The Buildings Occupied by the Department of State

Foreign Affairs Managed by Continental Congress

1774-1781

The Continental Congress convened delegates from thirteen colonies of British North America. It served as the provisional government of the United States until ratification of the Articles of Confederation in 1781, when it became the Confederation Congress. Throughout this time Congress played an important role in foreign affairs, beginning with the appointment of the Committee of Secret Correspondence on November 29, 1775, “for the sole purpose of corresponding with our friends in Great Britain, Ireland, and other parts of the world.”¹

Carpenters’ Hall, Philadelphia

September 5, 1774—October 26, 1774

The first meeting of the Continental Congress took place in colonial Philadelphia. The city, the second largest city in the British Empire, had a population of some 40,000 people by 1774, and its thriving port made it an ideal meeting place for Congress.¹ John Adams, a delegate who later became the nation’s second president, recalled: “At ten the delegates all met at the City Tavern, and walked to the Carpenters’ Hall, where they took a view of the room. . . . The general cry was, that this was a good room, and the question was put, whether we were satisfied with this room? and it passed in the affirmative.”²

Pennsylvania State House (Independence Hall), Philadelphia

May 10, 1775—March 1, 1781 (intermittently)

The Second Continental Congress convened at the Pennsylvania State House, or Independence Hall, as it is now called, in Philadelphia. There, on July 4, 1776, the Declaration of Independence was signed, and ever since this site has remained important in national memory. Nearly a century later, Abraham Lincoln, elected the nation’s 16th president, stopped at Independence Hall on his way to his Inauguration and reflected on its history, writing, “I am filled with deep emotion at finding myself standing here, in this place, where were collected together the wisdom, the patriotism, the devotion to principle, from which sprang the institutions under which we live.”¹

Henry Fite’s House (Congress Hall), Baltimore

December 20, 1776—February 27, 1777

Fearing that British troops would advance on Philadelphia, the revolutionary capital, Congress escaped to Baltimore, where delegates found a safe refuge in this small but thriving port city. The old Court House was offered as a meeting place, but, according to the diary of John Adams, a delegate from Massachusetts, Congress chose to meet “in the last house at the west end of Market Street.”¹ The house belonged to Henry Fite, and Congress remained there for more than two months.² A fire destroyed Fite’s House, or Congress Hall, as it was called, in 1860.

Court House, Lancaster

September 27, 1777

In September 1777, as the British advanced toward Philadelphia again, Congress—only recently returned from Baltimore—chose the Court House in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, as its next meeting place. Built in 1739, the Lancaster Court House was an imposing two-story structure, capable of accommodating 800 people. William Marshe, who visited in 1744, described its grand scale: “On the top of the Court House is a kind of cupola. We ascended a ladder and got into it. From hence we had a complete view of the whole town, and the country several miles round, and likewise of part of the Susquehanna river at twelve miles distance.”¹ Congress held only one session in Lancaster, on September 27, 1777, and resolved to adjourn to York, across the Susquehanna River, “there to meet on Tuesday next, at 10 o’clock.”² The Lancaster Court House burned in 1784, and a new Court House was built on the site three years later.

Court House, York

September 30, 1777–June 27, 1778

By crossing the Susquehanna River into York, Pennsylvania, Congress further distanced itself from British military forces. This safety allowed Congress to convene for a longer period, about nine months, but the decisive American victory at the Battle of Saratoga in September and October 1777 marked a turning point in the Revolutionary War. At this time, Congress passed the Articles of Confederation, which established a framework for the U.S. government. The document was sent to the states for ratification.

Pennsylvania State House (Independence Hall), Philadelphia

July 2, 1778—March 1, 1781 (intermittently)

Within days of the British evacuation from Philadelphia in June 1778, Congress resolved to return, but what they found surprised many, including Josiah Bartlett, a delegate from New Hampshire.¹ “Some of the genteel Houses were used for Stables and Holes cut in the Parlor floors & their dung shoveled into the Cellars,” he wrote. Philadelphia had suffered under British occupation, with several miles laid to waste: “Houses burnt, the Fruit Trees & others cut down,” he recorded.² Nevertheless, some congressional members met on July 2, 1778, in Philadelphia, according to the records, but it was not until July 7 that operations returned to normal. Congress extended its working hours, meeting at least two hours each evening to discuss foreign affairs.

