Whitten Building National Register Files 74002175.pdf

Form 10-306 (Oct. 1972) UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

NATIONAL PARK SERVICE

NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES

INVENTORY - NOMINATION FORM

FOR FEDERAL PROPERTIES

(Type all entries - complete applicable sections)

STATE:

District o£ Columbia

COUNTY:

N.A.

FOR NPS USE ONLY

ENTRY DATE

2 4 S74

L name ^

S Department of Agriculture Administration Building

AND/OR HISTORI C:

Same

STREET AND NUMBER:

12th Street and Jefferson Drive, S. W.

CITY OR TOWN:

Washington

CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT:

Federal District

STATE: CODE COUNTY: CODE

District of Columbia 11 N.A. 001

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CATEGORY

(Check One)

I I District [25 Building

I I Site Q Structure r~1 Object

OWNERSHIP

|25 Public r~l Private I I Both

Public Acquisition.' ! I In Process I I Being Considered

STATUS

Occupied I I Unoccupied I I Preservation work in progress

ACCESSIBLE

TO THE PUBLIC

Yes;

fy1 Restricted I I Unrestricted

□ No present use (Check One or More ee Appropriate)

I I Tronsportotion I I Other (Specify)

I I Comments1^ Agricultural I I Commercial I I Educational r~1 Entertainment

I A AGENCY

Government i I Industrial I I Military I I Museum

□ Park I I Privote Residence [ I Religious

Scientific

General Services Administration - Public Buildings Service REGIONAL HEADQUARTERS; (If appticable)

Cl TY OR TOWN:

Washington

S. LOCATION OF LEGAL OESCRIPTION

STREET AND NUMBER:

18th § F. Streets, N. W.

STATE:

District of Columbia :;|i|||i;|||;:|i;||||||||||||i||||||i||||||||^

COURTHOUSE, REGISTRY OF DEEDS, ETC:

District of Columbia Register of Deeds

STREET AND NUMBER:

D. Street at 6th Street, N. W.

CITY OR TOWN:

Washington

STATE:

District of Columbia

TITLE OF SURVEY:

___ None DATE OF SURVEY: □ Fedorol □ Stoto □ Coun/yCy \

DEPOSITORY FOR SURVEY RECORDS: §

STREET AND NUMBER:

to n*.

CITY OR TOWN: STATE: \^'>

W

I 7. DESCRIPTION

CONDITION I Excellent [ I Good □ Fair (Check One)

[ I Deterioroted I I Ruins I I Unexposed'

(Check One)

□ Altered ^Unaltered

(Check One)

□ Moved [^Original Site

DESCRIBE THE PRESENT AND ORIGINAL (if known) PHYSICAL APPEARANCE

The Department of Agriculture Administration Building is free-standing on a site bounded by Jefferson Drive (on the Mall), Independence Avenue, 12th Street, and 14th Street, S.W. It is an extremely long building of white marble, having a total extent of 850’ composed of two 19-bay L-shaped wings (approximately 160 feet in depth), linked to an 11-bay central block (ap proximately 175 feet in depth), by two corridor-wide 3-bay ligatures. The shape of the whole is roughly an elongated E. The wings are four stories high composed of a rusticated basement or ground floor, a piano nobile, a third floor, and an attic floor set behind the balustrades capping the en tablature. Three-bay pavilions ; project slightly at each end of the two wingls.

The pavilions have engaged Roman Ionic tetrastyle colossal orders above the rusticated basement. These elements have pediments set against solid para pets at the attic level. Each pediment contains allegorical sculptures com posed of two figures and a central trophy by A._A. Weinman. From east to wes the subjects symbolized are fruits, flowers, cerealT^d'Torests. Swags are suspended from the volutes of the Roman Ionic capitals of the engaged colimms All ground floor windows are round-arched. The main floor windows have flat caps. Those above have simple architraves. The wing cornices are denticulai The hip roofs of the wings are red tile . The central block projects beyond the plane of the wings and the ligatures are deeply recessed. The central block is five stories in height, the top story being an attic above the entablature. The principal element of the center block elevation is a shallow duo-decastyle Roman Corinthian portico which rises atop the ground floor through the second, third and fourth floors. The entablature of the central block has a modillioned comice and supports a paneled parapet! above the portico. The three attic panels carry quotations from Saint Paul, Abraham Lincoln, and George Washington referring to agriculture. The east and west elevations of the wings appear curiously truncated in design, as though it was originally planned to extend them into the present site of Independence Avenue. The courtyard elevations of the wings are trimmed with marble but faced with light buff brick instead of marble ashlar. The second and third floor windows of the central block are separated by metal spandrels ornamented by roundels carrying bison heads flanked by strigil motifs. The rear elevation of the central block has pilasters. The central block roof iS flat. The rear elevations of the wing spurs are unusual in that they about single-span bridges spanning Independence Avenue to connect the Administratic Building with the South Building. These two bridges spring at second floor level and carry third-floor enclosed blind passages. They date from 1936 and have bands of Art Deco ornament at their tops. The soffits are made of Guastavino tile, and the walls are limestone. The easterly bridge is dedi cated to Dr. Seaman A. Knapp, founder of agricultural extension work, and the westerly bridge''ccmimemdfates'Secretary James Wilson, whose tenure of 16 years (under McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt, and~Taft7'remains unbroken. The westerr courtyard originally housed a heating plant and tall brick stack. Both are how removed.

