FBI Headquarters

FBI Headquarters Building, Washington, D.C., March 2012

Carol M. Highsmith, Photographer. Library of Congress

Quick Facts

Location:

935 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington, D.C. 20535

Significance:

Headquarters of the Federal Bureau of Investigation

Designation:

Located along Pennsylvania Avenue National Historic Site

MANAGED BY:

Federal Bureau of Investigation

Amenities

1 listed

Public Transit

From "History of FBI Headquarters" 

"From its inception in 1908 until 1975, the main offices of the FBI were housed in the Department of Justice building. The first request for a separate FBI building occurred in 1939. Although the Public Buildings Agency initiated plans for an FBI building in 1941, America’s entry into World War II required postponing all government building projects. The next serious request to Congress for a separate building was not made until 1961...

 

On October 7, 1964, the National Capital Planning Commission approved the major design concept with its security modifications. The approved plan consisted of 2,800,876 square feet of space for 7,090 employees. Height limits of 107 feet (seven stories) along Pennsylvania Avenue and 160 feet (eleven stories) along E Street conformed to the Pennsylvania Avenue Advisory Council and District of Columbia requirements.

For reasons of economy, the approving agencies insisted upon poured concrete as the major outside building material. The concrete used for the FBI building contained an aggregate of crushed dolomite limestone, a unique composition. While contrasting with the traditional marble, granite, or limestone government buildings, it echoed a major architectural style of the 1960s. The concrete was poured into reusable steel forms separated by metal ties. The ties remained in the concrete when the molds were removed. This technique produced an architectural feature of evenly spaced holes throughout the exterior....

The first FBI employees moved into the new building June 28, 1974. At that time, FBI Headquarters offices were housed in nine separate locations. By May 30, 1975, the Director, the associate director, and several divisions had moved in. Thirty-eight years after the first proposal for a separate FBI building and 15 years after Congress approved construction on the Pennsylvania Avenue site, the last employees moved into the building in June 1977.

The building received its official name, the J. Edgar Hoover F.B.I. Building, through Public Law, 92-520, which President Richard Nixon signed May 4, 1972, two days after Director Hoover’s death. President Gerald Ford dedicated the building on September 30, 1975."
For information on visiting the FBI Headquarters, visit "The FBI Experience"