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Civil War to Civil Rights
Downtown Heritage Trail
e.5 Building Out the Square
The great depression (1929-1941) meant economic catastrophe for millions of Americans, but in Washington it meant a building boom as the Federal Government staffed up to the end the economic crisis. In 1931 alone Congress approved new government buildings and schools, street paving, bridges, and sewers Thousands found badly needed work.
By this time, the Old City Hall/Courthouse had lost most of its DC government functions. The city's commissioners, police and fire chiefs, and engineers had moved to the 1908 District Building (now the John A. Wilson Building) on Pennsylvania Avenue. But as the city needed more offices, planners looked again at Judiciary Square.
By 1943, the Judiciary Square courthouses and offices you can see from here were complete. Municipal architect Nathan C. Wyeth designed the 1941 Art Deco style Municipal Center across Indiana Avenue for the police and fire departments' headquarters and other agencies.
For Judiciary Square, Wyeth designed three courthouses to harmonize with the Old City Hall; the Juvenile Court at 409 E. Street, and the Police and Municipal Courts framing today's National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial.
One Judiciary Square, across Fourth Street, became DC's city hall between 1992 and 2001, while the District Building on Pennsylvania Avenue underwent renovation. In 2007, as part of Mayor Adrian Fenty's "Greening the District" program, the building received a green roof.
The Francis Perkins U.S. Department of Labor building, ahead of you along D Street, honors President Franklin D. Roosevelt's secretary of labor, the first woman Cabinet member and the principal architect of the Social Security Acct and other worker protections. |