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UNITED STATES SENATE

THE RUSSELL SENATE OFFICE BUILDING

[image: A close-up view of the corner of the Russell Building]

THE RUSSELL SENATE OFFICE BUILDING

The First Senate Office Building

As the twentieth century began, an increased workload caused the Senate to outgrow its traditional quarters within the U.S. Capitol. Office space in the Senate wing and Capitol terraces went entirely to committees and support staff. Senators who did not chair committees had to rent their own office space or work out of the Maltby Building, a converted apartment house near the Capitol. In 1903 Congress authorized construction of an official office building for the House of Representatives—now known as the Cannon House Office Building—and the following year authorized a similar building for the Senate, today known as the Russell Senate Office Building. The Russell Building occupies the block bounded by Constitution and Delaware avenues, and First and C streets, N.E., diagonally across the Capitol plaza from the Senate wing.

[image: The laying of the cornerstone for the Russell Senate Office Building on July 3I, 1906]
[image: Exterior view of the Russell Building]

A Classical Design

Both the Senate and House office buildings were designed by the office of Architect of the Capitol Elliott Woods, under the direction of the Senate Office Building Commission. The consulting architects were John Carrère and Thomas Hastings, whose New York firm specialized in buildings in the Beaux Arts school of design, based on classical sources and employing rich decoration. Carrère supervised construction of the Senate building, while Hastings oversaw the nearly identical House building. Since the Senate had fewer members than the House, the Senate Office Building was originally only three sided, with an open courtyard facing First Street. The fourth side was completed in 1933.

To conform to the scale of the Capitol, the Senate Office Building rises only three stories above ground on its Constitution Avenue side. Due to the steep slope of its side streets, it is five stories above ground facing C Street. The architects similarly kept the design of the office building simple, to avoid any detraction from the Capitol. The exterior of the building is lined with a colonnade of Doric columns and faced with white marble and limestone. The new office building was equipped with all of the modern conveniences of its era, including a forced-air ventilation system, steam heat, electricity, telephones, elevators, and a post office and telegraph office.

A Functional Building

The cornerstone of the first Senate Office Building was laid without fanfare on July 31, 1906, and the building admitted its first occupants on March 5, 1909. Originally, each senator received a suite of two rooms, one for the senator and the other for the senator's personal staff—a secretary and a messenger. Each senator's office contained a fireplace and a large window that faced onto the street or the inner courtyard. The vice president also occupied a small suite of rooms. Most of the committees moved to the office building, and a spacious chamber on the third floor—the Senate Caucus Room—was set aside for party meetings and larger public hearings. The Caucus Room soon became the site of some dramatic Senate investigations, including the hearings on the sinking of the Titanic in 1912, the Teapot Dome investigation in 1923, the Army-McCarthy hearings in 1954, and the Watergate investigation in 1973. The Senate Office Building also provided a dining room for senators and staff on the second floor, at the current location of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee.

[image: The ornate Senate Caucus Room in the Russell Building]

At the building's southwest entrance, closest to the Capitol, is a three-story rotunda surrounded by Corinthian columns and topped by a coffered dome. Twin marble staircases lead from the rotunda floor to the Caucus Room.

Since senators needed to travel frequently between their offices and committee rooms and the Senate floor, a tunnel connected the office building to the Capitol Building. Initially, small electric buses shuttled people through the tunnel. In 1912 the first electric monorail subway was installed. In 1960 a new tunnel was constructed and the current subway began operating.

Honoring Senator Richard B. Russell

The growth of the Senate staff following the Second World War put considerable strain on the Senate Office Building. Temporary partitions created office space at the ends of corridors, and some staff worked out of closets, bathrooms and basement storage areas. To relieve these crowded conditions, a New Senate Office Building opened in 1958, after
which the original building became commonly known as the "Old Senate Office Building."

In 1972 the Senate named the Old Senate Office Building after Senator Richard Brevard Russell, Jr., a Democrat from Georgia who had served from 1933 to 1971. Respected as a "senator's senator," Russell had chaired the Senate Armed Services Committee and the Appropriations Committee, and served as president pro tempore. A statue of Senator Russell stands in the Russell Building rotunda.

[image: An aerial view of the Russell Building after completion of the fourth side overlooking First Street, N.E.]
[image: Senator Richard B. Russell, Jr.]

With the addition of a third Senate office building in 1982, suites in the Russell Building could be combined to accommodate the increased staff of individual senators. Modern suites string together what had once been several separate offices, and the rooms have been renumbered accordingly. Today 36 senators and 7 committees occupy space in the Russell Building, which in 1958 housed 96 senators and 10 committees.

Among the senators who had offices in the Russell Building were five who went on to serve as President of the United States: Warren G. Harding, Harry S. Truman, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, and Richard M. Nixon. Kennedy announced his presidential candidacy in the Russell Caucus Room.

The Russell Building also became familiar to moviegoers as the setting for such classic Holly-wood films as Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) and Advise and Consent (1962).

Everett McKinley Dirksen Senate Office Building

Shortly after World War II the Senate acquired land for a new office building, but construction did not begin until 1956. The New Senate Office Building was first occupied in 1958. It specifically provided office space for committees, and its hearing rooms were equipped for television cameras. In 1972 the Senate named the building for former Republican Minority Leader Everett M. Dirksen of Illinois.

Philip A. Hart Senate Office Building

Expansion of the staff in the 1970s required construction of a third office building, which was named in 1976 for Senator Philip A. Hart, a Michigan Democrat with a reputation as the "Conscience of the Senate." First occupied in November 1982, the Hart Building is the largest of the three Senate office buildings. The center-piece of the Hart atrium is Alexander Calder's monumental mobile-stabile, Mountains and Clouds, installed in 1986.

Photo of Senator Russell courtesy the Richard B. Russell Library for Political Research and Studies; other photos from the Senate Historical Office

Prepared under the direction of the Secretary of the Senate by the Senate Historical Office

S. Pub. 109—1

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