got paid good money to turn those clean, classic lines into a monstrosity.

This was the long-waited for replacement of the temporary offices located half a block away at 1435 K street. Congress first authorized construction of new offices for the Department of Justice in 1889. After sixteen years of inaction on this project it was eventually built amazingly quickly once a site was finally chosen.

The Federal Housing Administration took occupancy in 1934. Sold in 1953 to GEICO, the Government Employees Insurance Co. moved in in 1956. GEICO moved out in 1967. Not sure when the structure was razed/refaced to make way for current building

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Washington Post, Dec 17, 1916

Built In Record Time

New Home Ready for Department of Justice January 1.

Receiving the finishing touches now, the Department of Justice building, at the corner of Fifteenth and Vermont avenue, will be ready to turn over to its future occupants before January 1, having been completed in the record time of five months from the pouring of the first concrete.

It is eight stories in height, each story being laid out for the convenience of one of the six divisions of the department, with one floor for the Attorney General, and his immediate staff, and another for the very extensive department library.

It is built entirely of reinforced concrete, with two-story facade of limestone, and the balance faced with hytex brick trimmed with stone. The floors are steel beams and concrete, the whole completely fireproof. It is equipped with smokeless boilers, [central] vacuum cleaners, and running refrigerated water, and is finished in mahogany throughout. Three elevators give service from basement to roof.

The building was started July 27 under penalty of $500 a day for overtime in delivery after January 1, has been pushed to completion under the personal supervision of Harry Wardman, who at times has had over 600 men at work on day and night shifts.

Great difficulties had to be overcome in obtaining the necessary material, owing to the existing car shortage and the demands made upon the steel companies by munitions manufacturers and for railroad and structural material by warring nations of Europe. The investment is reported at approximately $600,000, and the lease to the government is at $26,000 per year for five years from July 1, 1917.

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First, I have to say I just discovered Shorpy's and it's absolutely marvelous! I could - and will - spend days looking through it.

In the Department of Justice shot, the odd skewing of the windows would indicate that the photographer has used the tilting front of the view camera to make sure the external edges of the buildings are vertical, which they are. Not all lenses had enough coverage to allow you to do this to any great extent, and the result was a darkening of the upper corners ("vignetting"), which has happened here. For the next 92 years, photographers often darkened the upper corners during printing. Sometimes it did a nice job of framing a print, but it's interesting to speculate how often they were imitating the older shots.

The same thing happened in landscapes - the slow glass plates meant slow shutter speeds, which turned waterfalls and rapids into a misty vapor. To this day landscape photographers duplicate that effect, even though it doesn't look anything like moving water.

I like Vermont Avenue better in 1917 than the way it is today. Looking at Google Street View, the DOJ building is still there, but improved into something ugly, and the lovely old buildings behind it are gone, replaced by sterile blah. Oh, 1917, where are you?!