The East or Headquarters Building, facing the Seventeenth Street, dedicated as a memorial to the heroic women of the Civil War and designed by Trowbridge and Livingston of New York, was begun in 1915 and completed in 1917. Largely through the efforts of Miss Mabel T. Boardman, Secretary of the Central Committee and Director of Voluntary Service Activities, $300,000 was appropriated by Congress and $400,000 raised privately for its construction.
A circular drive from Seventeenth Street leads through broad green lawns bordered with boxwood and magnolias to the entrance of the simple neo-classical structure with its Greek Corinthian columns rising two full stories to a massive pediment. The central portico is balanced by two extended colonnade pavilions on the north and south facades.
Bronze grille doors under the portico open into a broad central hall of white marble where a monumental west stairways leads to the assembly hall and committee room on the second floor. On the stair lading are busts personifying Faith, Hope, and Charity, by Hiram Powers. In the building are also a bronze group, Spirit of the Red Cross by Gertrude V. Whitey, a painting by Gentile Bellini, give of the city of Venice, and a collection of water colors by Anna Upjohn. The stained-glass windows of the Georgian-style assembly hall depict St. Filomena, Una of the "Faerie Queene", and the Red Cross Knight, designed by Louis C. Tiffany. Half their cost was borne by the Women's Relief Corps in honor of women of the North, and the other half by the United Daughters of the Confederacy in honor of the women of the South.
The main building, with the exception of the assembly room and executive-committee room, is given over to the offices of the National Headquarters. - Washington, City and Capital, 1937, pg. 352.
The building is much as described in the Guide. The administrative offices have moved a couple blocks away in a new building. The building was listed as a National Historic Landmark in 1965. Tours of the building are offered Wednesdays and Fridays 10:00 a.m, and 2:00 p.m. by reservation only.