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1st Session.

War Dept.

BUILDING FOR WAR DEPARTMENT.

JUNE 3, 1840.

Submitted by Mr. PETRIKIN, and ordered to lie upon the table, and be printed.

WAR DEPARTMENT, May 22, 1840.

SIR: In compliance with a resolution of the Committee on Public Buildings of the House of Representatives, calling upon the Secretary of War to furnish answers to certain interrogatories relative to the number of buildings rented for the accommodation of the War Department, and asking what would be the cost of a building, made fireproof, which would enable the War Department to dispense with these buildings, I have the honor to submit the accompanying report of the Chief Topographical Engineer, and the plan therein referred to, to which I invite the favorable action of the committee.

1 concur in every part of the plan, excepting, that I would advise the lower and first stories to be built upon groin arches, and the upper part of the building, as proposed in plan No. 3, sustained on iron joists and small arches. 1 do not believe the cost of such a building would exceed sixty thousand dollars, and it might be erected and fit for use in the summer of 1841.

Very respectfully, your most obedient servant,

Hon. LEVI LINCOLN,

J. R. POINSETT.

Chairman Committee on Public Buildings
and Grounds, House of Representatives.

BUREAU OF TOPOGRAPHICAL ENGINEERS,

Washington, May 21, 1840.

SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge your direction, to report upon a communication from a committee of the House of Representatives, in the following words.

"On motion of Mr. Petrikin,

"Resolved, That the chairman of the Committee on Public Buildings and Grounds, request the Secretary of War to furnish the committee with answers to the following interrogatories:

"1. What number of buildings are rented for the accommodation of the War Department, and what bureaus occupy those buildings?

"2. What is the amount of rent paid annually for those buildings ?

"3. Are any of them fireproof?

"4. What would be the cost of a building, made fireproof, which would enable the War Department to dispense with those buildings?

"5. Have you a plan of such a building that you can furnish to the committee ?"

In reference to these inquiries I have the honor to state: That there are now under rent, for the accommodation of the War Department, six three-story brick buildings, at an aggregate annual rent of $3,000. These buildings are occupied by the following bureaus :

1. Bureau of Pensions;

2. Bureau of Bounty Lands;

3. Bureau of the Paymaster-General;

4. Bureau of the Commissary-General of Subsistence; 5. Bureau of Ordnance;

6. Bureau of the Surgeon-General;

7. Bureau of the Engineers of Fortifications; 8. Bureau of Topographical Engineers;

9. Bureau of Army Clothing.

None of these buildings are fireproof, or built with any precautions or guards against fire, beyond what is customary in dwelling-houses. The enumeration of the bureaus which occupy them, will sufficiently indicate the importance of the documentary matter intrusted to them, and the consequent exposure of the same in buildings of such a character. Referring merely to the records of this bureau, I find them to contain no less than 2,155 sheets of topographical maps and plans, the greater part of them original, and results from the labors of the corps. Also 42 atlases and portfolios, several of them extremely rare and valuable.

In addition to the exposure of so much valuable matter, the buildings are deficient in many conveniences necessary to the execution of public busi ness, and to the proper arrangement of the public property.

The fourth question is in reference to the cost of a suitable building, which would enable the department to dispense with those buildings now rented. The objects desirable to accomplish in such a building, as you did me the honor to explain to me, are:

1. That it should furnish sufficient space for the several bureaus now in the occupation of rented buildings.

2. That it should admit of being completed at an early period, so early that it could be occupied in the course of the next year.

3. That it should be planned so as to connect itself conveniently with the existing buildings denominated the War and Navy Departments.

gress might think proper to arrange all the public offices on a different 4. That it should not be costly, so that when, at any future period, Conplan, the sacrifice would not be great, in dispensing with the one now contemplated.

It has appeared to me that all these objects can be accomplished, better than in any other way, by the erection of a simple fireproof three-story brick building, without ornament or decoration, having solely in view the public objects for which it is to be erected; and that its position should be between the two central projections of the present War and Navy Depart ments. Except that the building would be somewhat wider than those projections, it might be considered as a mere extension of the same from one department to the other; furnishing, throughout the whole, an in-door

communication.

Such a building would furnish, in the cellar-basement, six good rooms for offices, the opposite six being required as store rooms for winter fuel;

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twelve good rooms on the first, twelve on the second, and twelve on the third floor, thus yielding forty-two good office-rooms, exclusive of the garret. But it is contemplated, on the third floor, to dispense with the partitions at the points a, b, and probably at c, d, so as to have two or four large rooms on this floor, for drawing and engineer purposes. This would reduce the number of rooms to forty or thirty-eight, according as the third floor might be arranged. As in either case, however, the whole space is preserved, it would not lessen the public accommodation of the building; and, from the best estimate which I have been able to make, such an addition as the one represented, connected with the present war and navy buildings, would furnish ample accommodation, at the present time, and, probably, for twenty years to come, for both the War and Navy Departments, and their necessary adjunct accounting offices.

There has not yet been sufficient time to have the contemplated building exhibited on paper, in elevation, and in all its details of plan for every story. But the plan now submitted of the first floor, will, probably, be sufficient; as each succeeding floor will be similar to the first, with the exception of the larger rooms, as before stated, on the third floor.

The probable cost of such a building will depend entirely upon the kind of fireproof plan adopted.

No. 1. If the basement is made, as in the present War Department, with the first a paved floor, resting on groin arches, and the rest of the building erected in the usual way, but of good materials, with a slate-roof, its cost would not exceed $20,000. Yet such a building would not be fireproof.

No. 2. The basement the same as the first, the superstructure similar, but the floors of coarser material, sanded, and paved with brick; stairways incombustible, of iron or stone, slate-roof. Such a building might well be considered fireproof, as all its combustible parts would be protected from fire by plastering or paving, or by the nature of the material; and, it could not be burnt without manifest design, and labor in breaking through the covering to get at the combustible parts, hardly a probable event, under the supposition that the usual guard to the buildings will exercise an ordinary degree of vigilance. The most accessible and exposed parts of the building, the cellar-basement, will be perfectly fireproof, and all communications with it, and the stories above, will be intercepted by the archwork.

Such a building, with more than the usual precautions and care in its structure, to guard against the possibility of fire by accident, would not, in my judgment, exceed a cost of $30,000.

No. 3. Cellar-basement as before; floors paved, sustained on iron joists and small arches, stairways incombustible, of iron or stone, slate-roof upon an iron frame.

We have, as yet, had no experience in buildings of this kind, although they have been much adopted in Europe. They are undoubtedly fireproof. After, however, having given to the subject all the consideration which accessible means would enable me, I feel well assured that its cost would not exceed $50,000.

No. 4. Cellar-basement as before, and all the floors of the superstructure paved, and sustained by arches of masonry; stairways of stone, roof of copper. This would be a regular fireproof building, of massive brick-masonry and arches. Its cost would be about $80,000.

From the foregoing remarks, it will appear that there are three plans of constructing the proposed building, which may be considered fireproof, and

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