great commercial city, interrupting its two central avenues and fifty streets which would otherwise cross from one of its navigable waters to another.

[33: 529–32] The circumstances to be particularly considered are that the ground is to be enclosed by high buildings from some of which no part of it will be more than quarter of a mile distant; its surface is diversified but no part of it of higher elevation than the tops of such of those buildings as have been already erected. It is everywhere underlaid with granite rock of which the usual surface form is that of long undulations.

In five sixths of the field the earth, soil and boulders overlying this rock are not naturally on an average more than three feet in depth while at frequent intervals there are outcrops of the ledge and considerable spaces where it is insufficient to sustain large trees or maintain a tolerable turf. By excavating near the base of conspicuous rocks and exposing portions of rock surface originally thinly covered, material has been obtained for increasing the original depth of earth in selected localities, the aim being to obtain the greatest practicable breadths of greensward in the interior parts of the park.

To avoid frequent interruptions of the distinctive use of the park by ordinary street traffic it is crossed in the 2½ miles of its length by four subways, and where those would otherwise be conspicuous the ground is tunnelled. Elsewhere they are everywhere walled to a height of at least 8 ft., the pavement being generally 10 ft below the natural surface. This brings within the park two miles of masonry which has to be considered in addition to the structures which are to surround it and those by which its two principal parts are divided.

The soundness of certain ends which have been had in view in laying it out and of certain principles which have been regarded in pursuing these ends has been often very vehemently denied, never by any landscape gardener, but by men whose influence and authority has nevertheless been sufficient to induce great departures from the courses which would otherwise be pursued. At the present time there is a complete reversal in important particulars of those courses and a profession of counter purposes and principles. It is desired to obtain the judgmnt of those to whom this circular will be addressed upon the questions thus at issue, and it is proposed after returns from it shall have been received to embody the general sentimnt in a paper which will again be submitted for consideration with a view to a public declaration on the subject.

[33: 523] It is hoped that questions growing directly from actual practice may be presented with this object in view, the answers to which will show that a certain footing has been firmly established for Landscape Gardening among the arts of Design and that it is only ignorance which assumes to conduct a public undertaking involving outlays and affecting the value of property [585] to amounts of many millions of dollars in denial of such laws as may thus be recognized as fixed for that art.

[33: 541] The Central Park is a work of more than local and immediate importance. The direct outlay of public money already made upon it amounts to upwards of $15,000,000, important parts of it being yet unimproved, encumbered and unused. The expense in which it must indirectly involve the city will be much larger than that of this direct outlay. Great public treasures in addition to those classed with the park are accumulating within and adjoining it. Not only will these circumstances give it extraordinary celebrity but from its situation in the heart of the principal city of the continent it will be brought more under general observation than any other work of its class.

[33: 526–28] The managment of the Central Park, directly and through the discussions growing out of it must largely influence customs, fashions, manners, opinions and tastes throughout the country. The differences of opinion which now appear upon the subject are so radical they touch the value of property of such enormous value and they are sustained with so much assurance as to leave open to question among all to whom the subject has not been one of special study, whether there are any fixed principles applicable to the treatmnt of pleasure-grounds public or private, or by which the administration of trusts with regard to them needs to be regulated. Doubt on the subject is doubt of the value of all study that has been given to the art of Landscape Gardening by a large number of eminently wise and worthy men and of the utility of the profession of landscape gardening. It is thought that something may be done to lessen this doubt if an expression of conviction can be obtained from the gentlemen to whom this circular will be addressed upon a few simple points, even though a wide field for difference of opinion and diversity of policy shall be left open, and that these points can be best presented in answers to questions having reference to the particular circumstances of the Central Park.

[33: 533–39] Thirty millions of dollars have already been invested in parks by a few of our leading cities and the outlay upon them is continuous. Their actual value depends on their managment from year to year—Their managment is generally controlled by boards the composition of which is subject to change from year to year. No previous knowledge or consideration of anything distinctive in the business of parks is required in the members of these boards. There is a custom of using the term landscape gardening as if there were a recognized art, with fixed laws, in some degree applicable to a part of the business, but some regard this as cant to cover quackery and to few has the term any meaning so far fixed and clear that its use serves otherwise than to darken counsel. It is substantially denied that there are any principles or canons covered by the term that any man of ordinary intelligence may not be presumed to be familiar with or which he may not honorably assume himself [586] qualified to apply under any circumstances, even in cases where the value of millions of trust property is at stake.

If there is ground for this denial it lies in the fact that within the proper field of landscape gardening and under such laws and precepts as constitute the frame work of the art, there is room for such differences of opinion and of practice that to superficial observers there is nothing settled.

This circular will be sent to a number of persons who are known to have given the subject more thorough study than is common and who if not of professional standing may justly be regarded as experts within the limits of landscape gardening which will be brought under consideration. The object will be to demonstrate that, within these, under given circumstances there is a perfectly well established understanding among all men having any authority in landscape gardening, as to what is right and wrong, true and false, reputable and disreputable.

[33: 522] The first proposition is that by no other treatmnt of such a property consistent with its designation as a park can it be given as much value to the people of a great city, as that which will make available to them upon it the enjoymnt of beauty in natural scenery, or in scenery designed to affect the imagination and sensibilities of men by a semblance to natural scenery such as may be accomplished through the art of landscape gardening as its objects, principles and processes have been defined by Gilpin, Repton, Price, Loudon, Downing and other standard authors on the subject.