Letter to the President of the Senate and to the Speaker of the House on the Pennsylvania Avenue National Historic Site.
Dear Mr. President: (Dear Mr. Speaker:)
I am transmitting to the Congress herewith a proposed Joint Resolution "To provide for the administration and development of Pennsylvania Avenue as a National Historic Site".
Increasing concern with the shabby condition of Pennsylvania Avenue--the Nation's most distinguished and historic thoroughfare-led to the appointment by President Kennedy of the Council on Pennsylvania Avenue, which devoted almost two years to the preparation of plans for its rejuvenation. The work thus started has been carried forward by a Temporary Commission on Pennsylvania Avenue, created by Executive Order No. 11210 on March 25, 1965. The Temporary Commission recommended as the next appropriate steps the designation of the Avenue as a National Historic Site and the proposed Joint Resolution.
The proposed Joint Resolution will provide for the administration and development of the Avenue as a National Historic Site through a Commission on Pennsylvania Avenue. The Commission is to carry forward the work of the Temporary Commission and to coordinate activities along the Avenue, including Federal or District projects in the area.
That Pennsylvania Avenue will be redeveloped is inevitable. We must be sure that this development will be of a character worthy of this historic axis, which has from the beginning linked the Capitol and the White House. The proposed Joint Resolution will be a substantial step toward this goal. I hope it will have favorable consideration from the Congress.
Sincerely,
LYNDON B. JOHNSON
Note: This is the text of identical letters addressed to the Honorable Hubert H. Humphrey, President of the Senate, and to the Honorable John W. McCormack, Speaker of the House of Representatives.
The President's letter was made public as part of a White House release which announced that the President had approved an Order of Designation, signed by Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall, and made under the Historic Sites Act of August 21, 1935 (49 Stat. 666).
The release stated that the designated portion of the Avenue would extend from the edge of the Capitol grounds to the boundary of the White House grounds and would include the Federal Triangle, Judiciary Square, the Lincoln Museum, the Treasury Building, and portions of downtown Washington's commercial district. The release pointed out that congressional action would be required to provide funds to develop the area as a national historic site. The release included a resolution of the Advisory Board on National Parks, Historic Sites, Buildings and Monuments adopted in August 1965 (1 Weekly Comp. Pres. Docs., p. 331).
The President referred to Executive Order 11210 of March 25, 1965, entitled "Establishing a Temporary Commission on Pennsylvania Avenue" (30 F.R. 4051; 3 CFR, 1965 Supp., p. 117).
The proposed joint resolution is printed in House Document 296 (89th Cong., 1st sess.).
The Council on Pennsylvania Avenue was established by President Kennedy on June 1, 1962.
Lyndon B. Johnson, Letter to the President of the Senate and to the Speaker of the House on the Pennsylvania Avenue National Historic Site. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/240379