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The next part of the tour begins at 15th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue S. To get there, walk east along Pennsylvania Avenue, past Blair House and between Lafayette Park and the White House. Lafayette Park has a number of bronze statues that have been cleaned fairly recently. The White House is built of sandstone that was painted white; the paint was used in part to improve the durability of the stone. After you pass the White House, you will come to the Treasury Building. Turn right onto 15th Street and walk south, towards the Washington Monument and the Mall. The total distance from the Renwick to the comer of 15th and Pennsylvania is about three-fourths of a kilometer (half a mile).

Federal Triangle Buildings -- Site 13

On the east side of 15th Street, beginning at E Street, is the Commerce Department building, which was constructed of limestone in the 1930's. This building is part of the Federal Triangle, a cluster of Federal office buildings in the area bounded by Pennsylvania Avenue, Constitution Avenue, and 15th Street, built primarily during the New Deal administration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Some sculptures on the buildings were done by participants in the WPA program. These buildings were cleaned in the 1960's, probably by sandblasting. Look for fossils in relief and alteration crusts in some sheltered places on the carved work. Some of the blackening on this building is from dirt and organic material trapped or growing in the rough surface of the stone.

Federal Triangle

All of the Federal buildings that form the Federal Triangle (between Pennsylvania Avenue, Constitution Avenue, and 15th Street) are made of limestone.

sites 9-14
Sites 9-14

Map of All Sites on the Tour [102 K image]

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Last modified 07.21.97