District Building (John A. Wilson Bldg.)
- Architect
- Cope and Stewardson
- Year
- 1908
- Style
- Beaux-Arts
- City
- Washington, DC
- Collection
- the city beautiful
The John A. Wilson Building, completed in 1908 during Theodore Roosevelt's presidency, was designed by the firm Cope and Stewardson to house the offices and chambers of the District of Columbia's government. Congress funded it through the Public Building Act of 1902, which authorized $550,000 to purchase the site and up to $2 million for construction. Originally called simply the District Building, it was renamed in 1994 to honor former Council Chair John A. Wilson.
the building
Built on a burned-out power station. The site had previously held a streetcar power station that a fire destroyed in 1897, clearing the ground Congress would later fund for a new seat of district government.
An English Renaissance competition. The 1902 design competition specifically called for "classic design in the manner of the English Renaissance," the brief that Cope and Stewardson's winning Beaux-Arts scheme answered.
Replacing a neoclassical city hall. Before this building, D.C.'s government worked out of the old District of Columbia City Hall on Indiana Avenue, a neoclassical structure built 1822 to 1849 by George Hadfield.
the style
The building is executed in the Beaux-Arts style, the winning answer to a 1902 competition brief that had asked for "classic design in the manner of the English Renaissance."
More on Beaux-Artssignificance
The Wilson Building is a DC Historic Landmark, a National Register of Historic Places listed and contributing property, and a contributing structure to the Pennsylvania Avenue National Historic Site. It remains the seat of the Mayor and Council of the District of Columbia.
nearby
- Herbert C. Hoover Building
- Willard InterContinental Washington
- Warner Theatre Building (and Interior)
- William Jefferson Clinton Federal Building
- Hotel Washington
- Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium