The United States Public Health Service Building, also known as the Federal Reserve Board - East Building and formerly the Department of the Interior - South Building, is a historic government office building. It is located at 1951

Constitution Avenue Constitution Avenue is a major east–west street in the northwest and northeast quadrants of the city of Washington, D.C., in the United States. It was originally known as B Street, and its western section was greatly lengthened and widened betw ...

Northwest, Washington, D.C. Northwest (NW or N.W.) is the northwestern quadrant of Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States, and is located north of the National Mall and west of North Capitol Street. It is the largest of the four quadrants of the city (NW, NE, S ...

, adjacent to the

Eccles Building The Marriner S. Eccles Federal Reserve Board Building houses the main offices of the Board of Governors of the United States' Federal Reserve System. It is located at the intersection of 20th Street and Constitution Avenue in Washington, D.C. Th ...

. It was the headquarters of the

U.S. Public Health Service The United States Public Health Service (USPHS or PHS) is a collection of agencies of the Department of Health and Human Services concerned with public health, containing nine out of the department's twelve operating divisions. The Assistant ...

during 1933–1942 and 1946–1947; at other times it was the headquarters of the

Combined Chiefs of Staff The Combined Chiefs of Staff (CCS) was the supreme military staff for the United States and Britain during World War II. It set all the major policy decisions for the two nations, subject to the approvals of British Prime Minister Winston Churchil ...

, Atomic Energy Commission, and

National Science Foundation The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent agency of the United States government that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National I ...

. From 1965 until 2018, it was used by the

Department of the Interior The United States Department of the Interior (DOI) is one of the executive departments of the U.S. federal government headquartered at the Main Interior Building, located at 1849 C Street NW in Washington, D.C. It is responsible for the mana ...

, most prominently as the headquarters of the

Bureau of Indian Affairs The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), also known as Indian Affairs (IA), is a United States federal agency within the Department of the Interior. It is responsible for implementing federal laws and policies related to American Indians and A ...

and

Office of Surface Mining The Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSMRE) is a branch of the United States Department of the Interior. It is the federal agency entrusted with the implementation and enforcement of the Surface Mining Control and Reclamati ...

. In 2018, it was transferred to the

Federal Reserve Board of Governors The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, commonly known as the Federal Reserve Board, is the main governing body of the Federal Reserve System. It is charged with overseeing the Federal Reserve Banks and with helping implement the mon ...

History

Early history

The site was previously home to a

YWCA The Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA) is a nonprofit organization with a focus on empowerment, leadership, and rights of women, young women, and girls in more than 100 countries. The World office is currently based in Geneva, Swi ...

. It was designed by Jules Henri de Sibour, for 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 ...

in 1931. The Public Health service occupied it in May 1933, moving its headquarters from 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 ...

. During World War II, the building was occupied by the

. The Public Health Service vacated the building in February 1942, moving to a temporary building at the

National Institutes of Health campus The National Institutes of Health (NIH) campus is located in Bethesda, Maryland. Most of the institutes house their Divisions of Intramural Research on this campus spread out among various buildings. Location The campus is located between Ol ...

. The building was renamed to the Combined Chiefs of Staff Building on January 30, 1942. It was the site of the planning for the

Manhattan Project The Manhattan Project was a research and development undertaking during World War II that produced the first nuclear weapons. It was led by the United States with the support of the United Kingdom and Canada. From 1942 to 1946, the project w ...

. The Public Health Service then briefly reoccupied the building from January 1946 to March 1947, after which its headquarters moved to the Federal Security Building and the Federal Security Building South. The Atomic Energy Commission occupied the site from its creation in 1947 until its relocation to

Germantown, Maryland Germantown is an urbanized census-designated place in Montgomery County, Maryland, United States. With a population of 91,249 as of 2020 U.S. Decennial Census, Germantown is the third most populous place in Maryland, after the city of Baltimore ...

in 1958. From August 1958 until April 1965, it was the headquarters of the

Department of the Interior

The

began using the building in April 1965, and Office of Surface Mining joined them in 1977.A short history of the South Interior Building, Headquarters for the Office of Surface Mining
The building has since been used by several offices and bureaus of the

which is headquartered next door. On November 3, 1972, a group of around 500 American Indians with the AIM took over the building, the culmination of their

Trail of Broken Treaties The Trail of Broken Treaties (also known as the Trail of Broken Treaties Caravan and the Pan American Native Quest for Justice) was a 1972 cross-country caravan of American Indian and First Nations organizations that started on the West Coast of ...

walk. They intended to bring attention to American Indian issues, including their demands for renewed negotiation of treaties, enforcement of treaty rights and improvement in living standards. They occupied the Department of the Interior headquarters from November 3 to November 9, 1972.

Federal Reserve Board

In July 2018, the building was transferred to the

, whose headquarters, the

, is across the street to the west. The building was planned to be renovated. The renovation attracted attention as an early test of the

Trump administration Donald Trump's tenure as the List of presidents of the United States, 45th president of the United States began with Inauguration of Donald Trump, his inauguration on January 20, 2017, and ended on January 20, 2021. Trump, a Republican Party ...

's efforts to promote neoclassical rather than modern architecture.

Architectural description

The structure is a three-story E-shaped building featuring a raised basement, shallow projecting corner pavilions, and a gabled tile roof. The structural system is composed of a concealed steel frame and concrete floors. At the east, south, and west elevations the building is surrounded by raised terrace separated from the exterior walls by an areaway. The principal exterior building materials consist of marble on the east, south, and west facades; limestone within the two courtyards; and stucco on the north facades of the east and west wings.General Services Administration page
The primary facade is faced in white Georgia marble and features a thirteen bay, engaged double-height colonnade of fluted Doric pilasters flanked by shallow projecting corner pavilions. A large entablature composed of a plain frieze and enriched ornamental cavetto cornice surmounts these

pilaster In classical architecture Classical architecture usually denotes architecture which is more or less consciously derived from the principles of Greek and Roman architecture of classical antiquity, or sometimes even more specifically, from the ...

s. A single-height entrance pavilion composed of three pedimented formal entryways is centered on the facade. Notable interior spaces include an elaborate marble entrance lobby, marble stair and elevator lobbies, and an ornamental auditorium space, all of which feature decorative painted finishes on ornamental plaster and compo features. An elaborate wood panelled primary executive office suite is located on the second floor.

References

External links

Emporis.com
*https://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/ps/retrieve/ResourceMetadata/NNBCWX {{National Register of Historic Places Government buildings completed in 1931 Office buildings in Washington, D.C. Public Health Service Building Office buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Washington, D.C. Government buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Washington, D.C. 1931 establishments in Washington, D.C. United States Public Health Service