The Longworth House Office Building (LHOB) is one of five office buildings used by the

United States House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the Lower house, lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the United States Senate, Senate being ...

. The building is located south of the Capitol, bounded by Independence Avenue, New Jersey Avenue, C Street S.E., and

South Capitol Street South Capitol Street is a major street dividing the southeast and southwest quadrants of Washington, D.C., in the United States. It runs south from the United States Capitol to the D.C.–Maryland line, intersecting with Southern Avenue. After it ...

, in southeast Washington. It has a floor area of and has a total of 251 congressional offices and suites, five large committee rooms, seven small committee rooms, and a large assembly room now used by the Ways and Means Committee. The building was named in 1962 in honor of the former

Speaker of the House The speaker of a deliberative assembly, especially a legislative body, is its presiding officer, or the chair. The title was first used in 1377 in England. Usage The title was first recorded in 1377 to describe the role of Thomas de Hungerf ...

Nicholas Longworth Nicholas Longworth III (November 5, 1869 – April 9, 1931) was an American politician who became Speaker of the United States House of Representatives. He was a Republican. A lawyer by training, he was elected to the Ohio Senate, where he ini ...

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

. He served as Speaker from 1925 until Republicans lost their majority in 1931, the same year he died, and the same year the building was authorized.

Description

With a floor area of just under , it is the smallest of the House office buildings.

History

Construction

Plans to provide the House of Representatives with a second office building were begun in 1925. Severe overcrowding in the

Cannon House Office Building The Cannon House Office Building, often called the "Old House Office Building," completed in 1908, is the oldest congressional office building as well as a significant example of the Beaux-Arts style of architecture. It occupies a site south of t ...

(completed in 1908) led to the renovation of the Cannon Building and the construction of the Longworth Building". Under the direction of

Architect of the Capitol The Architect of the Capitol (AOC) is the federal agency responsible for the maintenance, operation, development, and preservation of the United States Capitol Complex. It is an agency of the legislative branch of the federal government and is ...

David Lynn, preliminary designs for the building were prepared by a local firm known as The Allied Architects of Washington Inc. The principal architects were Frank Upman, Gilbert LaCoste Rodier, Nathan C. Wyeth, and Louis Justemente. They produced "two schemes for a simple, dignified building in harmony with the rest of the Capitol Complex. In January 1929 Congress authorized $8.4 million for acquiring and clearing the site and for constructing the new building. The foundations were completed in December 1930, and the building was accepted for occupancy in April 1933". The site of the building had previously been occupied by the

Butler Building The Butler Building was a mansion in Washington, D.C., constructed by Benjamin Franklin Butler. It served as the headquarters of the U.S. Marine Hospital Service, and its successor the Public Health Service, from 1891 until 1929. It also conta ...

, which was the headquarters of the

Public Health Service In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichkei ...

; and the Richards Building, the headquarters of the

Coast and Geodetic Survey The United States Coast and Geodetic Survey (abbreviated USC&GS), known from 1807 to 1836 as the Survey of the Coast and from 1836 until 1878 as the United States Coast Survey, was the first scientific agency of the United States Government. It ...

, which were both demolished.

Later history

The large assembly room of the Longworth Building, which seats 450 people, was used by the House of Representatives as their primary meeting room in 1949 and 1950 while its chamber in the

United States Capitol The United States Capitol, often called The Capitol or the Capitol Building, is the seat of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, which is formally known as the United States Congress. It is located on Capitol Hill ...

was being remodeled. It is currently the meeting room for the House Ways and Means Committee. In the 1960s, the House Beauty Shop, a salon which catered to Congresspersons, their spouses, and employees, was relocated to the Cannon House Office Building from the smaller Longworth House Office Building under the auspices of the Beauty Shop Committee.

References

External links

Three Bits of Trivia About the Longworth House Office Building
- Ghosts of DC blog post
3D SketchUp model of the Longworth House Office Building
for use in Google Earth {{Authority control Congressional office buildings Government buildings completed in 1933 Neoclassical architecture in Washington, D.C. 1933 establishments in Washington, D.C.