THE BUILDING FOR THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS.

By BERNARD R. GREEN.

The Library of Congress was founded by the act of April 24, 1800, entitled, "An act to make further provision for the removal of the Government of the United States." The sum of $5,000 was appropriated "for the purchase of such books as may be necessary for the use of Congress at the said city of Washington and for fitting up a suitable apartment for containing them and placing them therein."

The act also provided "that the said books shall be placed in one suitable apartment in the Capitol in the said city, for the use of both Houses of Congress, and the members thereof." "An act concerning the library for the use of both Houses of Congress," approved January 26, 1802, has continued to the present time as the fundamental law of "The Library of Congress."

The Library, comprising not more than 3,000 volumes, occupied a room in the Capitol until August 25, 1814, when it shared the fate of the building by being burned on that day by the English in the war of 1812. A month later Ex-President Jefferson offered his private library of about 6,700 volumes on such terms as the people might accept, and Congress, after much debate, purchased it for $23,950. It was placed in a room in the building used by the Post-Office Department, but temporarily taken for the occupation of Congress. In 1816 Congress removed to a brick building erected on Capitol Hill for its use pending the restoration of the Capitol. The Library was transferred to the same building, where it remained until 1824, when it was finally returned to the Capitol and placed in the west hall, which later became the central of the three halls occupied by the Library until it was transferred to the new special building in 1897. For seventy-three years, therefore, it occupied the same accommodations in the Capitol.

In 1851 the number of volumes had increased to 55,000, but on December 24 of that year some 35,000 of them were destroyed by fire communicated by a defective flue, to which the woodwork then comprising the fitting and shelving of the library was exposed. The interior of the three halls referred to was then reshelved on the alcove plan in three and four tiers, with galleries wholly cast in iron, by the Architect of the Capitol, Thomas U. Walter.

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In 1860 75,000 volumes had been accumulated. By act of April 5, 1866, the library collected by the Smithsonian Institution, amounting to about 40,000 volumes, was transferred to the Library of Congress, which thereafter grew rapidly, reaching in 1870, when the national copyright law went into effect, 197,668 volumes and 30,000 pamphlets The operation of the copyright law so increased the rate of growth that the accommodations furnished by the three halls and two or three adjacent small interior office rooms soon became quite inadequate for shelving the books and performing the work of the Library and copyright office.

In his annual report of 1871 the Librarian, Ainsworth R. Spofford. briefly called attention to the need for more space, and in the following year reported on the subject at length, earnestly setting forth the imperative necessity for more room, and even the construction of a special building. At that time the collections amounted to 246,345 volumes and 45,000 pamphlets. The subject was soon taken up by Congress and considered through its committees from that time until, by the act of April 15, 1886, the present site, one-quarter of a mile south of east from the Capitol, was selected, its acquisition by the United States provided for, and the construction of a building authorized.

During this long period of discussion many schemes for attaining the desired end, including a variety of plans for enlarging and occupying the Capitol and many different sites in the city of Washington, were considered. Several times did the legislation reach an advanced stage and fail through the pressure of more absorbing interests. Finally the law referred to adopted sketch plans that had been prepared by Messrs. Smithmeyer & Pelz, a firm of Washington architects, but it fixed no limit of cost, nor did it specify the materials of construction or character of execution of the design other than to stipulate that the building should be fireproof. A commission, composed of the Secretary of the Interior, the Librarian of Congress, and the Architect of the Capitol, was designated to conduct the construction of the building. The site, comprising two city squares-nearly 9 acres, within the city building lines and with the included streets-was purchased of the private owners, the ground cleared of some seventy buildings occupying it, and by the summer of 1888 about one-half of the foundation footings for the building were laid. During that year, however, Congress be came dissatisfied with the progress that had been made and the uncertainties involved in the operation of the inadequate original law, and accordingly, on October 2, modified it and lodged the entire control of the work, including the preparation of new plans at a limited cost, in the hands of Brig. Gen. Thomas Lincoln Casey, Chief of Engineers of the United States Army. He immediately placed the writer in local charge. On March 2, 1889, Congress enacted that the building should be erected at a total cost of $6,500,000, including previous expenditures, according to a plan that had been prepared and submitted by General Casey, pursuant to the previous act of October 2, 1888. This