The interior plan is simple. A U-shaped corridor gives access to the two files of offices on each floor. The entrance is at grade. Three doors with iron gates lend to an outer vestibule with a shallow-coffered ceiling and a semi-enclosed stairway at the left. Beyond is a groin-vaulted corridor surrounding a two-storv high K-rir-v rmirtyarrl with a central fountain.

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Form 10-300a (July 1969)

UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

NATIONAL PARK SERVICE

NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES

INVENTORY ■ NOMINATION FORM

(Continuation Sheet)

STATE

District of Columbia

COUNTY

N.A.

FOR NPS USE ONLY

ENTRY NUMBER DATE

---------- JAN 2 4 197^

(Number alt entriee)

7. DESCRIPTION

The floors are travertine. The stairway is semicircular and has a fine brass rail. At the second floor level the curved wall of the stairwell has a mural painting by Gilbert White painted in 1934. The subject is drawn from Vergil's Georgies II, the Inscription reading "0 fortunatas nimim sua si bona norint, Agricolas". The courtyard has on its west wall a marble World War I memorial carved by John F^^agan that has been termed the finest of its kind in Washington. The tablet bearing the names of the fallen eiT5)loyees of the Department of Agriculture is flanked by a sailor and a soldier in half relief.

They are depicted presenting arms. The memorial was installed in 1931. The courtyard, glass-enclosed and measuring 88' by 56' with its fountain and War Memorial is the most striking feature of the interior.

The Agriculture Administration was one of the first Government buildings to use reinforced concrete.- the wings were framed in reinforced concrete.

8. SIGNIFICANCE

neo-classical departmental headquarters that characterize much of modem Washington. Although the central section does not relate to the wings as well as it might have, the front elevations of the wings themselves are as felicitous examples of their kind as can be found anywhere in the United States.

0F'l\/rn

GPO 921.724

PERIOD (Check One or More as Appropriate)

1 I Pre-Columbian rn 1 5th Century

1 1 16th Century 1 I 17th Century

I 1 18th Century [ I 19th Century

Pn 20th Century

SPECIFIC DATE(S) qf>4pp/icab/eandKnownj I904"I908; 19Z8-1950; 1956 [bridges)

AREAS OF SIGNIFICANCE (Check One or More as Appropriate^ Aboriginal

[ I Prehistoric I I Historic

Agriculture [X] Architecture

Art

I I Commerce ( I Communications 1 I Conservation

I 1 Education I I Engineering 1 1 Industry

( I Invention i I Landscape

Architectu re I 1 Literature f~1 Military I I Music

Political

1 I Religion/Phi losophy

Sn Science ^ Sculpture { I Social/Human itarian 1 I Theater I I Transportation

Urban Planning I t Other (Specify)

Z o H U

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STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE

The Department of Agriculture Administration Building is the first of the immense 20th-century neo-classical Government buildings to have been erected in Washington. It is a fine example of the ^eaux-Arts manner executed in white marble - the Beaux Arts being a style which reflected the basic tenets of the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris, the model for the development and dir ection of architectural schools throughout the United States in the 19th and early 20th century. The Beaux Arts manner emphasizes a highly ordered, formal plan, axial symmetry, monumentality and classicistic (Roman and Renai ssance) spacial relationships and details. Designed by the Philadelphia firm of Rankin, Kellogg and Crane (they were the second choice in a ten firm com petition) composed of John Hall Rankin, Thomas M. Kellogg (1862-1935), and Edward A.Crane (1867-1935) - the building established the limits of encroach ment on the Mall and set the standard for the later structures of the Fed eral Triangle. Daniel Burnham and Charles McKim of the Park Commission (known today as the McMillan Commission) and the Department of Agriculture Building Committee were at odds over the proposed location of the structure.

The Commission wanted to create an open Mall without buildings, as it is to day, but the Agriculture Committee disregarded the proposed IVfcMillan plan (which had not been accepted yet) and placed the building at random in the proposed Mall. Burnham and McKim sought the sid of President Theodore Roosevelt to stop construction of the structure and place it on their propos ed East-West axis. The President called a meeting to stress the relationship of the building to the McMillan plan East-West axis assuming that the Agri culture Committee would follow the plan. As a result of the meeting, the Agriculture Committee moved the proposed building towards Independence Avenue but disregarded the McMillan plan North-South axis. Burnham and McKim caught the Agriculture Department Committee when the foundations were in place and again asked the President to intercede on their behalf. Roosevelt called another meeting and succeeded in having the Committee move the building 106 feet west to conform with both the East-West and the North-South axis. Thus, the open Mall concept was saved.

