With today being Martin Luther King jr Day, I would usually just post a rerun from previous weeks. Today, though, I want to write about something whose importance will become more obvious next week, when I write about the old street car tunnel on Capitol Hill.
Square 685, bounded by B Street (Today Constitution Avenue) North Capitol Street, Delaware Avenue and D Street NE was, in 1910, a truly mixed bag. Located around it were a number of boarding houses and private homes, filled with clerks, teachers, construction workers, several doorkeepers and a preacher at the Capitol, and even a junk dealer. One rooming house was filled with census workers, though not the one responsible for this particular census tract. Across North Capitol Street stood the houses once owned by George Washington though now sadly much worse for wear.
This sort of macédoine, while certainly representative of the United States, was not considered a fit neighbor to the US Capitol – even more so since the opening of the Senate Office Building on the other side of Delaware Avenue in 1909. Thus, in 1913, the government ordered the purchase and razing of them in order to expand the Capitol grounds.
The Washington Evening Star was not happy with this decision, opining that “Landmarks of old Washington which have seen the rise and fall of political parties, cliques and social conquerors will be torn down and cast into the rubbish heap by some contractor.” This ran not on the opinion page, but was the lead to their news story of the decision.
Whether due to the Star’s complaints, or just the usual speed with which the wheels of government grind, the razing was delayed briefly. In that time, however, a new plan was made: To actually move the buildings from there to elsewhere. In the end, Mr. H. J. Phillips actually paid the government for the buildings, and removed them.
Ca. 1909 picture showing the buildings on Square 685 (LOC)
Maps made shortly afterward show an empty lot, with the only building left standing the fire house, though that was only long enough to find a new spot for it. However, the plan to turn this into part of the Capitol grounds was put on hold with the beginning of the Great War, and after the United States entered the conflict, and D.C. began attracting people from all across the country to help in the war effort, this area was one designated for temporary worker’s housing. While most of the tempos (as they were called) were built near Union Station, Square 685 also received three large, u-shaped dormitories, plus a smaller building, which may well have held a recreation hall mentioned in the papers a few times. By 1919, the buildings were already becoming an issue, with the “disposition of the dormitories, known generally as the hotel for war workers, on … the Senate plaza, [being] one of the most perplexing problems confronting the United States Housing Corporation,” according to the Post.
Nonetheless, the buildings continued to be used for the next dozen or so years. Finally, in 1931, as part of an enormous recreation of the area around the Capitol, work that included the building of the Supreme Court – the area was once again razed and converted into the open park it is today. More on this particular work next week.