National War College

About this property

Roosevelt Hall is an immense Beaux Arts-style building housing the National War College on Fort Lesley J. McNair, Washington, D.C., United States. The original home of the Army War College (1907–1946), it was built between 1903 and 1907 to designs by McKim, Mead & White, and has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places as a National Historic Landmark since 1972. Roosevelt Hall was originally built as the central focus of enormous complex envisioned by President Theodore Roosevelt and Secretary of War Elihu Root to house a General Staff School for senior U.S. Army officers. The historic Washington Arsenal (which became Fort McNair in 1948) was selected as the site. Between 1901 and 1903, the early 19th-century arsenal buildings were razed to make way for the projected complex. As many as fifty additional buildings were envisioned, including barracks, mess halls, and faculty quarters, but only Roosevelt Hall was completed and the ambitious plan was never realized in its entirety. The cornerstone for Roosevelt Hall was laid on February 21, 1903, and on June 30, 1907, the building was occupied for the first time. Roosevelt Hall housed the Army War College (AWC) from 1907 to 1946 when that institution moved to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas (and a year later to Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania). Since 1946, it has housed the National War College (NWC), a training and doctrine institution embracing all branches of the armed forces, as well as the Department of State and the Central Intelligence Agency. The role of the NWC closely parallels that of the AWC, but on a broader, multi-service basis. Additional subterranean office space was excavated in the 1960s beneath the front (north) terrace of Roosevelt Hall so as not to affect the structure's exterior. The two main interior spaces have for the most part remained undisturbed over a century. Roosevelt Hall was designed by the noted New York architectural firm McKim, Mead and White in the Neoclassical or Beaux Arts style. The Neo-Classical style building is constructed of red brick with granite trim. It faces north onto a quarter-mile long greensward while the building's rear elevation overlooks the Potomac. The ground plan of Roosevelt Hall is oriented on a cross-axis formed by the intersection of a domed central pavilion and wings extending laterally to the east and west, each consisting of 12 bays. The main pavilion is pedimented and, on the north (main) facade, is distinguished by a tall arched loggia featuring a distyle in antis Ionic screen. (This is a motif also employed in the east and west gable ends of the building.) Surmounting the entablature of this columnar screen, in each instance, is a symbolic sculpted eagle.

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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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