One of the first office buildings in Washington, this building initially housed the Departments of State, War, and the Navy, as well as the Patent Office, the General and City Post Offices, and the offices of the Superintendent and Surveyor of the…

The original Bureau of Engraving and Printing was opened on July 1, 1880, but by the 1930s, the facility had become too small for all of the Bureau's responsibilities, which included printing money, stamps, and government security documents. In 1938,…

The original building which housed the Department of Agriculture was designed in 1867 by Adolf Cluss, the same architect who designed the Smithsonian Arts and Industry Building. For decades, this building housed offices, research laboratories, and…

The Organization of American States (OAS) Building was completed in 1910. Its style is meant to be a fusion of some of the major architectural elements from its participating members, with Spanish, Native American, French, Portuguese, and English…

The Treasury Department is one of the oldest government departments. It was among those established when the federal government moved to Washington in 1800. The first Treasury Department building was damaged by fire in 1801 and completely destroyed…

During World War I, the federal government built a number of temporary office buildings in Washington to hold all the new workers. The group shown in this photograph stretched across the Mall from north to south just east of 7th Street, visible…

The site of the National Air and Space Museum was once home to the headquarters of the United States Fish and Fisheries Commission, also known as the US Fish Commission. President Ulysses Grant signed the US Fish Commission into existence in 1871 to…

Built in 1862 as a model hospital to treat wounded Union soldiers, the Armory Square Hospital had twelve pavilions, overflow tents, and 1,000 hospital beds. It included officers' quarters as well as a chapel. President Lincoln frequently visited the…

First known as the Old Brick Capitol, this building served as a a temporary meeting place for Congress after the burning of the US Capitol during the War of 1812. At the outbreak of the Civil War, the building became a prison. Confederate soldiers…

The National Mall and nearby neighborhoods supported the lives of Union troops stationed in the city during the Civil War. This woodcut shows the bakery which was located in the basement of the US Capitol, and was capable of producing 58,000 loaves…