Last 'Tempos' Fall in Style: Wrecker's Ball Set to Music

Although most of the office buildings constructed on the Mall to house war department offices during World War I and II had been removed by the 1960s, a row of buildings from 1918 still stood in the space between Constitution Avenue and the Reflecting Pool. In 1969 President Nixon ordered these buildings demolished, to be replaced with parkland more in keeping with the rest of the Mall. On July 15, 1970, Naval officers and government officials held a demolition ceremony, watching as the wrecking ball took its first swing at the walls. By December, the buildings were gone.

07/16/1970

The band played "Auld Lang Syne" and the walls of the 52-year-old Navy-Munitions buildings between the Reflecting Pool and Constitution Avenue NW finally came tumbling down yesterday.

As dignitaries and the press watched, an elaborate ceremony marked the beginning of the end of the last unsightly World War I-vintage "temporary" buildings that stood amidst trees and monuments on the Mall.

Franklin D. Roosevelt, as under secretary of the Navy, had approved construction of the buildings there, which took just six months in 1917 and 1918. He later publicly regretted his choice, as have Washingtonians and tourists ever since….

.... the 20-man ceremonial unit of the Navy Band played, "Won't you come home, Bill Bailey, won't you come home?" as white-gloved policemen stood watch on the crowd of military brass, civilian employees and construction workers.

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