HISTORY.

During the first few months of the war, Washington passed through successive stages of "saturation," first filling houses already in commission, next making use of vacant but habitable homes, and finally repairing vacant houses long since discarded. Following the èconomic law of supply and demand, the prices of houses and rooms increased as available living space diminished.

The high rents which had to be paid for crowded quarters bore heavily on the thousands of Government employees who had been brought from their homes in all parts of the country to do their share toward winning the war, and difficulties were especially great for young and inexperienced girls who accepted positions at $1,000 and $1,100 a year, never dreaming that such a sum would fail to pay expenses.

Besides suffering from indecent overcrowding of rooms, lack of sanitary conveniences, uncleanliness, and exorbitant prices for quarters, many young women with healthy appetites actually went hungry from meal to meal because the day's allowance for food would not cover three hearty meals. Of course, many of these employees had never lived away from homes where there were bountiful tables of home-cooked food, and consequently they did not know how to order to the best advantage in the restaurants and cafeterias in which most of them were obliged to eat. But anyone who tried for $1.50 to order enough food to repair the wear and tear of a war worker's day found it a heavy tax on ingenuity. It does not take higher mathematics to figure that $20 to $30 for part of a room, $45 for board, and $3 to $5 for car fare will not leave much out of the $83.33 a month which is exactly one-twelfth of a thousand dollars. It became increasingly difficult to secure meals in private families and boarding houses, as the scarcity and cost of service, the high prices, and regulation of food made it impossible to produce regulation meals for any price the war workers could afford.

Many war workers rose at 6 a. m. in order to reach the bathroom before the dozen others who had an equal claim on its rather precarious supply of hot water, or they were obliged to spend precious minutes waiting in hallways at a door which seemed perpetually closed and locked. The combing of hair was a

dreaded operation when two other faces already filled the one small mirror available. The securing of clean clothes meant a large weekly outlay or a laundry bee at night with damp garments hanging over chair backs in the sleeping room and a hurried pressing out on the floor in the morning, if the electric iron could be locked securely from the prying eyes of the vigilant landlady. Some girls sent laundry home and at least one hard-pressed war worker sent laundry to California by parcels post to avoid the Washington laundry prices and the poor service.

What wonder if, after a tedious delay in finding foot room on the crowded street cars, after a vigorous pommeling of sharp elbows in ribs which covered an empty stomach, and after a weary line-up for a cafeteria breakfast of coffee, cereal, and corn bread which cost from 25 to 40 cents, that the war worker arrived at her office at 8, 8:30 or 9 a. m. very poorly fitted to give her harrassed superiors the service which they needed so sorely?

All through the year 1917 the local District council of defense labored valiantly to find a solution of the problem, but by the end of the year it became apparent that the situation was not being met. On December 12, the District council furnished a report of unoccupied houses, urged the establishment of a central room registry, and expressed the opinion that the Federal Government would be forced to provide additional living accommodations.

On December 17, 1917, a report signed by George T. Keyes, executive secretary of the National Civil Service Reform League, declared that the housing committee of the District council of defense had been in existence seven months and was unable to handle the housing situation adequately. The committee arrived at the conclusion that the problem was a Federal, not a District problem, and that the Federal Government should handle the housing through an agency responsible to it. If after an exhaustive survey not enough places were found to be available, one of the remedies recommended was the building of quarters. The committee urged immediate consideration if the war machinery was not to break down utterly.

On January 15, 1918, a report of a conference of housing specialists stated that it was the unanimous opinion of the conference that temporary housing

should be provided for 5,000; that funds should be provided to distribute 15,000 in lodgings; and that the Government should spend $7,000,000 for economical permanent dwellings.

By this time Mr. Otto M. Eidlitz was serving as chairman of a committee on housing which was the predecessor of the present bureau, but Washington housing was not conceived to be part of the committee's work, and Mr. Eidlitz so stated in a letter dated January 17, 1918, to the secretary of the National Civil Service Reform League, who maintained that a single agency should handle the housing for all departments and that the Washington problem was Federal, not local.

On January 30, 1918, the Intercollegiate Bureau of Occupations, New York, reported to the Secretary of Labor that it was not advisable to recommend clerical workers for the Government until adequate living arrangements were provided for women with small incomes.

On February 9, 1918, the president of the Girls' Friendly Society in America wrote to the Secretary of Agriculture and to the Attorney General that, after personal investigation, many women were found to have returned home because of lack of living accommodations and that she could not advise young girls to enter the Government service. She urged immediate congressional action to provide the same facilities for women workers as were provided for the shipbuilders.

