There Will Be A House, And Then A Blank; Then Two
Houses, And Then A Double Blank.
After that a hut or two, and then
probably an excellent, roomy, handsome family mansion.
Taken
altogether, Washington as a city is most unsatisfactory, and falls
more grievously short of the thing attempted than any other of the
great undertakings of which I have seen anything in the States. San
Jose, the capital of the republic of Costa Rica, in Central America,
has been prepared and arranged as a new city in the same way. But
even San Jose comes nearer to what was intended than does
Washington.
For myself, I do not believe in cities made after this fashion.
Commerce, I think, must select the site of all large congregations
of mankind. In some mysterious way she ascertains what she wants,
and having acquired that, draws men in thousands round her
properties. Liverpool, New York, Lyons, Glasgow, Venice,
Marseilles, Hamburg, Calcutta, Chicago, and Leghorn have all become
populous, and are or have been great, because trade found them to be
convenient for its purposes. Trade seems to have ignored Washington
altogether. Such being the case, the Legislature and the Executive
of the country together have been unable to make of Washington
anything better than a straggling congregation of buildings in a
wilderness. We are now trying the same experiment at Ottawa, in
Canada, having turned our back upon Montreal in dudgeon. The site
of Ottawa is more interesting than that of Washington, but I doubt
whether the experiment will be more successful. A new town for art,
fashion, and politics has been built at Munich, and there it seems
to answer the expectation of the builders; but at Munich there is an
old city as well, and commerce had already got some considerable
hold on the spot before the new town was added to it.
The streets of Washington, such as exist, are all broad. Throughout
the town there are open spaces - spaces, I mean, intended to be open
by the plan laid down for the city. At the present moment it is
almost all open space. There is also a certain nobility about the
proposed dimensions of the avenues and squares. Desirous of
praising it in some degree, I can say that the design is grand. The
thing done, however, falls so infinitely short of that design, that
nothing but disappointment is felt. And I fear that there is no
look-out into the future which can justify a hope that the design
will be fulfilled. It is therefore a melancholy place. The society
into which one falls there consists mostly of persons who are not
permanently resident in the capital; but of those who were permanent
residents I found none who spoke of their city with affection. The
men and women of Boston think that the sun shines nowhere else; and
Boston Common is very pleasant. The New Yorkers believe in Fifth
Avenue with an unswerving faith; and Fifth Avenue is calculated to
inspire a faith. Philadelphia to a Philadelphian is the center of
the universe; and the progress of Philadelphia, perhaps, justifies
the partiality. The same thing may be said of Chicago, of Buffalo,
and of Baltimore. But the same thing cannot be said in any degree
of Washington. They who belong to it turn up their noses at it.
They feel that they live surrounded by a failure. Its grand names
are as yet false, and none of the efforts made have hitherto been
successful. Even in winter, when Congress is sitting, Washington is
melancholy; but Washington in summer must surely be the saddest spot
on earth.
There are six principal public buildings in Washington, as to which
no expense seems to have been spared, and in the construction of
which a certain amount of success has been obtained. In most of
these this success has been more or less marred by an independent
deviation from recognized rules of architectural taste. These are
the Capitol, the Post-office, the Patent-office, the Treasury, the
President's house, and the Smithsonian Institution. The five first
are Grecian, and the last in Washington is called - Romanesque. Had
I been left to classify it by my own unaided lights, I should have
called it bastard Gothic.
The Capitol is by far the most imposing; and though there is much
about it with which I cannot but find fault, it certainly is
imposing. The present building was, I think, commenced in 1815, the
former Capitol having been destroyed by the English in the war of
1812-13. It was then finished according to the original plan, with
a fine portico and well proportioned pediment above it - looking to
the east. The outer flight of steps, leading up to this from the
eastern approach, is good and in excellent taste. The expanse of
the building to the right and left, as then arranged, was well
proportioned, and, as far as we can now judge, the then existing
dome was well proportioned also. As seen from the east the original
building must have been in itself very fine. The stone is
beautiful, being bright almost as marble, and I do not know that
there was any great architectural defect to offend the eye. The
figures in the pediment are mean. There is now in the Capitol a
group apparently prepared for a pediment, which is by no means mean.
I was informed that they were intended for this position; but they,
on the other band, are too good for such a place, and are also too
numerous. This set of statues is by Crawford. Most of them are
well known, and they are very fine. They now stand within the old
chamber of the Representative House, and the pity is that, if
elevated to such a position as that indicated, they can never be
really seen. There are models of them all at West Point, and some
of them I have seen at other places in marble.
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