Message to the Congress Transmitting the 11th Report of the National Commission of Fine Arts.

To the Congress of the United States:

I transmit herewith, for the information of the Congress, the Eleventh Report of the National Commission of Fine Arts for the period from January 1, 1926, to June 30, 1929.

The report sketches conditions which called for a comprehensive plan for the entire District of Columbia, as primarily the Nation's capital; relates the progressive steps in making the plan of 1901, which restored and amplified the original plan of 1792; notes the advances made in the realization of that plan; and specifies items still to be accomplished. In particular the report deals with the historical as well as the architectural reasoning on which the plan is based.

The movements which have led to the improvement of the south side of Pennsylvania Avenue and to the Mount Vernon Highway are traced.

The report shows the constantly increasing work of the Commission during the nineteen years since its creation, such increase being due to specific legislation by Congress, and calls of the Executive Departments.

The American World War cemeteries and monuments in Europe, as well as the George Rogers Clark Memorial at Vincennes, Indiana, the statue of Henry Clay in Venezuela, and of the Leif Ericsson statue in Iceland, illustrate the extent of the Commission's activities; while the designs of colleges, school and hospital buildings in the District of Columbia show the intensive character of that work. In fact, the Commission is required to give advice on all projects involving questions of art for which the Government makes appropriations.

HERBERT HOOVER

The White House

December 5, 1929