Soon after, the Secretary of Labor formally appointed Mr. Eidlitz director of industrial housing and transportation, and the chairman of the local council of defense formally took up with him the problem of local housing. In the meantime the chief of the Housing and Health Division of the War Department had prepared a chart showing the Washington needs for housing. On March 29, 1918, the president of the United States Civil Service Commission wrote the Secretary of Labor that recruiting of office help was most difficult because of inadequate housing.

By March of 1918, therefore, it had come to be pretty generally recognized that Washington housing, and especially the provision of living quarters for the Government war workers, was a problem for Congress, and an amendment was ultimately added to the housing bill, which finally passed on June 4, 1918. The Housing and Health Division of the War Department and the District council of defense continued to secure data and make suggestions concerning housing needs and control.

During the months of waiting for enabling legislation the Housing Bureau made tentative plans. One of the sites most discussed for temporary buildings was the strip of ground from the Union Station to the Capitol. Some of this land had belonged to the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, but now that the railroads were being

operated by the Government there was some doubt as to its status. On April 16, 1918, the director of the Housing Bureau asked permission of the president of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad to use the station site for dormitories and received the reply that the railroad company was willing to allow the use of this site if the legal status in the Government controversy would not be impaired.

On April 20, Mr. Burt L. Fenner, the manager of the Production Division of the bureau, made a comprehensive report to the director, which is quoted in full:

HOUSING IN THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA.

1. From a survey of the conditions existing on March 1, made by Maj. Z. L. Potter, chief of the Housing and Health Division, War Department, it appears that between that date and December 31 about 26,300 additional civilian employees with 2,600 members of their families and about 1,000 officers with 1,500 members of their families, a total of about 31,400 persons, will require housing in Washington. Of this total about 18,400 are expected before July 1 and 13,000 between July 1 and December 31. This is at the rate of about 1,065 per week until July 1 and about 495 per week thereafter. It is estimated that from 60 to 65 per cent will be women.

2. Maj. Potter reports that rooms can be found for the first 9,400 to arrive, that 4,400 additional rooms could be made available by taking over and repairing vacant houses, that 750 rooms will become available when the Government vacates residential properties now used as offices, and that 2,750 additional persons could be provided for, during the summer at least, by taking over the private school dormitories in the city. If all these means were utilized to the fullest extent, accommodations for 17,300 could be made available before July 1 without the construction of new buildings, leaving 1,100 to be provided for before July 1 and 13,000 thereafter, a total of 14,100 between now and December 31, the point of saturation being reached about the middle of June.

3. The problem to be solved involves not only the housing, but the feeding of the newcomers. For the housing, it is recommended that groups of two-story buildings be erected, connected by corridors with a central sitting room or lobby and office, each wing containing about 100 rooms; size, 9 feet 6 inches by 12 feet. The number of such wings in each unit would depend upon the size of the available site, but it is believed that 1,000 rooms should be the maximum of a single unit. This is about the size of the Hotel Biltmore in New York.

For feeding the occupants of the dormitory wings, two methods are possible: (a) By regular restaurant service in which all meals are served to the guests by waitresses. This would require one waitress to eight guests, or a total of 125 waitresses for each 1,000 guests. To house these waitresses would require 124 per cent of the amount of housing required for the guests themselves. This plan would call for a separate kitchen and dining room equipment for each 1,000-room unit. In order to be able to serve meals at a moderate cost, a very limited bill of fare, on the American plan, would be necessary. (b) By a cafeteria service. By this method a central building containing a large lobby or waiting room, coat room, and toilet facilities and from two to four separate dining rooms, each accommodating about 500 people, and all supplied from one kitchen would be provided for each geographical group of units. This method would eliminate all waitresses, a few omnibus boys to collect soiled dishes taking their place. The service would be more rapid, the amount of kitchen equipment very greatly reduced, and, at the same price, better food in greater variety could be served. Furthermore, as the cost of food would be separate from room rent, room occupants would feel at liberty to take an occasional meal elsewhere should they so desire, and this fact would in itself be a constant spur to the management to make the meal service satisfactory.

