Federal Triangle Historic District

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Developed chiefly between 1928 and 1938 under the direction of Secretary of the Treasury Andrew Mellon's "Mellon Board," the buildings that comprise the Federal Triangle Historic District are a visible symbol of the tremendous growth of the federal government in the 20th century and a desire to create a grand capital city.

The oldest of the buildings in Federal Triangle, the Old Post Office, was designed by W.J. Edbrooke and constructed between 1891 and 1899, and was followed by the Beaux-Arts style District Building, designed by Cope & Stewardson and constructed between 1904 and 1908.

The Mellon Board's Neoclassical ensemble consists of nine enormous federal buildings constructed around a series of outdoor plazas and inner courts. It is this country's most imposing example of the monumental civic center concept and City Beautiful movement, popular among city planners in the early decades of the 20th century. In addition to the Old Post Office and District Building, the historic district encompasses the following buildings:

•  Herbert Hoover Building, Department of Commerce (1932, York and Sawyer)

•  Department of Labor, Departmental Auditorium (now Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium), and Interstate Commerce Commission (1934, Arthur Brown, Jr.) (now the Environmental Protection Agency, West Building)

•  Post Office Department (1934, Arthur Brown, Jr.) (now the Environmental Protection Agency, East Building)

•  Robert F. Kennedy Building, Department of Justice (1935, Zantzinger, Borie & Medary)

•  National Archives Building (1935, John Russell Pope)

•  Internal Revenue Service (1936, Louis A. Simon)

•  Federal Trade Commission (1938, Bennett, Parsons and Frost)

The Federal Triangle was officially completed in 1998, with the addition of the Ronald Reagan Building.

The construction of the Federal Triangle led to the demolition of numerous buildings and structures, and the erasure of DC's first Chinatown (centered at Pennsylvania Avenue and 4th Street NW), which was forced to relocate in the early 1930s.

DC Inventory: March 7, 1968 (Joint Committee on Landmarks)
Within the Pennsylvania Avenue National Historic Site