1942: District Of Columbia

Area and Government.

The District of Columbia, originally an area of 100 sq. mi. of which 30 sq. mi., south of the Potomac, were retroceded to Virginia in 1846, is now entirely comprised within the city of Washington, the capital of the United States, which is rapidly becoming the social, cultural, and financial heart of the nation and the chief city of the world. The government of the District (since 1878) is under the control of the President and Congress (working through a Committee for the District of Columbia in each House), acting through three commissioners, appointed by the President with the consent of the Senate, whose routine duties and powers are determined by statute. Under the general control of the commissioners are the administrative boards, police, fire, engineering, traffic, health and the like. The public schools are administered through a superintendent responsible to the Board of Education, whose members are named by the justices of the U. S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. In the artistic interests of the city a Zoning Commission now endeavors to follow more closely than in the past, Major L'Enfant's original superb plan.

Local residents of the District are without the franchise. Without any form of representation, they are taxed for about 80 per cent of the costs of the government, which are higher than any other city of corresponding size. The Federal Government contributes about $6,000,000 to the District budget in lieu of taxes on Federal buildings and lands.

The Capital in Wartime.

Washington is at present a war-boom city desperately overcrowded, regimented, and hard-working under longer hours and shortage of help in the various personal and domestic services. The population of Washington is over 700,000 with a total in the metropolitan area of nearly a million and a quarter. There were, in October 1942, 306,144 civilian employees at work on governmental boards and agencies, an increase of 88,553, despite the recent removal of several bureaus to Chicago, Richmond, New York, Kansas City and Philadelphia, because of the local shortage of office and housing space. In war agencies, there were an additional 110,667 employees, and because of clerical demands the age limit was reduced to 16 years. Due to the difficulties they encounter, and the increased cost of living, about 1,000 girl clerks leave Federal positions per month.

As a result of the wartime population, waiting lines stand at theatres and restaurants; bank deposits have risen to $516,000,000, and bank clearings approximate $2,000,000,000; retail department stores have had a 20 per cent increase in sales; the last two months of 1942 saw a government payroll of $50,000,000 and a private payroll of $30,000,000 per month; 100,000 persons pass daily through the gates of the Union Station — with 200,000 during the Christmas rush. There has been a decline of $100,000,000 in public and private construction on account of priorities, and because most of the Federal contracts were recorded as of 1941; the transportation burden has increased 52 per cent, and in the later months almost doubled because of rubber and gasoline rationing; the police and fire departments are overburdened and lack sufficient personnel, because of the draft and withdrawals for war work; domestic service is out of the question even at wages of $18 per week; women are employed in many capacities heretofore regarded as requiring men; telephone calls have doubled, especially long distance; the difficulty of obtaining clerks has left an army of young officers at desks lacking complete office equipment; and public and private schools are jammed with the children of incoming workers.

To prevent gouging, ceilings have been placed on house and room rents. To meet the lack of housing, in part caused by the Government's absorption of apartment as well as office buildings, many million dollars have been allotted for war workers' housing in and near the District, including demountable defense housing, and alley clearance housing. Several million dollars have been appropriated for filtration plants and water reservoirs. A Senate Committee of investigation prevented an increase in water rates, thus saving the residents several million dollars.

New Buildings.

Among large new projects completed or under construction are the Census Building, a great air port, a Naval Hospital, the Cancer Institute in nearby Maryland, the Navy Annex and Pentagon Building in the Virginia suburbs, and the Jefferson Memorial on the Tidal Basin. Federal activities (air, war and navy) in Virginia have caused jurisdictional problems and conflicts between the District and Virginia, so that there is a reviving interest in regaining the lands across the Potomac which some hold were retroceded unconstitutionally to Virginia.

Tax Exemptions.

During the year Congress resolved doubts and disagreements with regard to tax exemptions in the District, by passing a law which grants generous exemptions for religious, hospital, charitable, research, educational and scientific institutions which carry on there a local or national work. The District houses great libraries, museums, and art collections, as well as several universities and colleges, although there is no publicly supported college, except Howard University for Negroes. The necessary and desirable exemptions (amounting to $111,000,000 in 1940) cost local taxpayers about $225,000.

Crime and Health.

