By Christina B. Farnsworth
Photos courtesy of the Executive Office of the President, Office of Administration, Preservation Office

Historic interior photo taken prior to World War II. By this time, the interiors had been painted white. Now restored to their original color scheme, many columns are a soft lavender color with robin's egg blue walls.

Of the hundreds of buildings architect Alfred B. Mullet designed, Washington D.C.'s old Executive Office Building is one of only 16 still standing — and it narrowly missed the kiss of the wrecking ball. Sited literally west of the West Wing at Pennsylvania Avenue and 17th Street, it suggests the world's greatest gingerbread house, although it's constructed with solid stone.

A "short-lived national craze" for the French Second Empire style of architecture sparked by well-to-do 19th-century Americans returning from European "grand tours" resulted in the building's design, said Lonnie J. Hovey, AIA, director of preservation and the man in charge of the first of a series of three, two-year projects to restore the building to its original exuberance. He compared the craze to the wildly popular harvest gold and avocado green appliances of the 1970s. And, as with all trends, Hovey said, it was really hot and then really, really not.

In the 1950s, an Eisenhower-appointed commission recommended demolition, calling the building a "soiled Second Empire elephant." As of May 7, 2002, it officially became the Eisenhower Executive Office Building (EEOB).

President Ulysses S. Grant commissioned the EEOB. Hovey said it was the most technologically advanced building of its era and the largest building in Washington, D.C. It originally boasted 553 rooms and nearly two miles of corridors.

Historic interior photo taken prior to World War II. By this time, the interiors had been painted white. Now restored to their original color scheme, many columns are a soft lavender color with robin's egg blue walls.

Mullet designed the building in 1870. The enormous edifice was Grant's effort to consolidate the Departments of State, War and Navy, all of which had outgrown their original buildings and occupied multiple buildings across Washington, D.C. The four phases of construction finally ended in 1888. It took 17 years partly because the demolition of existing buildings was phased so that government agencies stayed in existing buildings near the White House. Then as now, the District of Columbia is built up enough that most building projects involve some level of tear down or gutting. The building cost a little more than $10 million — approximately $220 million in today's dollars — but came in under budget.

The EEOB is also a compendium of early adoption: the first hydraulic lift elevator in a U.S. government building and the first refrigerator plant to make ice. The first televised press conference took place in the building — President Dwight D. Eisenhower in room 474 on Jan. 19, 1955. Over the years, the EEOB regularly incorporated new technologies, including indoor plumbing, electric lighting, and telephone and telegraph lines. It also had an advanced ventilation system circulating cool air from the depths of the basement throughout the building. The system was a luxury in the pre-air-conditioning era.

At 662,598 gross square feet, the EEOB consumed more marble than any single Vermont quarry could provide, Hovey said. At the time, glorious marble flooring was an executive perk on par with this era's corner office. Acres of the best and most beautiful marble paved the prestigious second and third floors.

The marble was softer than the New York limestone. As the marble wore down, the black limestone chipped along its edges. Renovation covered those original stone floors with black and white vinyl tile. Hovey has supervised the restoration of the floors to their original glory.

Culled marble was used on the lower floors, and the ground floor received the lowest grade. The current renovation is restoring and replacing the worn flooring buried beneath the vinyl of a previous remodeling. A stickler for historical detail, Hovey is adamant that the new marble tiles accurately reproduce the original flooring pattern's checkerboard of marble and New York State black limestone. The marble wore more quickly than the limestone, leaving raised limestone edges sporting irregular chips, which is why the floors were probably re-covered in vinyl tile.

Marble and limestone weren't the only natural stones used. The huge building's entire exterior is granite; granite from Fox Islands, Maine, forms the courtyard, basement and ground-floor exterior walls, while granite from Richmond, Va., forms the exterior walls of floors one through five.

Granite was also chosen for the eight, cantilevered staircases in the building — high-tech for their era. The original elliptical designs required costly hand fabrication and cutting. Switching to circular staircases allowed mechanical cutting of standardized treads, which was much faster and less expensive.

In an interesting technology twist, the building featured both coal-burning and wood-burning fireplaces with a variety of marble and wood mantles. The office of the Secretary of the Navy contained both a coal- and wood-burning fireplace. Chairs were placed around the more sociable wood-burning fireplace; the coal burners were strictly utilitarian appliances.

The newly restored black limestone and white marble floor tiles.

Hovey said his job "involves preserving the architectural integrity and the historic character of the buildings used by the EOP (executive office properties) staff while making them work to meet current needs." His work also includes minimizing damage and non-reversible alterations to the buildings.

EEOB "has lots of hidden history" that he uncovers all the time. Hovey and crew did not find a rumored golden commode or fancy Italian tile, but they did find the original 1888 Secretary of War bathroom with English Minton tile when they peeled back plywood that covered the walls for 50 years. (Hovey encouraged readers to check out the "Recent Discoveries" section of the EEOB website at www.whitehouse.gov/history/eeobtour.)

The first phase of the three-part restoration should be completed by the end of 2006. The second and third phases will also be completed in two-year phases. Expected completion is 2010, giving the building a fresh start in a new century.

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