Existing comment:
Winder Bldg
The Winder Building was built in 1848 and was the first "high-rise" office building in Washington DC. (No building in Washington can be taller than the Washington Monument so the term is used a little unusually here.) It was also the first building in Washington DC constructed with steal beams and warmed by a central hot water heating system.
It was named after General William Winder who had lost the Battle of Bladensburg to the British invaders in 1814. By the time of the Civil War, it provided office space for the head of the Army. In early 1861, Winfield Scott met with Robert E Lee here and asked him to consider taking over the Union troops if war should break out with the South. Francis Blair met again later with Lee at the Blair House where the suggestion was more forcibly made but Lee couldn't fight against his native state and returned to Arlington House to write up his resignation and side with the Confederates instead.
Located just a block away from the White House, the Winder Building served as office space for several Union commanders from Winfield Scott to Ulysses Grant and President Lincoln came over each day for war dispatches. Signal operators worked on the roof coordinating communication with the defensive forts that were built around the city. The fifth floor was made into a hospital in 1862. (I worked on this floor for several years when I worked for the Office of the US Trade Representive.)
Toward the end of the war, most of the offices of the military judiciary were located in the building. In this capacity, it became the command post for the efforts to capture and try the Lincoln assassination conspirators. |