trees were purchased and placed on the east and west terraces, and 12 stone settees were also purchased for those terraces.

Sundry civil act approved April 17, 1900 (p. 12), provides:

And hereafter, a complete inventory, in proper books, shall be made annually by the steward, under the direction of the officer in charge of public buildings and grounds, of all the public property in and belonging to the Executive Mansion, showing when purchased, use to which applied, cost, condition, and final disposition, to be submitted to Congress with annual report of officer in charge of public buildings and grounds.

Owing to the changes made in the White House and in its furniture and furnishings, it is impossible this year to make the list as complete as could be desired. A list showing the articles purchased during the year, and so far as possible the disposition made of those no longer serviceable is, however, submitted herewith as Appendix A, and this, taken with the lists published in the two preceding annual reports, gives the information required by the law.

President's office building.-Such care as has been necessary has been extended to this building since its occupancy in November, 1902. The walls of the President's office and the Cabinet room were given a coat of shellac. The two lavatories in the toilet room on first floor were moved over to the south side of the room and reset, and two waterclosets with marble partitions, and swing doors were set in the places vacated by the lavatories and all necessary pipe connections and repairs to tile floor, plastering, etc., made and the walls and ceiling of the room painted. The stairway leading from the anteroom outside of the Cabinet room to the basement was taken out, the opening floored over and the walls and ceiling in the basement where the stairway was removed replastered. In order to carry off, as far as possible, water which stood under the floor of the basement, a blind drain was put in and lead to a cesspool with a back pressure valve and connected with the main sewer. A large area window was put in the basement wall under the Cabinet room to afford better ventilation for the basement.

The President's stables.-The stables at present used by the President, the Executive Office, and the Office of Public Buildings and Grounds, should be rebuilt for two important reasons:

First. They are situated in the President's Park, directly south of the State Department, on a plot of ground which will undoubtedly in the near future be selected as the site of a monument to one of the nation's great men. When such a monument is erected, the stables should be removed and the ground occupied by them should be improved and beautified to make a fitting setting for the monument.

Second.--The stables are inadequate and in nowise corresponding to or commensurate with the splendid residence of the President, or his stable needs, or the variety and importance of the business of the Executive Office and the Office of Public Buildings and Grounds, which are all accommodated together. The present stable is a low brick structure, built many years ago, and so near the ground as to be damp and unhealthy for horses. In connection with it is an old wooden stable, which is needed to increase the capacity to the requisite amount. To build a proper and adequate stable on a new site further to the south on Seventeenth street would cost about $60,000. Such a stable would accommodate the animals, carriages, and wagons at present in use, and provide for the reasonable and natural increase which can con

fidently be expected in the future. It should be built so as to furnish living rooms for the man in charge of the stables and some of his principal assistants, and it should also furnish needed storerooms for such bulky and unsightly things as the band stands, chairs, music racks, etc., used by the Marine Band for their public concerts in the White House grounds, and for boxes, crates, etc. On account of the desirability of the White House being thrown open to the public to the greatest extent possible, there are no storerooms where these large and unsightly things can be properly provided for.

In consideration of the foregoing, it is earnestly recommended that an appropriation be made of $60,000 for building a stable on a location in the President's Park, to be selected by the President, to the south of the present stable, for the use of the President, the Executive Office, and the Office of Public Buildings and Grounds.

The following repairs were made to the old stable building during the year: New floors were laid in the stalls, and the stall rooms and harness rooms painted. The wooden front of the carriage shed was repaired and given two coats of paint, and minor repairs made to doors and windows. A new asphalt drive was constructed from the entrance to the stable yard at Seventeenth street to the carriage houses. The old asphalt surface of the floor under the carriage shed was torn up and all but a space 18 by 18 feet resurfaced with new asphalt. The space mentioned was relaid with a granolithic pavement for a wash floor. The area paved with asphalt amounted to 339 square yards, and that with granolithic about 37 square yards. Sixty-eight feet of 11inch galvanized-iron water pipe were laid in carriage houses. The unpaved ground at the west front was sodded and a connection made. with the water main on Seventeenth street and a 2-inch water pipe laid to the newly sodded ground. Gas pipe was run and a new fixture placed in position to light the carriage house, and 100 feet of new gas pipe was run to improve the lights.

STABLE OF PUBLIC BUILDINGS AND GROUNDS.

This stable is a small wooden structure in rear of the President's stable. During the year a new floor was laid in one of the stalls, the floor behind the stalls was repaired, minor repairs made to doors and windows, and the wash floor in the carriage room given three coats of paint.

GREENHOUSES, EXECUTIVE MANSION.

The old material saved from the demolition of the greenhouses in the White House grounds, which were torn down to make room for the erection of the President's Office building, was utilized so far as practicable in the erection of five of the houses at the propagating gardens, which were completed late in the autumn of 1902. Since their completion the usual care has been extended to maintain them and their heating apparatus in good condition. The ground in front of the houses was improved by grading and sodding. These greenhouses are not of sufficient capacity to do the work required of them, but in their reerection the best was done with the funds available. They should be increased by the erection of at least two additional houses. One of these houses is needed for properly caring for the large and

valuable bay trees and boxwood trees which occupy the east and west terraces of the White House in summer, but which must be housed during the winter months. The second house is much needed to help provide the supply of flowers required for use at the White House at state functions, etc. Suitable houses can be built for about $6,000, and an item for that purpose is included in the estimates and earnestly recommended.

