The classically inspired European styles of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago influenced the plan and design of Federal Triangle buildings. Columbia University
Senator James McMillan chaired the Senate Park Commission.
Improvements to the “Division” started soon after the war. A massive, red-brick Center Market replaced rickety shops and stalls on Pennsylvania Avenue between Seventh and Ninth Streets. The canal was filled and paved over. Construction of the massive (Old) Post Office Building between 11th and 12th Streets further upgraded the area. Yet overall progress was piecemeal.
Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon with a model of the Federal Triangle project, around 1929.
When the United States won the Spanish- American War in 1898, national leaders expressed concern that their capital city did not reflect America’s growing importance in the world. In 1900, to commemorate the centennial of the federal government’s arrival in Washington,
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