A JUNE, 1925 The New Auditorium By HAROLD K. PHILIPS MID scenes of enthusiasm never surpassed in the history of the National Society, the Thirty-fourth Continental Congress of the Daughters of the American Revolution voted last April to erect in Washington a new auditorium, costing $1,825,000 and capable of seating delegates to future convocations of the Society for many years to come. Dedicated to the progress of American ideals and a shrine of patriotism, this temple will be a veritable "Hall of the Nation" a story in enduring marble of the history of America, from its very beginning in the days of pioneer uncertainty, through the fateful years of the War for Independence, and finally the supreme triumph of democracy at the Council of Versailles. The new auditorium is to occupy the large site, already owned by the National Society, immediately behind the Administration Building, bounded on the other three sides by the Pan-American Union, Eighteenth Street, and the Red Cross Building. No happier spot could have been selected, for this site is in the heart of the section that is soon to be WHOLE No. 389 beautified under the Federal Government's ambitious building program. Literally surrounded in the years to come by the new palaces of marble the United States Congress contemplates, it will be an outstanding unit in a setting of architectural splendor, and an entirely fitting companion to famous Memorial Continental Hall, which, although it is no longer capable of caring for the growing National Society, will be preserved forever and devoted to State meetings and acceptable assemblies of deserving organizations outside the Daughters of the American Revolution. Although plans for the new auditorium are still in the formative stage, sufficient of the ideas it will embody have been conceived to present a word etching of its design. First of all, it will be symbolical throughout-symbolical of the evolution that is the America of today; the world's beacon on the storm darkened coast of oppression. Rough sketches of the auditorium, drawn by John Russell Pope, the prominent New York architect, were shown to the delegates to the Thirty-fourth Continental Congress before they were called |