13 South Sixth Street, Philadelphia

October 1781—June 1783

Congress established the Department of Foreign Affairs on January 18, 1781, for the purposes of advancing U.S. “political and commercial interests” while also “cultivating a friendly correspondence and connection.”¹ Robert Livingston was appointed the first secretary of state, and soon after taking office, he set up his offices at 13 South Sixth Street, in Philadelphia.² Built in 1773, the three-story brick house was small, just 12 feet across, and even the most important people “clambered up the dark and narrow winding stairs” to meet with the secretary.³ Livingston’s staff, when it was fully organized, consisted of just four people.⁴ The building was later converted to a residence, a shop, and a boardinghouse, before it was torn down in 1846.⁵

Nassau Hall, Princeton, New Jersey

June 30, 1783—November 4, 1783

The American Revolutionary War had been won when in 1783 Congress convened in Nassau Hall in Princeton, New Jersey. Two years earlier, British forces under Lord Cornwallis surrendered to American and French allied forces at Yorktown, Virginia. Since then, Americans had been waiting impatiently for the signing of a peace treaty with Great Britain. As the months passed and the peace negotiations dragged on, some soldiers became restless, weary of the long military service and desperate for back pаy.

State House, Annapolis, Maryland

November 26, 1783—August 19, 1784

On its move to Annapolis, Congress turned its attention to foreign affairs. The first secretary, Robert Livingston, had resigned to accept a position in New York, his home, so the president of Congress became the acting secretary of foreign affairs until December 1784, when John Jay, a peace commissioner who had helped write the treaty ending the Revolutionary War, was able to assume the position.¹ The Maryland State Capitol, or State House, where Congress met, is still standing, although it has been altered and enlarged since that time.² Its history extends back to 1769, when the Colonial Assembly appropriated £7,500 sterling to build a new structure on the site of an earlier State House. Here George Washington resigned as commander in chief of the Continental Army in December 1783 and a month later Congress ratified the Treaty of Paris between the United States and Great Britain, finally ending the American Revolution.

Buildings Occupied by the Department of State

French Arms Tavern, Trenton, New Jersey

November 1, 1784—December 24, 1784

For two months at the end of 1784, Congress met at the French Arms Tavern in Trenton, New Jersey, on the corner of King and Second Streets (today Warren and State). John Jay, a skilled and confident diplomat who had negotiated a peaceful conclusion to the Revolutionary War in the Treaty of Paris, returned from Europe to take up his duties as secretary for foreign affairs in December 1784. He succeeded Robert Livingston, who had resigned 11 months earlier.

Fraunces Tavern, New York City

January 11, 1785–April 30, 1788

After adjourning at the end of December 1784, Congress convened the next month, in January 1785, in New York City, the new seat of government for the United States. John Jay, who had been appointed secretary of state, began working at Fraunces Tavern on Great Dock (Pearl) Street, which Congress had leased from its innkeeper, Samuel Fraunces, in May 1785.¹

First Location on Broadway, New York City

May 1, 1788–October 2, 1788

While still in New York City, the Department of Foreign Affairs moved to another location, but the exact address on Broadway is unknown. Though the building was razed long ago to make way for commercial development, records indicate that the department occupied two rooms, “one of which the Secretary reserves for himself and the Reception of such Persons as may have Business with him, and the other for his Deputy and [two] Clerks.”¹ After five months, the department moved, once again, because Congress had decided to use Jay’s office for its meetings.²

Second Location on Broadway, New York City

October 2, 1788–October 1790

For the next two years, the Department of Foreign Affairs occupied another building on Broadway in New York City. It was an exciting time, as the new U.S. Constitution established a new government composed of three equal branches—the presidency, the Congress, and the Supreme Court. George Washington was elected the first president and took his Oath of Office on April 30, 1789.

307 Market Street, Philadelphia

October 1790–April 1793

The July 1790 Residence Act named Philadelphia as the capital of the United States between 1790 and 1800 and ordered all government offices, which had been in New York City, to move there by December 6, 1790. That autumn, the Department of State transported 21 cartloads of documents by water, in addition to another eight or nine cartloads by land, to its new office space at 307 Market Street.¹ There, in a three-story building that the department had rented, Jefferson and a staff of six people conducted foreign policy during a difficult time, as a revolution in France had overthrown the established order.

