I write the following at your request.

The use of the ordinary park seats, either moveable or fixed, is to be {avoided} on the Capitol Grounds both as a matter of taste and propriety and because of the disorder and misuse to which they would lead.

The inconvenience of having no place for resting in them would however be too great and if this were attempted some unsuitable expedient would probably in the end be adopted, as such expedients have been heretofore.

The summer house in question is designed principally to provide for persons passing through the Southwest quarter of the grounds, a cool and shady place in which a few minutes rest can be taken without interruption to the walks or breaking the leading lines of view. Secondly to provide a drinking [508] fountain about which a number of persons may stand without obstruction to the walks, and lastly, incidental to the above purposes, to secure conditions favorable to certain types of beauty in vegetation.

It is designed in materials and forms to be enduring and to offer the least temptation or opportunity to careless or wanton injury, or for indecent or unseemly practices.

Standing well out of the walks, the seats which it contains are open to view from them and a watchman in passing by will be able to see all within. The seats are divided so they can be used only as seats, not as lounges. The entrances are furnished with lock-gates to be closed at night.

The walls are thick and double for coolness. It is so built into the hillside that to one coming down the slope it does not obstruct the western prospect.

When over grown with ivy it will be indistinguishable in any general view across the grounds, being merged in the adjoining verdure. By placing the floor on a level with the walk on the down-hill side ample head room is obtained under the roofs with the least possible exterior exposure of walls

The walls back of the seats on the two lower sides above the level of the ground are of perforated stone to allow a circulation of air. For the same reason the central portion is open to the sky. On the uphill side a deep alcove of rock work is provided, looked into from the house through an oval stone frame through which a rivulet is carried (being the waste water from the old fountain at the west entrance to the Capitol.) The alcove is shaded and the rock-work is designed to be mainly covered with the more delicate ivies.

It is also provided with numerous crannies opening into deposits of wood earth back of the walls for ferns and several flowering mountain plants. The arrangement is such that they will be inaccessible to pilferers and once established, may be expected to thrive with little gardening care. Moderate soil-moisture during extreme droughts is secured by several, slowly percolating tanks back of the walls. The aim is to produce in the hottest and driest season an effect of coolness, moisture, shade and airiness in association with deep, rich and luxurient verdure. No exotics are to be used.

The parting of the rivulet in the rock-work and the outflow of the simple drinking fountain to stand in the centre of the house will contribute to the effect. The water of the drinking fountain passes into filtering tanks to give moisture to the ivy on the South and West sides and thence falls six feet into water under the floor grating. The roof is designed to be mantled with ivy both within and without. There are openings in the brick work for the ivy to creep through. The roof the and parts of the brick-work are roughened to give it a better hold.

It will take about three years for the plants to grow to a point at which the esthetic motives of the design will begin to be realized.