Qualla: Eisenhower Executive Office Building

Eisenhower Executive Office Building: Introduction

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ingfbruno, CC BY-SA 3.0. Mark Twain called it the ugliest building in America. Harry Truman called it the greatest monstrosity in America. Henry Adams nicknamed it Mullett's architectural infant asylum. The architect, Alfred B. Mullett, beset by financial troubles, lawsuits over its cost overruns, and ill health, died by suicide in 1890, two years after the building was finished. None of this stopped the granite confection from becoming one of the most important workplaces in American government. The Eisenhower Executive Office Building has housed sixteen Secretaries of the Navy, twenty-one Secretaries of War, and twenty-four Secretaries of State. Eight future presidents had offices here before becoming president. The building everyone hated has become, over a century and a third of continuous use, the building no one will tear down.

Image: Ingfbruno | CC BY-SA 3.0

Eisenhower Executive Office Building: Three Departments in One Roof

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Public domain. Before this building, the State, War, and Navy Departments operated out of three small federal buildings flanking the White House, built between 1799 and 1820 on land that had been the Washington Jockey Club. After the Civil War the federal government's responsibilities had multi...

Image: Public domain

Eisenhower Executive Office Building: Maine Granite, Cast-Iron Interior

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Unknown authorUnknown author or not provided, Public domain. Every block of the exterior granite was quarried, cut, and polished on Vinalhaven Island in Penobscot Bay, Maine, under contract with the Bodwell Granite Company. Schooners carried it down the New England coast and up the Potomac to Washington. The interior was designed by the It...

Image: Unknown authorUnknown author or not provided | Public domain

Eisenhower Executive Office Building: The People Who Worked Here

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Unknown author, Public domain. Theodore Roosevelt worked in the building as Assistant Secretary of the Navy. So did Franklin Roosevelt thirty years later. William Howard Taft worked here as Secretary of War. Eisenhower had an office here while assigned to the Army General Staff. Truman moved his presidential s...

Image: Unknown author | Public domain

Eisenhower Executive Office Building: Saving the Monstrosity

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Frypie, CC BY-SA 4.0. The original three departments outgrew the building and finally moved out completely in the late 1930s. The Department of State moved to Foggy Bottom; the War Department's offices became the nucleus of the Pentagon. The Old Executive Office Building, as it became known, was repur...

Image: Frypie | CC BY-SA 4.0

Eisenhower Executive Office Building: Renamed for the General

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Loren, Public domain. In 1999, the Old Executive Office Building was renamed for Dwight D. Eisenhower, the thirty-fourth president and the five-star Army general who had commanded the Allied forces in Europe during the Second World War. Eisenhower had worked in the building several times in his career...

Image: Loren | Public domain