Eisenhower Executive Office Building
The Eisenhower Executive Office Building, formerly known as the Old Executive Office Building, and the State, War, and Navy Building, is a U.S. government building situated just west of the White House in the U.S. capital of Washington, D.C.
The building was commissioned by President Ulysses S. Grant. It was built between 1871 and 1888, on the site of the original 1800 War/State/Navy Building[1] and the White House stables. It is built in the French Second Empire style which caused a lot of criticism at the time. It did not fit in with other government buildings in the city which were designed in the neoclassical style. Mark Twain said it was "the ugliest building in America."[2] President Harry S. Truman called it "the greatest monstrosity in America."[3] Historian Henry Adams called it Mullett's “architectural infant asylum.”[4]
It is now listed as a National Historic Landmark.[5]
It was for years the world's largest office building, with 566 rooms and about ten acres of floor space. In 1981, work began to restore the building. The main office of the Secretary of the Navy was restored in 1987 and is now used as the ceremonial office of the Vice President of the United States. Many White House employees have their offices in the EEOB.
Eisenhower Executive Office Building Media
Construction of the building (undated), now the EEOB
The (second) State, War, and Navy Building in 1917
President Richard Nixon maintained a "hideaway" office in Room 180 of the EEOB, pictured here in 1969.
The EEOB from the intersection of Pennsylvania Ave and 17th St. NW, pictured in 2021
The Navy Department Library, 1915
An overhead view looking northeast, circa 1920
The Eisenhower Executive Office Building north façade
Executive Office Building façade detail
Charles Evans Hughes with the EEOB in the background
A hallway with decorative elements
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References
- ↑ "Buildings of the Department of State – Buildings – Department History – Office of the Historian".
- ↑ "The White House Area". Archived from the original on 2008-10-05. Retrieved 2009-01-01.
- ↑ "Call it ugly or a monstrosity; call it Eisenhower Building". The Morning Sun. http://www.morningsun.net/stories/111099/usw_1110990030.shtml. Retrieved 2008-04-13.
- ↑ "Richard D. White Jr. Roosevelt the Reformer". The University of Alabama Press. 2003.
- ↑ W. Brown Morton III (May 24, 1971). "National Register of Historic Places Inventory/Nomination: Executive Office Building/State, War, and Navy Building". National Park Service. Retrieved October 19, 2016. with three photos from 1971
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