4. The accompanying map shows a large number of sites of vary ing degrees of availability.

(A) Six squares between the Union Station and the Capitol, including the square owned by the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad.The latter square, by reason of its size and the slope of the land, is best suited for the restaurant or cafeteria service. On the other five squares, accommodations for about 3,000 persons can be had, provided cafeteria service is used. If restaurant service, two restaurants would be needed and the number of rooms for guests would be reduced about 20 per cent. On the Baltimore & Ohio square, in addition to the restaurant building, on the low level at the northwest corner, there should be placed a central storehouse with stock refrigerators, from which all supplies could be distributed daily to other groups in other parts of the city; also a bakeshop and laundry to serve all groups. An alternative location for the storehouse might be found adjacent to the railroad yards where a siding could be had. The Baltimore & Ohio square would also be utilized for dormitories for all the help in this group of buildings, The Capitol power plant might be utilized for all power and light. if its capacity will permit. This will be further investigated.

(B) That portion of the Monument grounds fronting on B Street and extending from Fourteenth to Seventeenth Streets.-This would accommodate two 1,000-room units with a separate restaurant building.

(C) The site west of the new Navy Department buildings and north of the Lincoln Memorial.-This would accommodate two 1,000-room units and restaurant.

(D) East Potomac Park.-Several 1,000-room units with required restaurant facilities could be placed in this locality. It is suggested that many of the reserve officers on duty in the various departments might be accommodated here, if this were thought desirable.

(E) The site along the north side of the Mall from Twelfth to Fourteenth Street.--This site seems less desirable than any of the others mentioned as it is filled with fine trees and is one of the most beautiful parts of the park and one which could ill be spared from park uses.

(F) There is another possible site on privately owned property between B and E and Twenty-first and Twenty-third Streets. This land could probably be rented at a price of about 10 cents a foot, which would represent a cost of about $70,000 per annum. There are, however, a few old buildings of small value now upon this property. This site is admirably adapted to the use proposed by its size and shape, its higher elevation, and its proximity to the large office population in that section.

5. The method of construction proposed is as follows: Exterior walls of terra-cotta blocks, stuccoed on the exterior, wood framing inside, a noninflammable roof, fire walls for every 3,000 square feet of area, one fire stair in each 3,000 square feet subdivision.

6. Cost. It is estimated that the dormitories could be built for about $800 per room, this price including furniture and the proper allowance for corridors, lobbies, etc. The kitchen and dining room buildings would cost, with their equipment, about $80,000 for each 1,000 persons. The general storehouse, including bakeshop and laundry, would cost about $885,000, for a capacity sufficient to accommodate 10,000 persons. The housing of the help required for 10,000 rooms would probably cost another $350,000. Thus the total cost of housing 10,000 persons, food service being on the cafeteria plan, is estimated at $10,035,000. By the restaurant plan the cost would be considerably increased.

Soon after this Mr. Waddy Wood was consulted concerning plans, and during May and June much preliminary work was accomplished, but until the bill was finally passed, the appropriation made on June 4, 1918, and the Department of Labor formally desig nated by the President of the United States to carry out the provisions of the act, no contracts could be made with architects or contractors.

Miss Olive Davis, experienced in housing and living conditions for large groups of women, held many conferences with Mr. Wood and worked out with him the specifications finally adopted for the Government Hotels.

On May 13, Mr. Fenner presented data on sites and estimates to the director and made recommendations for an immediate building program. His report follows:

TEMPORARY HOUSING, WASHINGTON, D. C.

In developing preliminary studies of dormitories for housing Government employees in Washington, we have adopted as a type three-story buildings, nonfireproof, though with exterior walls covered with stucco on wire lath. Each building consists of a series of detached wings, each housing from 50 to 100 persons in single rooms. The number of such wings depends upon the area of the available sites, Each unit contains a central lobby, sitting room, and cafeteria, dinning room, and kitchen.

The standard size of bedrooms is 9 by 11 feet.
Four locations have been considered as follows:

The cost of constructing all these buildings above mentioned would be approximately $13,320,000.

In view of the fact that the immediate need does not appear to call for so large an amount of housing, and of the further fact that some locations will undoubtedly prove more popular than others it is suggested that the following units be constructed at once, and the others postponed for the present:

(A) Union Station group, three units, capacity...
(B) Monument group, one unit, capacity..
(C) Island group, capacity.

Total..

The estimated cost of these units is as follows: (A) Union Station group.. (B) Monument group. (C) Island group..........

Total.....

Persons

2,800

1,500

1,850

6, 150

$2,575,000 1, 215, 000 1, 492,000

5, 282,000

Heat and power for the Union Station group can be obtained from the Capitol power plant, provided Congress approved. The plant has ample capacity. The Potomac Electric Co. can furnish heat and power for the other groups. The cost of extending the mains is included in the estimates and is very materially less than the cost of installing separate plants.

