Funkstown: Foggy Bottom’s OAS Building – The House of the Americas

By Frank Leone

The Organization of American States building is one of Foggy Bottom’s (and  D.C.’s) most beautiful buildings.  It symbolizes the pioneering international body whose motto is “More Rights for More People.”  It was built in 1910 in a Beaux Arts style, with Latin accents. The building anchors the southwest corner of Foggy Bottom (Constitution Avenue and 17th Street) and marks the start of Foggy Bottom’s Avenue of the Americas (Virginia Ave. NW). It’s a working building, but is open for occasional tours, and we were lucky to join a recent Foggy Bottom West End Village excursion. (There is also an online tour.) Behind the main building you will find the Art Museum of the Americas and gardens with sculptures and busts, both of which are open to the public.

The OAS building front, with three monumental glass and bronze doors and statues of South (left) and North (right) America. (F. Leone, Mar. 2021)

The OAS is the world’s oldest regional cooperative organization, founded in Washington, D.C. in 1890. Today, the OAS brings together 35 independent states of the Americas and constitutes the main political, juridical, and social governmental forum in the Hemisphere. It is based on the pillars of democracy, human rights, security, and development. Like all entities that advance such “soft diplomacy,” it is likely to face challenges under the current administration.

In the early days of Washington, this five-acre property included the Van Ness mansion, which you can read about here. The mansion’s stable house (now “La Casita”), designed by Benjamin Latrobe in 1816, is all that remains of the once grand estate.  

Construction on the building, then known as the Pan American Union, started in 1908, with philanthropist Andrew Carnegie funding ¾ of the $1 million cost.  This was the first major commission in the careers of architects Paul Philippe Cret and Albert P. Kelsey. The building’s architecture, a blending of South American motifs and the then popular Beaux Arts style, was intended to be symbolic of a common understanding of the American Republics. Iconographic sculpture, principally by Gutzon Borglum and Isidore Konti, decorates the building. The interior features a courtyard with tropical trees and fine meeting rooms.

The interior courtyard - In the center of the tiled mosaic floor a pink and white marble fountain by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney carries Aztec, Zapotecan, and Mayan motifs.  (F. Leone, Mar. 2025)

Behind the main building is the “Blue Aztec” garden and (currently empty) reflecting pool, and the Art Museum of the Americas (AMA), which occupies the former Secretary General’s residence (built 1912). The Museum houses one of the world’s leading collections of modern and contemporary art from the Western Hemisphere and is free to the public. (Show your support and become a Friend of the AMA.)

Rear of the Main building from the AMA, showing sloping red tile roof, pool, and gardens.  (F. Leone, Mar. 2025)

Across 18th Street, fronting on Constitution Avenue, is the stately marble OAS Annex (Administration) building (built 1948). The Main building connects to the Annex via an underground hallway that features one of the longest murals in the world (530 feet, almost the size of the nearby Washington Monument (550 feet)). “Roots of Peace,” was painted in 1960 by Uruguayan artist Carlos Páez Vilaró, and symbolizes the guiding principles of the OAS. 

 Sources:  Organization of American States, Who We Are; OAS, House of the Americas building virtual tour; DC Historic Sites, Pan American Union Headquarters Building; Pan American Building National Register Nomination (1969); FBA History Project