Existing comment:
From Workers to Environment
Make No Little Plans
-- Federal Triangle Heritage Trail --
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, whose mission is to protect human health and the environment, has occupied the majority of offices in this block since 2001. EPA West (this building), the adjacent Mellon Auditorium, and the EPA East building share once continuous, monumental faç designed by Arthur Brown, Jr. The projecting temple front of the auditorium, colonnades at both ends, and generous sculptures unify the complex.
Because this 1934 building originally housed the Department of Labor, its most prominent sculptures are monumental pediments showing products of American labor. In Abundance and Industry by Sherry Fry (west end), the female figure symbolizing abundance pours from a vase of apples and pomegranates, the fruits of industry. In Labor and Industry by Albert Stewart (east end), the male figure portraying industry sits amid corn and wheat, the fruits of the soil.
The Labor Department was created to promote the welfare of workers, improve their working conditions, and advance their opportunities for profitable employment. Frances Perkins, the first secretary of labor to occupy this building, was the nation's first woman cabinet member.
Edgar Walter's colossal Columbia holding the torch of freedom crowns the ornate portico behind you. Six Doric columns mark the entrance to the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium, named in 1987 in honor of the treasury secretary who spearheaded the creation of Federal Triangle. The auditorium hosted President Franklin Roosevelt as he read numbers drawn in the nation's first peacetime draft lottery, conducted less than a year before the United States entered World War II. After the war, the NATO treaty was signed in the same auditorium. |