And Then the Bricks Came Tumbling Down

When Boston's 13-story, $11.8 million Veterans Administration Hospital opened in 1952, a VA official described it as "the finest and most modern in the East." The patients themselves were similarly delighted. "Home," exulted one of them "was never like this!"

It wasn't. Before long, the outer walls began to bulge, window frames buckled and bricks began to peel off. So great was the danger that a barrier had to be erected around the whole building to protect passers-by from getting clobbered by falling bricks. When investigating engineers tore away a wall, they discovered gaping holes in the cement undersurface as well as other alarming examples of shoddy workmanship. The VA kept patching up the structure, finally decided to strip off every one of the hospital's 1,575,000 bricks, remove all 5,000 windows and window frames and replace them with new windows and a sheath of steel panels. Total cost: $4,900,000.

"Defective & Deficient." Understandably, the VA thought that the original builder ought to foot the repair bill. The Justice Department agreed. What made the matter touchy was the fact that the hospital was built by Millionaire Philadelphia Contractor Matthew Henry McCloskey, 70, a veteran Democratic fund raiser, inventor of the $100-a-plate dinner, treasurer of the Democratic National Committee for seven years and, since 1962, John F. Kennedy's ambassador to Ireland.

Touchy or not, the Justice Department demanded that McCloskey's firm --along with the Boston architects who designed the building and the engineering company that supervised construction--cough up the $4,900,000, plus interest. The three companies refused, and last week the Department sued them for the full amount, specifically accusing McCloskey's outfit of having made "numerous departures" from specifications and having "provided defective workmanship and deficient equipment and materials."

Bids & Fees. The suit only added to the troubles of genial, rosy-cheeked Matt McCloskey. Only a week earlier, secret testimony released by a Senate investigating committee linked him with Bobby Baker's financial manipulations. According to Maryland Insurance Agent Don Reynolds, McCloskey attended a meeting in Baker's Capitol office in 1960 to discuss his chances of winning the contract for a $20 million District of Columbia municipal stadium. McCloskey, who had sewed up several choice Government construction contracts in past years,* got the bid. Reynolds received about $10,000 for writing the performance bond on the deal, gave $4,000 to Baker for helping him get the business, and passed along another $1,500 in "legal fees" to a clerk of the House Committee for the District of Columbia, for "helping the stadium bill go through the House."

McCloskey, who resigned his ambassadorship only last month, had nothing to say about Baker. Of the VA hospital suit, he declared: "We can successfully defend our position." Meanwhile, White House aides hastened to point out that the ambassador's resignation was only a coincidence, had nothing whatever to do with his difficulties. McCloskey had intended to resign anyway, they said, to help raise money for the coming Democratic campaigns.

-*His firm is prime contractor for the $82.9 million Rayburn House Office Building. McCloskey also worked on the new $24 million east-front face on the U.S. Capitol and on the $4 million Senate underground monorail system, and he is sole contractor for the huge $12.6 million "Federal Office Building No. 6."

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