The estimates have been arrived at by carefully taking off quantities on one unit and thus arriving at a cost per room and a cost per square foot. These figures have then been applied to the other units. The cost per square foot, exclusive of heating mains and furnishings, is approximately $3.35 and the cost per room $860, exclusive of furnishings, which latter will cost approximately $100 per room.

On May 15 the bureau received the opinion of counsel that the status of the controversy regarding the Baltimore & Ohio property would not be impaired by temporary occupancy, but there were still some details to be agreed upon in this agreement at the end of June.

By June the delay in securing housing legislation brought another communication from the Civil Service Commission to Secretary Wilson asking for action to provide accommodations for newly appointed Government employees that the commission might get better results from advertising, and again calling attention to the fact that the commission was hampered in its work by adverse reports of lack of housing. The commission urged the Union Station and Meridian Hill sites. The Secretary of Labor on June 10 replied that every effort was being made to facilitate the provision.

On June 24 Mr. Fenner reported to the director two plans for proposed hotels and dormitories. He stated that the President of the United States had approved the sites, and asked approval of plans and specifications, stating that work could commence in a few weeks. This report was forwarded to the Secretary of Labor on June 28, and on July 11 the Secretary of Labor transmitted the following reply: [Memorandum for Mr. Otto Eidlitz, director of Industrial Housing and Transportation.]

Referring to your memorandum of July 1 and our conference of yesterday, it is hereby directed that the plans shall be a compromise between plan (a) and plan (b), in that there shall be residence halls with dining rooms and room service, and each city block unit shall be so arranged as to make it possible for central control of management and police from the main office within the block. I have no objections to a cafeteria arrangement in addition if that can be done without unusual or extraordinary expense.

The largest number of the halls shall be set aside for the exclusive use of women, a smaller number for the exclusive use of men, and a still smaller number for the use of men with families. The size of each hall unit will be left entirely to the discretion of the Housing Bureau, having in view the economic management of the dining rooms. One unit should be set aside for the care of arrivals temporarily until they can be located, a limitation being set upon the length of time they may be permitted to occupy temporary quarters.

There should be small basement room for each unit provided with wash trays and electric irons so that guests may do a portion of their own laundry work, such as handkerchiefs, etc., if they so desire. The basements should also contain a kitchenette for the sole use of guests, both under proper regulations and supervision. W. B. WILSON, Secretary. The day following the receipt of this memorandum from the Secretary of Labor the appointment of Mr.

(Signed)

Waddy Wood, of Washington, as architect for the Plaza-Capitol group was confirmed. On July 15 an executive order was issued by the President of the United States to the Secretary of Labor authorizing the use for housing of squares 229 and 230. On August 5, 1918, the contractors informed the bureau chief of industrial relations that work had begun on the dormitories near the Union Station and requested assistance in providing labor. In order to push the buildings to completion at the earliest possible moment, it was necessary to work overtime, but even at this, it proved exceedingly difficult to find labor to man the project.

At the signing of the armistice all overtime work was discontinued and the whole progress of construction was slowed down by the uncertainty which attended the future of this and other projects and by the unrest in labor, which culminated in disputes and strikes. The decision of the House Committee on Public Buildings and Grounds, on January 21, 1919, to permit Project 54 A, B, D to proceed, again released the brakes on construction and building and equipment was once more undertaken with vigor. But the changed conditions caused by prospective peace and by the abandonment of 54 C-the Twenty-first and B Street project-made necessary a good many readjustments in layout.

All during the period of construction the Operating Division had been making provision for furniture and equipment, so that by the time the buildings were completed the furnishings were in the main ready to install. But here again war and its aftermath were responsible for endless irritating delays and substitutions in shipments.

There had been some delay in plans occasioned by the change from cafeteria to regular dining rooms, and as the operating representatives were chosen there were further changes from time to time. Mr. James B. Regan, of the Hotel Knickerbocker, New York, offered valuable suggestions on the layout of the kitchens and dining rooms, and on August 19, 1918, the director formally requested Mr. Regan to take charge of the Plaza residence halls then in course of construction, Mr. Regan being authorized to report directly to the president of the United States Housing Corporation. Mr. Regan, however, declined to serve, and on September 25, 1918, the management was turned over to Mr. Allan Robinson, manager of the Operating Division of the United States Housing Corporation, "with power to provide the necessary executives."

On October 1, 1918, the appointment of Mr. Alfred S. Amer, manager of the St. Charles Hotel, New Orleans, was formally approved as general manager of the Washington residence halls. At this time the groups on the Union Station site and that at Twentythird and B Streets were well under way and Mr.