287 Market Street, Philadelphia

April 1793–May 1794

By the spring of 1793, the Department of State had leased a larger building, at 287 Market Street, from John Dunwoody, an innkeeper who lived next door.¹ That summer a yellow fever epidemic swept through the city, killing more than 5,000 people. At the time the cause of the disease was unknown and the only remedy seemed to be to leave the city; today the yellow fever is recognized as carried by infected mosquitoes. On September 12 Jefferson wrote, “The fever spreads faster. . . All my clerks have left me but one: so that I cannot go on with business.”² A feud with Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton had already caused Jefferson to resign, and he soon set out for Monticello, his estate in Virginia. Edmund Randolph succeeded to the office of secretary of state in January 1794.

Sixth and Arch Streets, Philadelphia

May 1794–October 1796

Moving preparations were underway again in 1794 when the Philadelphia Gazette announced, “THE OFFICE of the Secretary is moved from High Street, to the New Buildings, the corner of Sixth & Mulberry Streets (Market and Arch).”¹ No description of this building has been found. Following politically motivated accusations, which later proved false, Edmund Randolph resigned as secretary of state leaving the position vacant. In a letter to a friend, Timothy Pickering wrote, “The business of the office could not be suspended and from necessity I have by the President’s direction undertaken the temporary conduct of it.”² The department never had more than eight or nine employees while Pickering was secretary, and he did much of the clerical work himself.³

North Street, Philadelphia

October 29, 1796–August 31, 1797

In 1796 a notice in the Philadelphia Gazette announced, “THE office of the secretary of state of the United States, is removed to the north side of North alley, between Market and Arch, and between Fifth and Sixth streets, third door above Fifth street.”¹ The department remained in this location until the following summer, when another yellow fever epidemic in Philadelphia forced a temporary move to Trenton, New Jersey. When the department returned to Philadelphia, it moved into another building at 13 South Fifth Street.

State House, Trenton, New Jersey

August–November 1797, 1798, 1799

In 1797, 1798, and 1799, Secretary of State Timothy Pickering retreated to Trenton, New Jersey, for several months because of recurring epidemics of yellow fever in Philadelphia that killed tens of thousands of people. Every summer, the department carted its official records to the Philadelphia waterfront, where they were shipped up the Delaware River to Lamberton, a small port town community, and then carted on to Trenton. As winter approached, mosquitoes which carried yellow fever disappeared, making Philadelphia once again safe for the department to return and resume its work. While in Trenton, the department occupied rooms in the New Jersey State House, which was a new building at the time, having been completed in 1794 at a cost of $3,000.¹

13 South Fifth Street, Philadelphia

November 1797–May 1800

In the fall of 1797 a notice in the Philadelphia Gazette announced, “The Office of Secretary of State OF THE UNITED STATES IS removed to No. 13, South Fifth street, near Chestnut street.”¹ It was at this address that Timothy Pickering became the first secretary of state to be fired. Pickering had been appointed by George Washington, and he opposed the new policy direction that John Adams, the nation’s second president, proposed for U.S. relations with France. After Pickering declined to follow the president’s suggestion that he resign, Adams wrote to him: “You are hereby discharged from any further service as Secretary of State.”²

Treasury Department Building, Washington

June 1800–August 1800

The Residence Act had required that on December 1, 1800, the District of Columbia would become the permanent capital city. As the deadline neared, Washington—the city named for the nation’s first president—still looked like a construction site, as the new buildings planned to house the president, Congress, and government offices were not quite finished.¹ Nevertheless, so that public offices could open for business by June 15, 1800, President John Adams ordered that departments begin relocating from Philadelphia to Washington immediately. Government was much smaller then than it is now—just 126 people—but even so the process took one month.² Arriving in Washington, Secretary of the Treasury Oliver Wolcott remarked, “There are few houses in any one place, and most of them small, miserable huts.” “You may look in almost any direction,” he continued, and see only “brick-kilns and temporary huts for laborers.”³

One of the Six Buildings, Washington, D.C.