Despite black-outs, moderate dim-outs, and an incursion of disorderly and criminal suspects from other cities, the threatened crime wave had receded with more effective policing and the assistance of volunteer policemen of the OCD. Prostitution has become an increasingly difficult problem, along with the fight against social diseases. Hospitals are over-burdened, but a recommended increase of a thousand beds failed because of priorities though there have been some increased facilities through reconstruction. Medical and dental services are difficult to obtain even at higher rates because about half of the District doctors are in the armed services. A rider on an appropriation bill has temporarily, at least, ended the planned day nurseries for the babies of working mothers.

Wages.

Unemployment has ceased. Wages are relatively high, with projected increases for government clerks, school teachers, police and firemen. Hence there have been no strikes. However, net salaries in old-line agencies and in non-governmental work are declining, even in the face of rising taxes and cost of living.

All in all, no city in the land is more prosperous, war-conscious, or patriotic in people, press, pulpit, and schools, than the nation's capital.

1941: District Of Columbia

The District of Columbia, The District of Columbia is a political entity comprising 60 sq. mi. of land and 10 sq. mi. of water surface, located on the Potomac River, 40 mi. southwest of Baltimore. The population of the District in the 1940 census was 663,091, but since then a large increase has taken place owing to the steady influx of defense workers. Fast-growing suburbs in nearby counties of Maryland and Virginia have given the metropolitan area a population well over a million. This extremely rapid growth has posed many serious problems difficult of solution in relation to the varying needs of the public. The police force, water supply, fire protection, housing, office buildings, sewerage, post offices, bridges, streets, etc., all need expansion at once. Congress, the District commissioners, and government bureau chiefs, all are busy planning necessary extensions. Traffic congestion in the downtown area has become so serious that new office buildings are now being erected in the suburbs, and Capitol Hill is to be further drawn into the sphere of governmental activities by the erection of many new office structures in the residential portion long passed by in the trend towards the northwest.

Water Supply.

The extremely rapid growth of population in the southeastern corner of the District, which has followed the erection of the beautiful new bridge across the Anacostia River on Pennsylvania Avenue, has led the Water Department to lay a large new main over Capitol Hill in order to give an abundant water supply to this section.

Defense Housing.

The prospective use of Arlington County as the site of large new government office buildings has resulted in the creation of extensive housing projects in that area, close to the Potomac River. It is likely that priorities of building materials will have to be granted to private concerns to provide for the great inrush of defense workers. In the autumn of 1941, it was stated that an average of only one apartment out of every thousand in the District was still vacant. Newcomers to the city were being advised to look to the suburbs for living quarters.

Public Schools.

A large number of older pupils who attended the various schools of the city last year were forced by economic pressure to leave school in the fall in order to obtain gainful employment. The result has been that the early enrollment in the city schools in the fall of 1941 was actually less than a year ago, in spite of the decided increase in population. In the suburbs, however, the school attendance increased considerably over that of the previous year as the rapid addition of new families with children overbalanced the defections.

U. S. Post Office.

The great increase in the amount of mail handled now by the post offices in the District has called for greater facilities at Union Station, where most of the mail comes and goes by train. Five additional tracks have been laid down for the accommodation of more railway mail coaches. There has been much discussion about restricting the immense quantities of franked mail sent out by the various government agencies in ever-increasing amounts because of defense activities.

Army Medical Library.

A site on East Capitol Street, in the block adjacent to the Folger Shakespeare Library, has been finally approved for the erection of an appropriate building to house the largest medical library in the world, now assembled in cramped quarters in an old building on the south side of the Mall. It is likely that space for several million books will be provided.

Washington National Airport.

Arrivals and departures of airplanes are now in full swing at the Gravelly Point airport, although many of the projected buildings have not yet been erected. The former small commercial airport nearby has been abandoned, and the site sold to the United States Government. Other auxiliary airports on higher ground near the city are in prospect, as misty weather conditions on the low ground by the river at times prevent the immense new airport from being used.

Lincoln Park Plan.

Among other plans for the future development of the District of Columbia is one for the utilization of the eastern portion of Capitol Hill, which may well be called the Lincoln Park Plan. This would change the quiet residential section adjoining the present Lincoln Park into a busy center for new government buildings, with large apartments nearby to accommodate the additional clerks and their families.

National Art Gallery.

The beautiful building erected near the foot of Capitol Hill, in the Mall area, is now the Mecca of people interested in the art treasures of the late Secretary Mellon, and of Samuel H. Kress, and other noted art collectors. More than a million persons visited the Gallery in 1941, as it has become one of the chief attractions of the nation's capital.

Jefferson Memorial.

