Liberty Loan Building

When the United States entered the First World War in 1917, the surge of war-related government workers into the District of Columbia created a critical shortage of office space. To remedy this, the government rapidly constructed a number of temporary office buildings - some wood, others reinforced concrete - in locations including the middle of the National Mall and along the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. The demand for office space was such that many of these “tempos” lasted years and even decades after the Armistice, but one by one they met their fate until only one remains today: the Liberty Loan Building. Officially constructed starting in 1918 as a temporary war measure to house the Liberty Loan program, the “Liberty Loan Temporary Building” was immediately overcrowded with 1,800 workers instead of the 1,200 it was designed for. It had been deliberately built strong in case expansion was necessary, and in 1928 this came to pass, with two additional stories constructed and the word “temporary” dropped from the official name of the building. When 14th Street was bridged over Maine Ave, Liberty Loan very nearly became temporary once again. In order to construct a necessary cloverleaf on-ramp for the bridge, highway engineers wanted to demolish the south wing of the structure, but the Treasury was still starved for office space and refused to give up the building without a fight. In the end, a compromise was struck and in 1952 the on-ramp was bored directly through the building. Though originally designated temporary, the Liberty Loan building has proved permanent enough to survive the Armistice, a highway, and a century of DC history.