September 1800–May 1801

After three months in the overcrowded Treasury Department Building, the Department of State moved to Pennsylvania Avenue between 21st and 22nd Streets, where a section of row houses (known as the Six Buildings) once stood.¹ After leasing one of these buildings from Thompson & Veetch, a firm in Alexandria, the Department of State set about transporting 46 cartloads of official records, books, furniture, and models for inventions held by the Patent Office, which was then part of the Department of State.² It would have been a great undertaking, since the department staff was still quite small. James Madison had a staff of only 10, when he entered on his duties as secretary of state on May 2, 1801.³

Public Building West of the White House

May 1801–August 1814

In 1801, great changes were under way in Washington, the nation’s new capital city. Several years earlier, the architect George Hadfield had completed his plans for two new executive office buildings near the White House. The first was occupied by the Treasury Department east of the White House. When the second building was completed, on the west side of the White House, it housed the State, War, and Navy Departments.

House on G Street Near 18th Street

September 1814–March 1816

The British attack on the capital city during the War of 1812 ruined many government buildings. One newspaper reported, “The Public Buildings having been mostly destroyed, the various offices are locating themselves in those private houses which are most commodious and conveniently situated for the purpose.”¹ The Department of State leased a three-story house on G Street, between 17th and 18th Streets Northwest.² It included a kitchen, stable, and carriage house, all made of brick. Although the property changed hands several times, the Department of State continued to lease this house until about April 1816, when Secretary of State James Monroe moved the department back into its reconstructed building.

Rebuilt Public Building West of the White House

April 1816–August 1819

Following the burning of Washington, D.C., during the War of 1812, Congress ordered, “That the President of the United States cause to be repaired or rebuilt forthwith, the President’s House, Capitol and public offices, on their present sites in the city of Washington.”¹ Nearly fourteen months later, the Daily National Intelligencer announced that reconstruction was complete, and these public buildings were greatly improved: “The Department of State . . . has very capacious and excellent apartments, being very much better accommodated as to room and arrangement than heretofore.”²

Northeast Executive Building

August, September 1819–November 1866

The need for more government office space, as reported by Secretary John Quincy Adams, was not unique in the administration. In his annual message to the Congress in 1817, President James Monroe indicated that the public buildings in Washington had become “altogether insufficient for the accommodation of the several Executive Departments.”¹ Afterward Congress approved the construction of two new buildings, designed by architect James Hoban, which were completed in 1819.² One source described them: “at the distance of about 200 yards, on the east of the President’s house, are situated two buildings for the departments of State and of the Treasury; and at the same distance on the West, are two others for the War and Navy departments.”³

Washington City Orphan Asylum

November 1866–July 1875

By 1866, plans were well under way to demolish the Northeast Executive Building, forcing the department to move yet again, this time to leased space in the Orphan Asylum Building. Frederick Seward, the Assistant Secretary of State at the time, later wrote that the move was carried out according to “a judicious plan prevented any lapse from order to chaos.” He wrote, “A single night sufficed. . . . The next morning every official was at his post, and every paper in place.”¹ But others thought the move was not so smooth. A letter written by a clerk on November 14, 1866, two weeks after the move began, stated, “The confusion of removing the Department to a new Building has caused delay.”²

State, War, and Navy Building

July 1875–April 1947

The two fires that had broken out in the building leased by the Department of State convinced President Ulysses S. Grant to propose a new executive office building in his annual message to Congress in December 1870.¹ It would house the State, War, and Navy Departments, and Congress approved the proposal soon afterward.

New State Building

April 1947–present

The outbreak of World War II in 1939 caused a rapid increase in the Department of State’s workforce. Growth of the department continued through the war years. At the end of the war, 7,200 employees were housed in 47 buildings scattered across Washington, D.C.¹ President Harry S Truman proposed a solution. The Department of State would move into “The New War Department,” built in 1941 for the War Department, which had already outgrown its quarters.²

Extended, remodeled New State Building: the Harry S Truman Building

January 5, 1957

Consolidation of the department’s many office buildings continued until 1955, when Congress appropriated funds for the remodeling and an extension to the existing Department of State Building. On January 5, 1957, President Dwight D. Eisenhower joined with Secretary of State John Foster Dulles in laying the cornerstone. Under the supervision of the Public Buildings Service, the addition was completed in 1961 by the architectural firms of Graham, Anderson, Probst & White, Inc., as well as Harley, Ellington & Day, Inc.¹ In this remodeling, the architects had reserved the eighth floor for diplomatic events. Beginning in 1961, the Diplomatic Reception Rooms, as this space was called, were gradually transformed into 18th-century architectural settings that hold a world-class museum collection.²

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