The classic temple erected in honor of the great Virginian, Thomas Jefferson, is now nearing completion, and is destined to become one of the national capital's major showplaces. The exterior of Vermont marble, white as snow, has enchanting beauty when reflected in the Tidal Basin, on the south shore of which the Memorial stands. It is visible from the south portico of the White House, through a long tree-walled vista which follows the line of the so-called cross-axis of the Mall. The model of the proposed full-length bronze statue of Jefferson, by Rudulph Evans, has recently been approved by the Commission, and it is hoped that the statue itself will be completed for unveiling on the bicentennial of Jefferson's birth, April 13, 1942. The statue will be eighteen feet high and will represent Jefferson in the period of the presidency, when he was about sixty years old and still in the full vigor of his flue, though slender, physique.

1940: District Of Columbia

The District of Columbia is a political entity comprising 60 sq. mi. of land and 10 sq. mi. of water surface, located on the Potomac River, 40 mi. southwest of Baltimore. The population of the District in the 1940 census was 663,091 compared with 486,869 in 1930, an increase of 36.2 per cent, while the fast-growing suburbs in Maryland and Virginia contributed to a metropolitan area count of nearly one million people. Arlington County in Virginia was the fastest-growing county in the whole United States during the past ten years. The joint population for Washington and its outlying areas, as recorded in the census, amounted to the impressive figure of 962,742, which was an increase of 43 per cent over the figure for 1930.

In December the Washington Board of Trade estimated that 20,000 additional employees had been domiciled in Washington after the census was concluded in April, and that 65,000 had been the total additional increase in the metropolitan area.

Water Supply.

During the hot-weather spell of July, 1940, water consumption amounted on one day to more than 150,000,000 gallons, almost the estimated maximum of the filtered-water production capacity of the District plant, and daily for a whole week the water consumption was only a little less. This emphasized the fact that the rapidly growing population would soon demand a further extension of the water works. Plans for 1942 contemplate the completion of a new 20,000,000 gallon filtered-water reservoir in addition to the existing facilities.

Defense Housing.

Washington still has 'temporary' frame shacks built at the time of the Civil War to relieve the housing shortage of that period; and the nearly two hundred existing alley slums were created for the same purpose. In recent times the Alley Housing Authority has been endeavoring to do away with the worst of these evils, and the National Defense Program has given a great impulse to the building of dwellings for the low-income group of defense workers now thronging into the metropolitan area.

In addition, no less than eight hundred new frame buildings are being erected at Fort George G. Meade, between Washington and Baltimore, for a portion of the National Guard and other military formations. Other camps are being built in the suburban areas of the capital.

The District of Columbia also needs greater hospital facilities to take adequate care of the ever-increasing multitude of new defense workers. At Fort George G. Meade a hospital unit is being constructed with a capacity of one thousand beds, and capable of being increased to fifteen hundred.

Washington National Airport.

President Roosevelt formally opened the National Airport at Gravelly Point on Saturday, September 28, 1940. The large airport, which was nearing completion at the time of the opening, is located opposite the lower part of Hains Point on the Virginia side of the Potomac River, within the original limits of the District of Columbia.

The most powerful fleet of fighting planes ever assembled in the United States thundered over the Potomac as President Roosevelt laid the cornerstone of the terminal structure. More than five hundred Army and Navy planes took part in this demonstration of the country's rapidly expanding air power. Seventy-five thousand people assembled to view the awe-inspiring sight, which was the culmination of a long fight to build an airport that would be a model for American commercial aviation. It had cost thirteen million dollars. The chief runway extends 6,855 feet along a north-south axis, and the fill required 20,000,000 cubic yards of gravel and other material.

The airport has been so planned that several additional runways may be constructed when necessary. The present main runway can also be lengthened, and additional hangars built nearby. To obviate the danger of submergence of the runways during possible floods in the Potomac all plans are for a level above that of the highest floods on record at Gravelly Point. The landing areas became available for emergency use in December.

Calvin Coolidge High School.

This important new school building is located at Fifth and Sheridan Streets, N. W. Covering approximately twelve acres of ground, it consists of four floors, including the basement in which are the armory, gymnasiums, teachers' and pupils' cafeterias and kitchen, besides the auditorium. In all there are sixty-two instructional rooms, in addition to laboratories for biology, physics, chemistry and home economics. (See also ARCHITECTURE.)

Confederate Reunion.

