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Pan American Union (Organization of American States)

Architects
Paul Philippe Cret Albert Kelsey
Year
1910
City
Washington, DC
Pan American Union (Organization of American States)
Photo: Bestbudbrian, CC BY-SA 4.0
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The Pan American Union Building, headquarters of the Organization of American States, was dedicated in 1910 on the former site of the Van Ness Mansion, at 17th Street between C Street and Constitution Avenue. Architects Paul Philippe Cret and Albert Kelsey designed it as a Greek temple, and construction was largely financed by Andrew Carnegie; Theodore Roosevelt, Elihu Root, and Carnegie laid the cornerstone on May 11, 1908. It has served ever since as a stage for hemispheric diplomacy, from the founding meeting of the International Labour Organization to the Washington Naval Conference.

the building

Temple front and tiled roof. Cret and Kelsey gave the building the form of a Greek temple, with broad exterior stairways rising to palatial bronze gates. The roof is covered in Ludowici tiles blended in shades of red, a warm accent atop the classical stonework.

Naval Conference hearings. Between 1921 and 1922 the building hosted committee and subcommittee hearings for the Washington Naval Conference, guarded throughout by marines with fixed bayonets — a sign of how central this address once was to global arms diplomacy.

the style

The building was designed in the style of a Greek temple, a classical vocabulary chosen for the young hemispheric organization's new headquarters rather than the federal Beaux-Arts common elsewhere near the Mall.

significance

The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1969 and designated a National Historic Landmark in 2021, recognized jointly for its architecture and its role in international diplomacy — including the 1919 founding meeting of the International Labour Organization and the signing of the Carter-Trujillo treaties.

nearby

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