The U.S. Department of Agriculture Administration Building, also known as the Jamie L. Whitten Building, houses the administrative offices of the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Washington, D.C. The Administration Building projects into the

National Mall The National Mall is a Landscape architecture, landscaped park near the Downtown, Washington, D.C., downtown area of Washington, D.C., the capital city of the United States. It contains and borders a number of museums of the Smithsonian Institu ...

from the larger U.S. Department of Agriculture South Building, and is the only building on the Mall that is not intended for use by the general public. It was the first large Beaux-Arts style building in Washington and set the prototype for the later buildings of the Federal Triangle. The east and west wings were the first Federal office buildings to be built of

reinforced concrete Reinforced concrete, also called ferroconcrete or ferro-concrete, is a composite material in which concrete's relatively low tensile strength and ductility are compensated for by the inclusion of reinforcement having higher tensile strength or ...

.(1) .
(2) . The Whitten Building was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

in 1974.

History

The placement of the new building on the Mall was at odds with the proposed McMillan Plan, which envisioned a Mall free of intrusive buildings. The Agriculture Department's proposed placement was opposed by Commission members Daniel Burnham and Charles McKim. After a series of intercessions by President

Theodore Roosevelt Theodore Roosevelt Jr. (October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919), also known as Teddy or T.R., was the 26th president of the United States, serving from 1901 to 1909. Roosevelt previously was involved in New York (state), New York politics, incl ...

the building was moved to be in accordance with the Plan, but only after foundations were in place for a building to the east of the final location. As the public face of the Department of Agriculture, the Beaux-Arts style Administration Building was designed by architects Rankin, Kellogg and Crane to a higher standard than the South Building. However, a limited budget enforced a comparative plainness when set against other buildings on the Mall. The L-shaped wings were completed between 1904 and 1908, but the central block was not finished until 1930. The prototype for the design was Ange-Jacques Gabriel's 1774 Hôtel de la Marine on the

Place de la Concorde The Place de la Concorde (; ) is a public square in Paris, France. Measuring in area, it is the largest square in the French capital. It is located in the city's eighth arrondissement, at the eastern end of the Champs-Élysées. It was the s ...

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

. The pediment features sculpture by Adolph Alexander Weinman, while interior murals are by Gilbert White. While the earlier east and west wings featured reinforced concrete construction, the central portion was built in steel. The building was named the Jamie L. Whitten building in 1995 in honor of

Mississippi Mississippi ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Alabama to the east, the Gulf of Mexico to the south, Louisiana to the s ...

Congressman Jamie L. Whitten, former chairman of the United States House Appropriations Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies. File:USDA1web.jpg, Administration Building, File:Jamie L. Whitten Building.jpg, Façade of the building with Corinthian columns File:20111110-OC-AMW-002 - Flickr - USDAgov.jpg, A Department of Agriculture employee uses a mule-drawn tiller to plant a new lawn, 1931

Linking bridges

In 1936, two enclosed pedestrian bridges were built across Independence Avenue. The single-span stone arches form a dramatic accent on Independence Avenue. The

soffit A soffit is an exterior architectural feature, generally the horizontal, aloft underside of the roof edge. Its archetypal form, sometimes incorporating or implying the projection of rafters or trusses over the exterior of supporting walls, is t ...

s of the bridges are faced with

Guastavino tile The Guastavino tile arch system is a version of the Catalan vault introduced to the United States in 1885 by Spanish architect and builder Rafael Guastavino (1842–1908). It was patented in the United States by Guastavino in 1892. Descript ...

. The east bridge is dedicated to Seaman A. Knapp, while the west bridge commemorates Agriculture Secretary James Wilson.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Government buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Washington, D.C. Office buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Washington, D.C. Neoclassical architecture in Washington, D.C. Beaux-Arts architecture in Washington, D.C. Government buildings completed in 1908 Office buildings completed in 1908 National Mall 1908 establishments in Washington, D.C.