Once again the aged Confederate veterans held a reunion in the Nation's capital, on Oct. 9, 1940. General Robert E. Lee and General Stonewall Jackson were both represented by descendants.

1939: District Of Columbia

The District of Columbia is a political entity comprising 60 sq. mi. of land and 10 sq. mi. of water surface, located on the Potomac River, 40 mi. southwest of Baltimore. As originally surveyed by Major Andrew Ellicott, the area was 100 sq. mi., for the District then included, in addition to land ceded to the Federal Government by Maryland, 30¾ sq. mi. ceded by Virginia. This portion, including the town of Alexandria, was returned to the latter state in 1846. The population of the District in the 1930 census was 486,869; and according to the latest Federal estimate (1937), 627,000. Other statistical estimates made for 1938 were: birth rate, 20.6 per 1,000 (increase from 19.7 in 1937); death rate, 12.7 (decrease from 13.9 in 1937).

Washington, the national capital, is located in a section of the District which has the effect of an amphitheater, owing to the gently rising hills towards the northwest which extend into the adjoining counties of Maryland. Climatic conditions in Washington are good, the District of Columbia being favored with averages rather than extremes. The protection of the nearby mountains causes spring to arrive about a week earlier than in Baltimore. The capital's Japanese cherry blossoms are famous the country over, and attract each year crowds of visitors to the parks bordering on the Potomac River. Numerous public squares and other open spaces add much to the charm of the nation's capital with their flower beds and shrubbery. Beautiful trees line many of the avenues and residential streets.

Among improvements induced by its rapid growth Washington has recently become increasingly bridge conscious. A new Pennsylvania Avenue bridge to connect with the adjoining suburban development in Maryland is now under construction. It is to be six lanes wide and will be sufficiently elevated to make a drawbridge unnecessary. Agitation has also been started for the building of a new bridge across the Anacostia River from the foot of South Capitol Street, and for two more across the Potomac River northwest of the city. Washington is fortunate in having in the Potomac River an abundant source of water supply which even under drought conditions is amply sufficient for its needs. Hence the storage of water during periods of abundant flow is unnecessary. The intake of river water is made above Great Falls, whence it is conducted through two conduits a distance of nine miles to the inlet of the large Dalecarlia Reservoir. Here the process of purification begins which results in good potable water for the District.

Gravelly Point opposite Washington was once the site of an Indian village, and later it was proposed for a projected Jackson City. It has in recent times been selected as the place for the Washington National Airport, part of a comprehensive plan in the rapid expansion of commercial aviation. The airport is now under construction and entails the relocation of a portion of the Mount Vernon Boulevard. It is expected that it will be ready for use in the summer of 1940.

The rapid increase in the population of Washington and its extensive suburbs has caused an unprecedented demand for new school buildings, the most noteworthy example being the new Calvin Coolidge High School in the northwestern section. School enrollment in the District for the school year 1938-39 was as follows: 58,807 pupils in school below the rank of junior high school; 20,898 pupils in the junior high schools; 1,738 in the vocational schools; and 18,327 in the senior high schools, making a total of 99,770. The annual appropriation for the 1938-39 school year was $12,769,519. The unusually large proportion of pupils in the advanced classes compared with the elementary is undoubtedly due to the fact that the families of a great many Government employees coming to Washington consist of children of secondary school age. The number of older pupils coming in from nearby Maryland and Virginia must also be taken into account. The falling birth rate in the United States probably has some influence too on the lower proportion in the elementary grades.

The late Secretary of the Treasury, Andrew W. Mellon (d. 1937), bequeathed his notable art collection to the nation and provided also for the erection of a National Gallery of Art in Washington. To his art treasures are to be added the large Kress collection recently given to the nation, and probably other masterpieces now privately owned. It is estimated that the total value of these various gifts will approximate a hundred million dollars. The imposing structure which will house them is now nearing completion on Pennsylvania Avenue, a short distance west of the Capitol. A similar enterprise now under consideration is the erection nearby of a building to be known as the Smithsonian Gallery of Art, intended for the fine collection now housed in the Smithsonian Institution. Several other buildings will soon be needed for Smithsonian exhibits, and it is tentatively planned to locate them near the present Library of Congress.