Amer was to be held responsible for both groups. Under him was Mr. W. J. Quinn. After the signing of the armistice Mr. Amer felt obliged to return to the St. Charles Hotel in New Orleans, and on December 28, he handed in his resignation, offering to continue in an advisory capacity. He was succeeded soon after the first of the year by Mr. J. H. Weaver.

Early in January Mr. Allan Robinson, manager of the Operating Division, resigned to return to New York, and was succeeded by Mr. Willard Howe, but from March 1, 1919, the manager of this project reported directly to Mr. Irving E. Macomber, vice president from that date of the United States Housing Corporation. Upon Mr. Quinn's resignation, March 17, 1919, he was succeeded by Mr. H. J. Spurway, who bore the title of assistant manager. On the 1st of May Mr. Spurway was succeeded by Miss Olive Davis, who was promoted from superintendent of halls to assistant general manager.

In spite of many obstacles, however, the first unit of 162 beds was opened on December 19, 1918, four months and 17 days after the contract had been let. The various units for convenience are designated by letters of the alphabet, as "A-B" Building, “C-D” Building, etc., each consisting of two wings. The units were opened in the following order: E-F, De-cember 19, 1918; N-O, December 25, 1918; L-M, January 15, 1919; P-Q, January 21, 1919; X-Y, January 27, 1919; C-D, February 3, 1919; T-U, March 1, 1919; R-S, March 8, 1919; I-K, March 20, 1919; A–B, March 31, 1919; V-W, April 15, 1919; G-H, May 10, 1919; administration No. 1 dining room, March 1, 1919; laundry, April 16, 1919; administration No. 2 dining room, May 20, 1919; and infirmary, May 31, 1919.

The opening of the first house was greatly delayed because one of the war bureaus had commandeered the expansion pumps while en route and temporary boilers had to be installed to furnish heat. The operation of any plant before the completion of construction is difficult, but it was real pioneer work to heat houses with no tools beyond coal shovels and to clean rooms with no utensils but an inadequate supply of brooms. The securing of a staff of employees was no light task, but the house managers and their assistants crowded the carpenters and the painters and made comfortable the discouraged war workers who were eager to claim their rooms.

The hotels were fortunate, however, in division heads. From the beginning and all through the trying changes of management Miss Olive Davis was in charge of the houses, and it was her plan of house organization that was put in force. Mr. Frederick II. Malkie, formerly in charge of the laundry at the McAlpin Hotel, New York, was placed in charge of the laundry. Mr. J. W. Davis, formerly outside superintendent of the Lake Placid Club, was in charge of the mechanical shops. When the dining room in the Cap

itol group was opened it was put in the hands of Miss Mary Lindsley. The infirmary was placed under the supervision of Miss Doris Burchard, a graduate of the Union Protestant Infirmary, Baltimore, Md.

On June 20, 1919, the present management was installed. Miss Lindsley was made superintendent of food service and placed in charge of both dining rooms; Miss Mary L. Rust was appointed superintendent of halls; Miss Alice Stearns, registrar, and Mr. W. R. Bissell, auditor. Thus was constituted the executive staff of six women and three men, which is now administering the hotels and which it is hoped may continue throughout the fiscal year.

PURPOSES.

It was originally planned that there should be three groups on the Plaza and Capitol sites for single workers and that the Twenty-first and B Street group should contain some apartments for families. But the increasing proportion of women in the Government employ and the augmenting difficulty of persuading householders to rent rooms to women when so many military officers and opulent civilians were in the market offering large prices and demanding no home privileges, made many of those who read the signs of the times believe that the Plaza-Capitol groups should be planned solely for women, and the plans were drawn to supply this need. The insistent demand of the men, however, was finally heard and the plans were changed to adapt the Plaza group to the needs of men. The second draft, however, resulted in the replacement of many men employees, and long before the buildings were finished it became apparent that, however great might be the desire to provide quarters for men, it could not compare with the tragic need to shelter the women war workers.

Once having granted the need for housing women and having established the purpose which the project was designed to fill, it became apparent that there were fundamental differences in points of view concerning the management of these buildings. It is axiomatic that an architect can not produce an intelligent plan for a home until he knows something of the daily life of the prospective family; and this is quite as true of group buildings as it is of private dwellings. Indeed, in the case of a vast project such as the Government hotels, it was necessary to make a complete scheme of operation before the architect could provide for the physical equipment necessary.

HOTELS OR RESIDENCE HALLS.

From the first it developed that there were different schools of thought on this subject. There was the "hotel" school, the "home" school, and the "residence" school, with various combinations. The "hotel" school was subdivided into those who believed that the finances and daily operation of