A manual on the origin and development of Washington

by H. Paul Caemmerer

DEPARTMENT OF STATE

DEPARTMENT OF STATE BUILDING, 1801

In 1788 the Department of Foreign Affairs moved from Fraunce’s Tavern to a house owned by Philip Livingston, on the west side of Broadway, near the Battery, in New York City. Later it moved to another house on the same street on the opposite side. The Capital having been again located at Philadelphia, the department took up its abode first on Market Street, then on the southeast corner of Arch and Sixth Streets, then in North Alley, and finally at the northeast corner of Fifth and Chestnut Streets, where it remained until it was moved to Washington, except for an interval of three months—from August to November, 1798—when it occupied the statehouse at Trenton, N. J., the office being moved from Philadelphia on account of an epidemic of yellow fever.

On July 27, 1789, the act establishing an executive department to be called the Department of Foreign Affairs was approved; but the Sedgwick Act, approved September 15, 1789, changed this title to the Department of State and that of the principal officer to the Secretary of State. A few days later John Jay, who was Secretary of Foreign Affairs under the Confederation, was nominated to be Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and Thomas Jefferson to be Secretary of State, and both were commissioned on September 26. Jay accepted at once, but continued to discharge the duties of Secretary of State for some months. Under date of October 13 President Washington informed Jefferson of his appointment, and added that Mr. Jay had been so obliging as to continue his good offices. When this letter was written Jefferson had not returned to America from his mission to France. Upon his arrival Jay recommended to him favorably “the young gentlemen in the office.” Jefferson formally entered upon the discharge of his duties on March 22, 1790.

When the seat of government was established in the District of Columbia in 1800 the archives and the seven employees of the Department of State were crowded into the Treasury Office, a building of 30 rooms, to the east of the White House. It was the only Government building sufficiently completed to receive them. John Marshall was then Secretary of State. On August 27, 1800, the Department of State was removed to one of the Seven Buildings on Pennsylvania Avenue and Nineteenth Street NW.

It has been interesting to determine positively the name of this historic group of buildings, because some confusion has arisen through there being in 1800 two groups or rows of houses, near to one another, one called the Six Buildings and the other the Seven Buildings. Christian Hines, in his Early Recollections of Washington City (1866), says, when giving a list of the few houses standing in the year 1800:

One square between Pennsylvania Avenue and K and Twenty-first and Twenty-second Streets, the Six Buildings, three stories high, owners and occupants not recollected * * *. One square bounded by Pennsylvania Avenue and I and Nineteenth and Twentieth Streets, 10 houses—one 3-story frame, occupied by a Mr. Middleton; one 2-Story frame, owned and occupied by William Waters, Esq., and the Seven Buildings, brick, 3 stories high.

Samuel C. Busey, in his Pictures of the City of Washington in the Past (1898), refers to and confirms Hines’s statements as to these two sets of buildings, and adds that in the Six Buildings was located O’Neal’s famous hotel. All writers apparently agree that the first home of the Department of State in Washington was in the house on the northwest corner of Pennsylvania Avenue and Nineteenth Street. This row of buildings—Nos. 1901-1913 Pennsylvania Avenue—is still standing, though it has undergone considerable change.

From the early part of 1820 to November, 1866, the Department of State was located at the corner of Fifteenth Street and Pennsylvania Avenue NW., in what was known as the Executive Building. The picture shown below was given to William McNeir, chief of the division of accounts of that department, by Thomas Ridgate, who found it in the attic of the old building. It will be noted from the picture, which shows the Treasury Department Building columns at the extreme left, that it was taken before the building was razed to make room for the north wing of the present Treasury Department Building; the rest of the new building had at that time been erected. Of this building Jonathan Eliot states, in his Historical Sketches of the Ten Mile Square, describing Washington in 1830:

At the distance of about 200 yards, on the east of the President’s house, are situated two buildings for the Department of State and of the Treasury; and at the same distance on the west are two others for the War and Navy Departments. These buildings are all of the same dimensions and construction; they are 160 feet long and 55 feet wide, of brick, two stories in height; they are divided in their length by a broad passage, with rooms on each side, and a spacious staircase in the center. The two most northerly buildings are ornamented with an Ionic portico of six columns and pediment. The grounds about these offices have been graduated and planted of late years, and the shrubbery begins to present a pleasing appearance.

EXECUTIVE BUILDING, 1820-1866

W. K. Force, in his Picture of Washington for 1850, said, speaking of the northeast Executive Building:

The first floor is occupied by the Fifth Auditor of the Treasury at the east end, and the Second Comptroller of the Treasury at the west end. On the second floor are the apartments of the Secretary of State and his suite; also the library of the department, containing some ten or twelve thousand volumes.

John Quincy Adams was Secretary of State when the move to this new home was made, and thereafter followed a long list of distinguished Secretaries, the last to occupy this building being William H. Seward, from 1861 to 1869.

The north wing of the present Treasury Department Building bears on its exterior wall on Fifteenth Street a tablet, erected April 30, 1929, by the Kiwanis Club of Washington, in cooperation with the Committee on Marking Points of Historic Interest, which contains the following inscription:

FRIENDSHIP BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA WAS DEVELOPED AND STRENGTHENED BY THE SIGNING OF THE WEBSTER-ASHBURTON TREATY, ON AUGUST 9, 1842, IN THE OLD STATE DEPARTMENT BUILDING WHICH STOOD ON THIS SITE. THIS TREATY ESTABLISHED THE NORTHEASTERN BOUNDARY BETWEEN THE TWO COUNTRIES.

