no blueprint for the new nation 33
Aquia sandstone, judged by Mills to be an inferior building material
(which in fact did ultimately have to be replaced by granite in 1909).
The Mills wing was made fireproof not only by the use of masonry
in the construction of the building, but also by the use of brick-lined
groined arches which permitted the carrying of the floor weights
without wood. A heroic file of Ionic columns lined the facade along
Fifteenth Street. The south wing was constructed under the superin-
tendence of Ammi B. Young between 1855 and 1860; the west wing
by Isaiah Rogers between 1862 and 1864; and the north wing by
Alfred B. Mullett between 1866 and 1869.
The stern Patent Office building with Doric columns and entab-
latures was constructed on the site that L Enfant envisioned for a na-
tional church and later the Treasury Department. Mills superin-
tended the south facade, while Capitol Architect Thomas U. Walter
and Walter s successor, Edward Clark, oversaw the east, west and
north wings. Across F Street from the Patent Office, the Post Office
building with Corinthian pilasters was constructed of marble and su-
perintended by Mills and later Walter, Clark, and Montgomery C.
Meigs.
The need for a new building for the War and Navy Departments
on the west side of the President s House did not go unnoticed. In
1843, Colonel J. J. Abert of the Corps of Topographical Engineers sub-
mitted a report to the House of Representatives along with written
remarks on the subject from William Strickland, John Notman, and
Mills. According to Abert, it was not intended that the new building
for the War and Navy Departments would be similar to the Treasury
Building. Abert observed,  the position [of the two buildings] are too
distant from each other, and are not visible, as a whole, from any
point. Differing buildings would also be  without violence to archi-
tectural effect and provide for  better accommodations of the War
and Navy Departments. Mills objected to Abert s statements, urg-
ing the retention of the same lines of placement, same order of ar-
chitecture, and a general  unity of design in the corresponding build-
ings. Submitting designs for the War and Navy Departments, Mills
stated:
As the character of a nation is judged of by the character of its
public buildings, I consider it my duty, as an American, having the
honor of his country at heart, to recommend nothing that would
compromise its honor. Where imperious necessity compels to