18 Loss and Renewal linden rows which the Washington Star had lauded in 1923 As “progress” on Mass Ave crept toward Dupont Circle, the Commission of Fine Arts (CFA) decided that the street’s architecture was of national importance CFA staff began documenting the buildings lost and those still standing In 1973, the agency published Massachusetts Avenue Architecture: Volume 1 documenting plans, photos and records for 21 buildings from 17th Street to 34th Street That year the city designated the street as an historic district 34 In May 1974, the National Park Service nominated this stretch for protection as a federal historic district This status was approved by the Secretary of the Interior in October of that year 35 The nominating brief and CFA texts also argue that the street landscape connecting the Beaux Arts mansions on the western part of Mass Ave is crucial to the “sense of place” that makes it “unique in the nation ” Fig. 29 A report on the razing of trees to widen K Street, The Washington Daily News, April 25 1938. Fig. 30 Dying elm tree. The government’s expansion with the New Deal and World War II caused many fine downtown buildings to be replaced with blocks of offices and apartments and related infrastructure With the growth of the suburbs and commuting, thoroughfares were widened, grassy strips were paved and thousands of mature trees lost K Street’s double rows of elms, which once arched magnificently over the roadway, were cut down Urban “renewal” razed once-shaded neighborhoods near the waterfronts In the 1970s, the city’s elm canopy was thinned by Dutch Elm Disease 33 Neglect, including poor city stewardship, also took a big toll on the city’s trees Though many individual old trees survived on Mass Ave downtown, gone were the miles of continuous
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