GROUNDS OF EXECUTIVE MANSION.

The following work rendered necessary by the alterations and additions to the Executive Mansion was done during the spring of 1903: The old lodge used by the watchmen, being no longer needed for that purpose, was moved to the southeast part of the grounds near the east gate. The small frame building used as an office by the head gardener was removed from the grounds and hauled to the Smithsonian grounds for use as a lodge house there. The ground at the east side of the house, including the slopes, etc., near the new east terrace, was graded, and 6,360 square yards of sod laid. The ground south of the east terrace was covered with soil and sown with grass seed. The top of the old water cistern at the southeast corner of the Mansion was broken in, and the cistern filled with clay. The area south of the west terrace, formerly occupied by the rose house, was graded and the ground laid out into a large rectangular flower bed with a walk 5 feet wide around it. A new clothes-drying yard was laid out south of the west wing of the west terrace, and inclosed with a lattice fence 8 feet high. The necessary posts with crossbar and wire lines were erected and wooden board walks laid within the inclosure. The ground south of the President's Office building was graded, and portions of it sodded. A new wire-screen fence was built on the west side of this ground. An unused asphalt foot walk in the east side of the north grounds was taken up and the vacant ground left thereby prepared for grass. All of the old drain pipes and water-supply pipes from the old greenhouses were removed and new connections put in for watering the newly sodded

area.

The old 50-foot asphalt pavement on the semicircular roadway leading up to the north entrance to the Mansion was torn up, the drive narrowed to a width of 25 feet, and a macadam pavement laid upon it. The strip of 12 feet on either side was sodded. The 14-foot asphalt drive running east and west from the northeast corner of the Mansion to the north front entrance to the President's Office building was torn up and replaced with a granolithic foot walk 5 feet wide. The ground left bare on either side of this walk was sodded. The old asphalt foot walk leading from the northwest gate to the office building was taken up, and a 20-foot driveway with a macadam pavement constructed in its place. The water pipe in the south part of the grounds was extended by laying 284 feet of 2-inch pipe and 28 feet of 14-inch pipe. The water pipe south of the new east terrace was extended by laying 9 feet of 14-inch pipe. Water was introduced into the grounds east of the east terrace from the 4-inch water main in East Executive avenue, and 60 feet of 1-inch lead pipe and 72 feet of 14-inch iron pipe laid and a hose valve placed on each side of the lawn.

In addition to the foregoing, the work required to maintain the grounds in good condition was performed. This work consisted of

mowing lawns, edging their margins, and sodding or seeding bai places on them, cleaning gutters and drain traps, dressing gravel walk sweeping paved roads and walks, trimming trees and shrubs and ca ing for flower beds. Twelve flower beds in the north and south ground were graded to the level of the surrounding lawn surface and sodde over, and four large new flower beds were laid out in the north grounds Work was commenced on June 1 scraping, cleaning, and painting the iron fence inclosing the grounds, and by June 30 the following length of fence on the north and east sides of the grounds had been painted: Five hundred and sixty-nine feet of fence with one coat of paint, 966 with two coats, and 250 feet with three coats.

In accordance with the usual custom the grounds were thrown open to the children on Easter Monday, April 13. Temporary wire fencing was put up around trees and shrubs and along the tops of the grassed terraces to prevent injury by the crowds. The band stand was erected, but owing to unfavorable weather the band did not play in the afternoon as was intended. Owing also to the bad weather there was a very small crowd in the grounds, and consequently the usual amount of cleaning the day after was not necessary and what was required was done by the regular force employed to care for the grounds, the cost of the work amounting to about $24.

The following work was done for draining the roadways in the south grounds under a special appropriation provided for the purpose in sundry civil act approved June 28, 1902: Eight hundred feet of 6-inch terra cotta drain pipe, 700 feet of 8-inch, and 500 feet of 12-inch were laid, and 30 brick catch basins constructed at turns in the roads and connected with the pipes.

A general plan of these grounds, showing the exterior changes made during the fiscal year 1903, accompanies this report.

There are certain improvements which should be made in the White House grounds to make them conform to the new conditions. The new public entrance at the east and the office entrance at the west, combined with the retained north entrance, render unnecessary the double roadways which reach the Mansion from the south. This duplicate system of roadways is an inheritance from old conditions, which no longer exist. Good taste and judgment require that the unnecessary roadways should be done away with, as they are not beautiful and are expensive to maintain, and grass, trees, shrubs, and gardens substituted for them. In many other ways these private grounds pertaining to the White House should be improved and beautified to make them conform to this splendid residence and to the development of private grounds and gardens throughout the country. The house of the President should have a proper and fitting setting amidst grounds and gardens of unexceptionable beauty. The amount appropriated for the grounds inside the iron fence-$4,000-is not enough to enable all the improvements desired to be made, and it is respectfully urged that in the next bill it may be increased to $7,500.

PORTRAIT OF WILLIAM MCKINLEY.

Sundry civil act for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1903, approved June 28, 1902, contained a provision "For purchase for the Executive Mansion of an oil portrait of the late President McKinley, a sum not to exceed (including frame) two thousand five hundred dollars.”