The wings remained unconnected frexn their completion in 1908 until the centra block by Rankin and Kellogg (Crane left the firm in 1925) was built in 1928-3fl The pediment sculptures of the wings by A.A. Weinman, the staircase mural by” Gilbert White, and the World War I Memorial sculpture by John Flanagan in the interior courtyard are noteworthy in their own right and exenplify the unity of the arts which was a goal of official architecture during the first third of this century. The Agriculture Building also expresses the importance of agriculture at the time it was built, as it was the fir^" of the new huge

I 9, MAJOR BIBLIOGRAPHICAL REFERENCES

(Donald Lehman) General Services Administration Historical Study No. 2 Agriculture -- Administration Building, Washington, 1964

Federal Writers' Project, Washington City and Capital, Washington, 1937

110. GEOGRAPHICAL DATA

LATITUDE AND LONGITUDE COORDINATES

DEFINING A RECTANGLE LOCATING THE PROPERTY

CORNER LATITUDE LONGITUDE

NW

Degrees Minutes Seconds o • »>

Degrees Minutes Seconds o . » »•

NE O » »t O t '•

SE

O 1 |> o $ ••

SW

O > »i o * -■

APPROXIMATE ACREAGE OF NOMINATED PROPERTY:

LATITUDE AND LONGITUDE COORDINATES

DEFINING THE CENTER POINT OF A PROPERTY

OF LESS THAN TEN ACRES

N LATITUDE LONGITUDE

Degrees Minutes Seconds 38 ° 53' 17”

Degrees Minutes Seconds 77° 01 ’ 49 ”

ALL STATES AND COUNTIES FOR PROPERTIES OVERLAPPING STATE OF^ C^L^TY B^IJN

e1 I rOllMTY*

STATE; CODE COUNTY: -mrr m rational /fe'^ register 4

CODE

CODE

CODE

NAME AND TITLE:

John D. Milner, AIA, Execxitive Director

DATE:

22 June 1973

BUSINESS ADDRESS:

National Heritage Corporation

STREET AND NUMBER:

P. 0. Box 167

PHONE:

215-459-8710

CITY OR TOWN: STATE

Chadds Ford Pennsylvania 19317

CODE

State Liaison Officer recommendation:

Yes

□ No I I None

_ ____________^state Liaison Officer Signature

In compliance with Executive Order 11593, I hereby nominate this property to the National Register, certify ing that the State Liaison Officer has been allowed 90 days in which to present the nomination to the State Re view Board and to evaluate its significance. The recom mended level of significance is □ National □ State

Federal Representative Signature Dafe

Historic Pf^ervation Liaison Office*

I hereby certify that this property is included in the National Register.

Director, Office of Archeology and Historic Preservation

Date .

ATTEST: : .V

‘Keeper of The National Ke^isfer

Date / f 7

LX GPO 938-449

t/1 m m

X H •n c n H o X

WORKING NUMBER

TECH REVIEW Photos 3

Maps /'

CONTROL REVIEW

HISTORIAN

ARCHITECTURAL HISTORIAN

ARCHEOLOGIST

REVIEW UNIT CHIEF

BRANCH CHIEF

KEEPER

National Register write-up 1 — jr-7 KpFederal Register entry

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Entered JAN 2 4 13^4

INT-741-73

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ENTRIES IN THE NATIONAL REGISTER

Disnxcf or couseu

STATE ________

Date Entered JAN 2 4 1974

Name Location

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P. V” itiifi<.**iiifc.Si,,, (Reference Number[s])

DC.

(County) (State)

0^ I (Date form completed) LvS/? , (Completed by)

STATUS:

1. MISSING___ 2. REMOVED/__ 3. NHL4. TR___________ 5. MRA___ 6. OVER

DEMOLISHED________________________________________ SIZED

7. NPS 8. DOE - 9. RESTRICTED

UNDOCUMENTED OWNER OBJECTION

EXPLANATION:

Vy. i1. Missing Status: Entire Folder ( ); Nomination ( ); Map(s) (V ); Photos ( )

Avaiiable on: Microfiche ( ); Optical Disk ( )

2.

3.

4.

(Cause for removal) (Date Removed)

(NHL Name, if different than NRHP Name) (Date Designated) i.- -

(If multi-state/county TR, state/county where filed and location)

(TR or MRA Name) i-'Tt -•

(If multi-state/county MRA, state/county where filed and location) rnfismt ■iik

- i"- ■■ W

(Location of oversize file)

7.

(Current source of partial documentation)

(Target Date)

COMMENTS: / /

(Where found, or source of replacement) (Date Found/Replaced)