Designing the Nation's Capital: The 1901 Plan for Washington, D.C.

ANYONE who joins the staff of the Commission of Fine Arts is immediately made aware of the close connection that still exists between the Commission and its predecessor, the Senate Park Commission, popularly known as the McMillan Commission, of 1901. Surrounded by such reminders as the one hundred mounted 33 by 43-inch photographs of European scenes, Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr.'s scrapbook of snapshots taken during the commission's European trip, and the remaining large watercolor renderings used in the 1902 exhibition at the Corcoran Gallery of Art, it is hard not to feel the kinship, and to ponder what was in the minds of these four men as they set out, in the heady atmosphere of the City Beautiful movement, to draft a plan that would make Washington one of the most beautiful capitals in the world. Fortunately there are letters, primarily in the manuscript collections of the Library of Congress, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the New-York Historical Society, as well as the books on Burnham and McKim by Charles Moore, Senator McMillan's aide who accompanied three of the commission members on their trip to Europe. Reading from these sources makes one realize what a tremendous amount of work was packed into ten months' time—and this included planning and producing the exhibition at the Corcoran in January 1902, a major effort in itself. The six-week European trip, which some referred to as a "junket", was extremely productive; the days at sea with no interruptions, and the first-hand experience of the best Europe had to offer in examples of urban planning and landscaping were invaluable. It should be understood that the Park Commission's plan did not take shape "out of the blue" in 1901. For the past two decades, in concert with the City Beautiful movement, there had been articles in the press pointing out the capital's shortcomings in regard to public architecture and public spaces, as well as demands for some kind of entity to exercise control over the quality of these civic improvements once funds were appropriated for them. The members of the Park Commission were not unaware of this criticism, and it undoubtedly shaped their thinking. More influential was the series of talks on the subject given at the American Institute of Architects convention of 1900, which took place in Washington, and during which Olmsted himself spoke on landscape, particularly in regard to the Mall.