The park will be lighted by a system of are electric lamps, as indicated on the plan.

3. Hancock Place (Reservation No. 36, corner. Seventh street and Pennsylvania avenue).-This reservation, covering an area of 15,138 square feet, has been selected as the site for the statue of Gen. Hancock, and a plan for its improvement, at an estimated cost of $3,000, is submitted.

It is proposed to construct a circle of 120 feet in diameter, in which a circular mound, 90 feet in diameter, will be formed around the pedestal of the statue, the circle and the mound to be inclosed with a dressed granite curb. There will be raised grass plats and a small circular mound at the west end of the reservation, planted in part with lowgrowing flowering shrubs, forming a foreground of pretty parklets. The entire pavement within and around the reservation is designed to be of one character, preferably granolithic. It is suggested that the prominent location of this reservation on one of the principal thoroughfares merits the highest type of park improvement, not only to be in keeping with its surroundings, but to prove an attractive ornament to our capital city.

4. Reservation No. 32 (southeast corner of Pennsylvania avenue and Fourteenth street NW.).-This reservation, covering an area of 16,270 square feet, is in one of the most prominent portions of the city, and a plan at an estimated cost of $5,000 is submitted for its improvement.

It is contemplated to remove the old soft maple trees now bordering this small park place which have outlived their usefulness and have lost their ornamental character; to raise the grade in the center about 24 feet above the present level, and to slope gradually from this point to the margins of the reservation; to construct granite boundary walls and ornamental piers, coping, wing walls, etc., as shown in the plan; to inclose the reservation, except at certain entrances, with an ornamental stone coping; to introduce water pipe; to construct a handsome fountain with basin suitably inclosed with an ornamental stone coping, and to purchase three large iron vases to be placed at walk intersections.

It is also proposed to construct granolithic paths and sidewalks. The plantings will consist of flowering shrubs and a few trees of medium-sized growth of a decidedly ornamental character.

It is earnestly hoped that funds will be appropriated for this prominent locality.

GROUNDS NORTH AND SOUTH OF THE EXECUTIVE MANSION.

These grounds include those within the iron fences north and south of the White House, together with the entire reservation known as President's Park, south of the White House, Treasury Department, and State, War, and Navy building, north of B street and between Fifteenth and Seventeenth streets.

Within the White House grounds, both north and south, the entire park has been maintained in excellent condition; lawns have been inown, flower beds planted with flowering bulbs and with summer and autumn flowering and foliage plants; trees and shrubs have been pruned, and fountains repaired and planted with water lilies for summer bloom.

It is proposed during the summer of 1894 to replace the uneven worndown old flag pavement now leading from the Pennsylvania avenue entrances to the north balcony of the Executive Mansion with a granolithic pavement.

It is suggested that the old rubble masonry wall, capped with a worn-down sandstone coping and surmounted by an old iron railing, bounding the grounds of the White House on its north front along the principal avenue of the city, should be removed and give place to a substantial and ornamental structure more in keeping with its prominent location and surroundings. For many years it bore suitable comparison with the sidewalks in front of it and those leading to the imansion, but as the former have been replaced with a granolithic pavement and the latter will be replaced in a similar manner this summer, it is hoped that a handsome wall with an ornamental railing will soon be authorized on the north side of the mansion.

The south grounds of the mansion should be highly improved; the high mounds should be graded and shaped; the gravel walks removed and replaced with artificial stone or granolithic pavements, curbed, and provided with ample drainage so as to be in good condition for travel at all seasons; the northern portion of the grounds outside the iron fence fronting the State, War, and Navy building and the Treasufy Department, should be highly improved; the Treasury Department photograph gallery and greenhouses should be removed; bedding plants for use of the Treasury Department could be provided at the propagating gardens if deemed necessary.

The White House stable should be moved from the grounds fronting the State Department, where it is manifestly out of place, and the park generally should receive such further improvement as is needed, by the construction of asphalt walks to replace the gravel walks nowin place; additional walks are required for public travel through these grounds, increased water supply for irrigation, and increased drainage facilities. The portion of the grounds south of the iron fence, covering an area of about 82 acres, and heretofore known as the President's Park, have been maintained in very good condition. During the year the main roads have been repaired, raked, and rolled compactly, using for this purpose about 400 cubic yards of gravel; the roads were well watered during the summer season to keep down the dust. All gutters, draintraps, etc., were kept clean and in good order; 308 linear feet of guttering was relaid, and a new gutter 141 feet long by 2 feet wide was placed where the main roadway leads to Fifteenth street.

The watchman's lodge at the corner of Seventeenth and B streets has been repaired.

The central parade, an even, unbroken lawn surface, extending over an area of 17 acres, is now conceded to be one of the chief attractions of the President's Park. It is oval in form and is surrounded with a smooth, wide, gravel roadway, which has recently become one of the principal drives of the Capital.

It was designed by the celebrated landscape artistic gardener, A. J. Downing, with the view of having on the public grounds an open area of sufficient extent for military evolutions, parades, reviews, etc., and I earnestly hope that it may never be disfigured with structures of any

character.

It has been frequently used for drills and parades by our citizen soldiers and by visiting military companies from other cities. Some years since a competitive drill lasting several days took place in the park, and recently the ground was occupied by the Grand Army of the Republic in their memorable reunion. On all of these occasions it has been apparent that a wide walk around the parade would be a desirable feature and afford safe standing room, out of the way of passing

to accompany the annual report upon the Imprarment and care of Public Buildings and grounds in the District of Columbia for the fiscal year ending June 30 - 1894.

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