After much controversy among artists and architects the Jefferson Memorial is now being erected at the point where the line of Maryland Avenue intersects the White House axis. This point is on the south-east side of the Tidal Basin, which will be partly filled in near the Jefferson Memorial and correspondingly enlarged south of it. This is the last of the five cardinal sites designated by L'Enfant in his 1790 plan for the Capital City. A Latin cross will thus be formed, one arm extending from the Capitol to the White House and the other from the Lincoln Memorial to the new Jefferson Memorial, with the Washington Monument at the point of intersection. The building itself will resemble the Pantheon of Rome in a modified design, with the statue of the third President in the center. The cost is expected to be three million dollars.

The Government's model village community known as 'Greenbelt' is located in a farming section of Maryland thirteen miles to the northeast from downtown Washington. The houses were built in groups from factory-made parts of steel and concrete, the general scheme being horseshoe-shaped. It is controlled by the Farm Security Administration, and up to Aug. 1, 1939, had cost more than thirteen million dollars. It is effectively designed as a suburban residence district for low-income families, but whether it will ever pay its own way is problematical. As children are especially numerous the average age of its 2,900 inhabitants is less than 29 years. Young couples are welcomed by the management and at the end of its first year of full operation the village had the abnormally high birth rate of 64.5 per 1,000.

1938: District Of Columbia

District of Columbia, a political entity comprising 69 sq. mi. of land and 10 sq. mi. of water surface, located on the Potomac River, 40 mi. southwest of Baltimore. It was originally surveyed by Major Andrew Ellicott, and it then included 30¾ sq. mi. ceded from the state of Virginia which in 1846 was ceded back to that state. Pop. 1920, 437,571; 1930, 480,800; recent estimates by the census: 1931, 509,000; 1932, 526,000; 1933, 543,000; 1934, 560,000; 1935, 594,000; 1936, 610,000; 1937, 627,000. Births in 1937: total 12,343 (white male 4,288, white female 3,980, Negro male 2,931, Negro female 2,931). Deaths in 1937: total 8,727 (white male 3,082, white female 2,374, Negro male 1,710, Negro female 1,541). Infant and maternal mortality have decreased; tuberculosis has decreased; but cancer and motor vehicle accidents have increased.

The District of Columbia government consists of the following officers: commissioner, Melvin C. Hazen (president of the board); commissioner, George E. Allen; engineer commissioner, Col. Daniel I. Sultan; assessor, Fred D. Allen; collector of taxes, C. M. Towers; coroner, Dr. A. Magruder MacDonald; municipal architect, Nathan C. Wyeth; sanitary engineer, J. B. Gordon; major and superintendent of metropolitan police, Ernest W. Brown; postmaster, Vincent C. Burke.

The District of Columbia has enjoyed an era of rapid growth and prosperity under the New Deal. Recently-inaugurated bureaus of government work have attracted more than one hundred thousand new residents to the nation's Capital. From a population of 486,869 reported by the Bureau of the Census for 1930, there has been a rapid increase to an estimated total of 650,000 in 1938 (the Board of Trade estimates Greater Washington to have 850,000).

An extensive building program has been carried forward, the most notable achievement of which has been the completion of the beautiful white marble Annex of the Library of Congress on Capitol Hill, which is intended to accommodate ten million volumes on its shelves and a stock of 350,000,000 printed cards in its workrooms. The building of an elaborate Jefferson Memorial to be located at the Tidal Basin south of the Mall, has also been authorized by the United States Congress. Ground for this was broken Dec. 15, 1938.

The rapid increase in population has caused an unprecedented demand for new school buildings in the city; and it is noticeable that the need for office workers has resulted in a marked increase in the teaching of typewriting in the high schools. As a great many Government workers going to Washington bring with them families of half-grown children, it happens that the primary grades are relatively poorly attended, whilst the advanced classes are greatly overcrowded as compared with other cities of about the same size.

Owing to the fact that conventions frequently choose Washington as their place of meeting, and that many sightseers and other transients come to the Capital, this city has more hotels than any other place in the United States except New York; and in the number of automobiles per capita it is surpassed only by Detroit.

Certain street-car tracks in outlying districts have been abandoned and bus lines substituted for trolley service. The building of a new bridge over the Anacostia River is also being agitated, and a new boulevard between Washington and Baltimore has been projected which will avoid many of the intervening small towns and villages. By so doing it will speed up traffic between these two large cities. The same speeding-up result is expected within the city by the construction of underpasses at some of the intersections of streets carrying exceptionally heavy traffic.

The ever-increasing overflow of population into nearby Maryland and Virginia naturally brings up the question of a possible annexation of adjacent territory to the District of Columbia at some time in the future.