Administrative Buildings Sites

"Constructed as a post office in 1938, the Donald J. Pease Federal Building now houses the U.S. Court of Appeals. The red brick building is located at the northeast corner of Liberty and North Elmwood streets."

A rear extension to the historic U.S. Post Office and Courthouse building was constructed with federal Treasury Department funds in 1936.

The Salina United States Post Office and Federal Building (c. 1937-1938) is located at 211 W. Iron in Salina, Saline County, Kansas. The two story, flat roofed, limestone building has a northern facade orientation. The building measures approximately one hundred and twenty feet from east to west and one hundred and seventeen feet from north to south. The facade of the building is comprised of three groups of three multipaned, metal windows. These are linearly aligned windows with inset marble panels between the first and second levels. The Section sculpture projects from the building on the wall space that flanks...

The monumental Moderne-style Robert N. C. Nix Federal Building, sometimes known as the William Penn Annex, was constructed under the auspices of the federal Public Works Administration (PWA) between 1937 and 1941. Its exterior features multiple examples of New Deal artwork. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1990. However, according to Mary Manfredi, the building is not listed on the Philadelphia Register and "it is not legally protected from alterations or demolition."    

The Mary E. Switzer Building was originally built for the Railroad Retirement Board in 1940. The building was constructed in conjunction with the original Social Security headquarters, now the Wilbur J. Cohen building.  The two stand across C street from each other.  They were the first federal buildings constructed south of the Mall.   The Railroad Retirement Board (RBB), formed in 1934, was a precursor to the Social Security Act in 1935.  Its responsibilities and funds grew with additional legislation in 1935 and 1937, providing taxes to support railway worker pensions. As plans were underway for the headquarters of Social Security, the...

A Public Works Administration grant of $97,795 funded new construction work on the Tax Office building in Honolulu. The work was underway in 1938. Listed as Docket No. TH-1035-DS, the project was part of the PWA’s non-federal projects expenditure for the Territory of Hawaii for 1938-1939. The building, also known as Hale Auhau, which translates as “tax house,” served as the headquarters of the Department of Taxation. Designed by Henry Stuart, architect for the Territorial Department of Public Works, the building is representative of the Mission Revival or California Mission style. Architects of that era designed numerous public buildings in...

 Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) enrollees removed snow from the grounds of the White House after a snowstorm in March 1941.

In 1934, the Public Works Administration (PWA) funded the expansion of the White House West Wing, which houses the Executive Offices of the President of the United States.  The West Wing contains the Oval Office, Cabinet Room, Situation Room, and Roosevelt Room.  The West Wing's four floors also contain offices for the vice president, chief of staff, counselor to the president, the senior advisor to the president, the White House press secretary, and their support staffs. There had been three expansions of the West Wing prior to the New Deal, in 1902, 1909 and 1929, but this one was the most thorough-going. When Franklin...

The present Harry S. Truman Federal Building consists of two monumental halves. The first was built under the New Deal for the War Department in 1940-41 (and is still commonly referred to as the War Department building).  When the War Department (now Department of Defense) moved across the Potomac to the Pentagon in 1943, the State Department moved in and has remained ever since. The State Department building was renamed the Harry S. Truman Building in 2000. Consolidating the War Department had become a priority in the lead-up to the Second World War.  A second building was envisioned, but not built until...

The U.S. Court and Custom House in St. Louis was constructed using U.S. Treasury Department funds between 1933 and 1935. "The U.S. Court/Custom House is located at Tucker and Market Streets. The building has 1/2 Egyptian Style columns in a giant order covering five floors. Eagles in an ancient Assyrian manner are on the corners. Stylized eagles are also located on the other side of the 12th and 11th Street entrances. The corners of the building are rounded, carved stone figures representing justice frame, the main entrance on Market Street." (https://stlcin.missouri.org) The statues outside the main entrance were created by Benjamin Hawkins...

Now known as the Gene Snyder U.S. Courthouse and Custom House, the historic United States Post Office, Court House and Custom House in Louisville, Kentucky was constructed in 1931-2, before the advent of the New Deal. However, in "1936, with a growing need for more offices and courtrooms, the PWA also funded the addition of the sixth floor."

"Built in 1938 of limestone and granite, the three-story, 118,000-square-foot Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse in Peoria, Ill., was designed in the Art Moderne style, a streamlined look popular from the late 1920s through the mid 1940s. Public areas feature terrazzo floors, marble clad walls, and decoratively painted ceilings. The U.S. District Court for the Central District of Illinois is the major tenant. In 2012, the building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places." (GSA)

"The Custom House at Naco was constructed in 1936 with funds from the Public Works Administration. Louis Simon, architect for the Public Buildings Branch of the Treasury Department, designed the Custom House in the Pueblo Revival style. The two-story building is an outstanding example of this style and includes southwestern features of battered (sloped) and rounded walls, parapets, rough-hewn rafters and vigas, waterspouts, window lintels, and a decorative ladder. In addition to its fine artistry and historic integrity, the building is the only Custom House on the Arizona border designed in the Pueblo Revival style."

Designed by Henry O. Whitfield in 1915, the U.S. Post Office and Office Building underwent a large expansion during the New Deal. "In 1936 the Treasury Department designed two 3-story wing additions for the main (south) side of the building. These were constructed in 1937-38 forming a "U"-shaped peristyle court. These wings have three floors used for office space and contain open circulation balconies on the first and third floors. The exterior walls facing the court contain 2-story columns with doric capitals which support a lanai above. All the roofs are tiled, with ornamental downspouts used in the court. The courtyard,...

Two major improvements were made to the U.S. Treasury Department building in 1933-34, using funds provided by the Public Works Administration (PWA) and under the supervision of the newly created Procurement Division of the Treasury Department.  The first major improvement was the remodeling of the fourth floor, originally attic space, “into good office space, and air conditioned so as to be a liveable place to work in hot weather of the Summer” (Evening Star, 1933).  The exact cost of this project is unknown, but it was between $140,000 and $200,000 of the PWA funds. The second major improvement to the Treasury building...

The Department of the Interior was the first federal building in Washington, D.C. fully authorized, designed, and built under the Franklin Roosevelt Administration. It was the brainchild of Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes, probably the most powerful member of FDR's cabinet, and later renamed for former Secretary of Interior, Stewart Lee Udall, in 2010. The Department had outgrown the old Interior Building (now the General Services Administration Building) and its agencies were scattered at 15 different sites in the District of Columbia. Funds were allotted by the Public Works Administration (PWA) in 1934, construction began in April 1935 and was...

This large office building in the Suitland Federal Center –also known as Federal Office Buildings #3 – was constructed by the Public Building Administration (a branch of the Federal Works Agency) in 1941-1942 to be the headquarters of the U.S. Census Bureau, which remained in the building until 2007. Unfortunately, due to deterioration, the building was demolished a few years after that.