District Building

About this property

The John A. Wilson District Building, popularly known simply as the Wilson Building, houses the district offices and chambers of the Mayor and the Council of the District of Columbia. It was originally called the District Building. In 1994, it was renamed in recognition of former Council Chair John A. Wilson. Completed in 1908, during the administration of 26th President Theodore Roosevelt, the building is a contributing structure to the Pennsylvania Avenue National Historic Site. The original site of the John A. Wilson Building was a streetcar power station that a fire had destroyed in 1897. With the "Public Building Act" of 1902, the United States Congress authorized $550,000 for the purchase of the property and an additional $1.5 million (later increased to $2 million) for the construction of a new District district building. Previously, the D.C. government had been housed in the old District of Columbia City Hall, a historic neoclassical styled structure on Indiana Avenue, constructed 1822–1849 by George Hadfield. A competition for the design of the new District Building called for "classic design in the manner of the English Renaissance". The Philadelphia firm of Cope and Stewardson won the contract, and construction started in 1904. The building was dedicated on July 4, 1908, by Henry MacFarland, President of the Board of Commissioners. While the building has continuously served as the district offices of the District's local government, the United States Department of War housed 200 visiting servicemen there during World War II. In 1977, twelve gunmen took about 150 people hostage at three sites around the District of Columbia. During the crisis, later known as the 1977 Hanafi Siege, two of those gunmen held about a dozen hostages inside the council chambers on the fifth floor of the District Building. Then-councilman Marion Barry was hit by a stray bullet during the commotion, which left two others dead, including DC Protective Services Police Officer Wesley Cantrell. The press room at the Wilson Building is named in memory of Maurice Williams, a 24-year-old reporter killed during the attack. In 1995, two-thirds of the Wilson Building was leased to the federal government for a period of 20 years due to the district's inability to pay for needed repairs; during that time, the district paid approximately $8 million per year to the General Services Administration to lease back the space. The district government was able to regain use of the entire building after the United States Congress approved funds for major renovations. The offices of Mayor Anthony Williams and DC Council were temporarily relocated to One Judiciary Square.

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Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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