Eisenhower Executive Office Building

The Eisenhower Executive Office Building (abbreviation: EEOB; formerly known as the Old Executive Office Building, abbreviation OEOB) is an office building in Washington, D.C. It is located adjacent to the White House and is part of the White House Complex.

The building is owned by the General Services Administration, the White House Administration and the Executive Office of the President. It is located on 17th Street NW, between Pennsylvania Avenue and New York Avenue, West Executive Drive. The building is a National Historic Landmark.

According to the National Register of Historic Places, the building - originally the State, War, and Navy Building because it housed the State, War, and Navy Departments - was constructed between 1871 and 1888 in the French Second Empire style. It was designed by Alfred B. Mullet.

Much of the interior was designed by Richard von Ezdorf with structural and decorative elements of fireproof cast iron, including the massive skylights over each of the grand staircases and the door knobs with cast emblems marking the divisions of the three departments (State, Navy, War). The building's original tenants quickly moved out of the building and eventually the building was vacant in the late 1930s. The building was nearly demolished in 1957. In 1981, there were plans to restore the ministerial quarters. The headquarters of the Secretary of the Navy was restored in 1987 and is now the official residence of the Vice President of the United States. Several studies were conducted to modernize the building but were not implemented. Shortly after September 11, 2001, the 17th Street portion of the building was vacant and plans to modernize this section of the building were implemented. The building continues to house various agencies under the Executive Office of the President of the United States, such as the Office of the Vice President, the Office of Management and Budget, and the National Security Council. The building is primarily used by the Office of the Vice President, which uses the building for special events and press conferences.

Many famous people of the United States have participated in historic events within the granite walls of the Old Executive Office Building. Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Lyndon B. Johnson, Gerald Ford, and George H. W. Bush all had offices in this building before becoming president. It housed 16 Secretaries of the Navy, 21 Secretaries of War, and 24 Secretaries of State. Japanese emissaries met here with Secretary of State Cordell Hull after the attack on Pearl Harbor. President Herbert Hoover used the Navy Department rooms for several months after a fire in the Oval Office on Christmas Eve 1929. Dwight D. Eisenhower held the first televised press conference in the Indian Treaty Room in January 1955, and Richard Nixon had a private office here during his presidency. Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson was the first in a line of vice presidents who have offices in the building to this day.

On December 19, 2007, a fire damaged an office of the Vice President's staff as well as his official residence. According to a media report, the office of the Vice President's political director, Amy Whitelaw, was severely damaged by the fire.

For Mark Twain, the building was "the ugliest [...] in America". Harry Truman called it "the greatest monstrosity in America".