Main Navy and Munitions Buildings

Main Navy and Munitions Buildings
United States
Main Navy Building (foreground) and the Munitions Building were temporary structures built during World War I on the National Mall
Coordinates	38°53′28.8″N 77°2′36.5″W / 38.891333°N 77.043472°W / 38.891333; -77.043472
Site information
Owner	United States Navy
Condition	Demolished and became Constitution Gardens
Site history
Built	1918
Demolished	1970

The Main Navy and Munitions Buildings were constructed in 1918 along Constitution Avenue (then known as B Street) on Washington, D.C.'s National Mall (Potomac Park) as the largest of a set of temporary war buildings on the National Mall. Both buildings were constructed by the Navy's Bureau of Yards and Docks, with the United States Department of War occupying the Munitions Building. To make the buildings more resistant to fire, the buildings were constructed using concrete. With solid construction, the temporary buildings remained used long after the end of World War I.

In August 1939, the Secretary of War relocated his offices from the overcrowded State-War-Navy Building (Old Executive Office Building) to the Munitions Building. The Department of War headquarters remained in the Munitions Building through the early years of World War II until 1942, when some space became available in the Pentagon, which was under construction. The Munitions Building was turned over to the Navy in 1943 when the Department of War vacated the Munitions Building once construction of the Pentagon was completed.

Both buildings suffered severe structural problems in the 1960s. In December 1969, President Richard Nixon announced that both buildings would be demolished, a plan carried out in 1970. The land was then reclaimed and turned into Constitution Gardens, with the Vietnam Veterans Memorial built near the former Munitions Building site in the early 1980s.