DC -- Downtown -- Eisenhower Executive Office Building (Old Executive Office Building) (1650 Penn Ave NW):
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- Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
- OEOB_090110_012.JPG: Note that you can see the rafters on the top floor here
- OEOB_090110_025.JPG: After taking this picture, the security guard in the booth demanded to see my pass.
- OEOB_090110_056.JPG: Room 180
From 1965-1969, this room served as the office of Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey. President Richard Nixon used it as an informal study throughout his administration. From 1986-1989, Vice President George Bush used this room as his office.
- OEOB_090110_116.JPG: Department of Navy doorknob
- OEOB_090110_122.JPG: The solid wall on the left, which obviously doesn't fit into the wide hallways in the building, is there because they're doing construction on the other side of it.
- OEOB_090110_125.JPG: Department of War doorknob
- OEOB_090110_128.JPG: Fossil in the floor
- OEOB_090110_182.JPG: You can see they had to do a bit of work fitting new wiring into this building. Back when the building was created, there was no electricity. The lights were gas and that was about it.
- OEOB_090110_203.JPG: [Hard to read the sign for this room!]
The Indian Treaty Room
Completed in 1880, this room was originally the Navy Department Library Reception Room and has remained largely unchanged over the past century. Unlike the other departmental libraries in the building, however, it was designed more as a place for entertaining than for use as a functioning library; book stacks, no longer in existence, were relegated to adjoining spaces at either end and were completely separated from the central room. A gallery level surrounds the large two-story atrium with an elaborate balcony that wraps the perimeter of the room with a cast-iron railing studded with brass fixtures and Mexican onyx medallions.
No expense was spared by the Navy Department in the creation of this room, and Richard Von Ezdorf took advantage of the department's desire to surpass the opulence of State's Diplomatic Reception Room (Rooms 212 and 214). Elaborately decorated with marine motifs, the walls are composed of green, red, and white marble panels surrounded by bronzed mouldings. The floor is covered with encaustic tiles laid in a geometric pattern similar to that of the State Department Library (room 308), and the coved (???) ceiling surrounding what was originally a skylight is decorated with gilt stars. Four bronze lamps fill the corners of the room, each an allegorical figure weighing close to eight hundred pounds, representing "War and Peace", "Liberty", "Arts and Sciences", and "Industry".
Known as the Indian Treaty Room since the 1910s although no treaties were ever signed here with India or with an Indian tribe. This room was used by the State Department for file storage after the Navy Department moved out of the building in 1918. (???) In the late 1980s, it became a conference room; the .... (???) agreement that established the International Monetary Fund... on December ... 194.... as was a peace treaty with the Balkan States in 1947, among many others. Presidents Truman and Eisenhower ... the majority of their press conferences in this room from 1950 until 1961, when reporters called it the "Cupid Room," no doubt in response to its high Victorian style, then largely out of favor, and ... winged allegorical figures. Restored in 1985, the room is used for meetings, ceremonies, and receptions.
- OEOB_090110_317.JPG: Department of State doorknob
- OEOB_090124_05.JPG: Old Executive Office Building
- Wikipedia Description: Eisenhower Executive Office Building
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Eisenhower Executive Office Building (EEOB) — formerly known as the Old Executive Office Building (OEOB) and even earlier as the State, War, and Navy Building — is a U.S. government building situated just west of the White House in the U.S. capital of Washington, D.C. Maintained by the General Services Administration, it is occupied by the Executive Office of the President, including the Office of the Vice President of the United States. Located on 17th Street NW, between Pennsylvania Avenue and New York Avenue, and West Executive Drive, the building, commissioned by Ulysses S. Grant, built between 1871 and 1888, on the site of the original 1800 War/State/Navy Building and the White House stables, in the French Second Empire style, is a National Historic Landmark. It was for years the world's largest office building, with 566 rooms and about ten acres of floor space. Many White House employees have their offices in the massive edifice.
State, War, and Navy Building
The building—originally called the State, War, and Navy Building because it housed the Departments of State, War, and the Navy—was built between 1871 and 1888 in the French Second Empire style. It was designed by Alfred B. Mullett, Supervising Architect.
The Old Executive Office Building was renamed the Dwight D. Eisenhower Executive Office Building when President Bill Clinton approved legislation changing the name on November 9, 1999. President George W. Bush participated in a rededication ceremony on May 7, 2002.
Much of the interior was designed by Richard von Ezdorf using fireproof cast-iron structural and decorative elements, including massive skylights above each of the major stairwells and doorknobs with cast patterns indicating which of the original three occupying departments (State, Navy, or War) occupied a particular space. The total cost to construct the building came in at $10,038,482.42 when constructed ended in 1888, after 17 years. The original tenants of the building quickly outgrew it and finally vacated it completely in the late 1930s. The building gradually came to be seen as inefficient and was nearly demolished in 1957. In 1969, the building received the highest recognition possible, becoming a National Historic Landmark. In 1981, plans began to restore all the "secretary of" suites. The main office of the Secretary of the Navy was restored in 1987 and is now used as the ceremonial office of the Vice President of the United States. Shortly after 11 September 2001, the 17th Street side of the building was vacated and has since been modernized. The building continues to house various agencies that compose the President's Executive Office, such as the Office of the Vice President, the Office of Management and Budget, and the National Security Council. However, its most public purpose is that of the Vice President's Ceremonial Office, which is mainly used for special meetings and press conferences.
Many celebrated national figures have participated in historical events that have taken place within the Old Executive Office Building. Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Lyndon B. Johnson, Gerald Ford, and George H. W. Bush all had offices in this building before becoming President. It has housed 16 Secretaries of the Navy, 21 Secretaries of War, and 24 Secretaries of State. Winston Churchill once walked its corridors and Japanese emissaries met there with Secretary of State Cordell Hull after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. President Herbert Hoover occupied the Secretary of the Navy's office for a few months following a fire in the Oval Office on Christmas Eve 1929. Dwight D. Eisenhower held the first televised Presidential news conference in the building's Indian Treaty Room (room 274) on January 19, 1955. In recent history, Richard Nixon had a private office there during his presidency, where his secret taping system recorded some of the conversations that proved the Watergate scandal. Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson was the first in a succession of Vice Presidents who have had offices in the building. The first wife of a Vice President to have an office in the building was Marilyn Quayle, wife of James Danforth Quayle. He served as the Vice President to George H.W. Bush. In keeping up with the times, the building unveiled the White House website in 1994.
A small fire on December 19, 2007 damaged an office of the vice-president's staff and included the VP ceremonial office. According to media reporting, the office of the Vice President's Political Director, Amy Whitelaw, was heavily damaged in the fire.
Patterned after French Second Empire architecture that clashed sharply with the neoclassical style of the other Federal buildings in the city, it was generally regarded with scorn and disdain, and the architect of the exterior, Alfred B. Mullett, ended his life in litigation and suicide. The OEOB was referred to by Mark Twain as "the ugliest building in America." Harry Truman called it "the greatest monstrosity in America." Historian Henry Adams called it Mullet's “architectural infant asylum.”
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