On March 3, 1871, Congress appropriated half a million dollars to start work on the State, War, and Navy Departments Building. The act provided:

For the construction under the direction of the Secretary of State, on the southern portion of the premises now occupied by the War and Navy Departments, of a building which will form the south wing of a building that, when completed, will be similar in ground plan and dimensions to the Treasury Building and provide accommodations for the State, War, and Navy Departments.

The original plans were drawn by Thomas U. Walter, a noted Philadelphia architect, who designed the Dome of the Capitol and the completed Treasury Building, but A. B. Mullett, Supervising Architect of the Treasury, undertook the work, and finally only the interior conformed to the original plans.

The building was erected in five different sections. The south wing was commenced in 1871 and completed in time for the Department of State to move in July 1, 1875. The east wing was commenced in 1872 and completed seven years later, so that on April 16, 1879, the War and Navy Departments moved into that wing. The old War Department Building, which had occupied the site of the north wing of the present building, was demolished in 1879, and the new building or north wing was completed three years later, the War Department moving into it in December, 1882. The west and center wings were the last to be erected, work on them commencing March 31, 1883, and being completed January 31, 1888. For a long time each wing was necessarily separated by a solid wall—and later by an iron grill, or gates in the corridors—but finally these disappeared, and the beauty of the long corridors as they now are appeared. The total cost of the whole building was slightly more than $10,000,000, and appropriations therefor spread over a period of 17 years. Separate permanent buildings for the War and the Navy Departments are now to be erected, these two departments being housed at present largely in temporary buildings. The Department of State alone remains in the building.

In 1910 a building for the Department of State was recommended for a site along Fifteenth Street, south of Pennsylvania Avenue, where now the Department of Commerce has been built. In 1917 it was recommended that a Department of State Building be erected on the west side of Lafayette Square.

In the new Federal building program Congress has provided that the present State, War, and Navy Building be remodeled to conform in design to the Treasury Department Building, and to be known as the Department of State Building. The building will thus properly balance the White House. Congress made a fund of $3,000,000 available for this work. The Secretary of the Treasury appointed Waddy Wood, architect of Washington, to prepare the design, which has been approved by the Commission of Fine Arts. However, the project has been held in abeyance.

The Department of State was created as the first department of the Government in 1789, in order to help the President in carrying on our foreign relations. However, in the early years of our country the Department of State not only had charge of foreign affairs, but, as Thomas Jefferson, the first Secretary of State, once wrote, it also had charge of all important matters of domestic government as well, except matters of war and finance. In the early days the Secretary of State even managed the mint. Until 1849 he had charge of the Patent Office, until 1859 handled all copyright matters, and until 1850 the census of the United States was taken under his direction. Before the Civil War, United States judges, marshals, and attorneys all received their instructions from the Department of State, but in 1870 a new Department of Justice was established to take care of these matters, and little by little much of the domestic work was taken from this department and put under new departments, such as the Department of the Interior, the Department of Labor, and the Department of Commerce. Therefore, to-day the Department of State devotes most of its time to handling foreign affairs, although it is still the custodian, or the keeper, of the great seal, the official seal of the Government of the United States. When Congress passes new laws the original copies are kept in this department, and when there is any correspondence between the various States of the Union and the Federal Government it is carried on through the Department of State.

The Secretary of State has a force of some 950 people in the department in Washington, and about 3,800 people scattered over all the world in the Foreign Service of the United States. The department in Washington is divided into 35 divisions and offices, each with its special work to perform. Six divisions have charge of matters pertaining to foreign countries—South and Central America; the Far East, as China, Japan, and Siam; the division of Western European affairs; Eastern European affairs; a division of the Near East; and the Mexican division.

One of the largest offices in the department is the passport division, which issues passports to American citizens traveling in foreign countries. Last year 134,737 Americans obtained passports so that they might travel abroad, the fees for which amounted to nearly $1,500,000, almost enough to pay the entire expenses of the Department of State.

DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY BUILDING

When foreigners wish to come to this country they must first go to one of our American consuls to obtain a visa or a permit. The immigration of foreigners into this country is now restricted by law. Therefore our consuls examine the foreigners abroad, so that they may know before starting on their journey whether they will be allowed to remain in this country. The visa division of the Department of State has charge of that work.

Whenever there are expositions or meetings of various kinds abroad, and it is decided that the United States Government shall take part in them, such participation has to be arranged through another of the divisions of the Department of State. As many as 150 cables are sent every day to all parts of the world, which are taken care of in the department’s telegraph office. In many foreign countries our Government is now buying and constructing its own buildings for our ambassadors and consuls, and one of the offices in the department attends to these matters.

The Secretary of State is assisted in the direction of all these officers and offices by an Under Secretary of State, four Assistant Secretaries of State, and a legal adviser. The United States has an ambassador or minister in 54 different countries of the world. There are 314 foreign commercial cities where the United States has a consul general, consul, vice consul, or consular agent, who, among other duties, help steamship lines and great business establishments to promote commerce with the United States. Our consuls protect and assist the hundreds of American missionaries whose stations are in remote foreign regions of the world. In addition to their many duties they help thousands of visitors during trips abroad who seek advice. And when an American is visiting in a foreign land, even though scenery and ruins that recall civilizations of past ages give him pleasure, there is nothing that gives him more joy than to see in such places the Stars and Stripes waving over a United States consulate.