For the construction under the direction of the Secretary of State, on the southern portion of the premises now occupied by the War and Navy Departments, of a building which will form the south wing of a building that, when completed, will be similar in ground plan and dimensions to the Treasury Building and provide accommodations for the State, War, and Navy Departments. The original plans were drawn by Thomas U. Walter, a noted Philadelphia architect, who designed the Dome of the Capitol and the completed Treasury Building, but A. B. Mullett, Supervising Architect of the Treasury, undertook the work, and finally only the interior conformed to the original plans. The building was erected in five different sections. The south wing was commenced in 1871 and completed in time for the Department of State to move in July 1, 1875. The east wing was commenced in 1872 and completed seven years later, so that on April 16, 1879, the War and Navy Departments moved into that wing. The old War Department Building, which had occupied the site of the north wing of the present building, was demolished in 1879, and the new building or north wing was completed three years later, the War Department moving into it in December, 1882. The west and center wings were the last to be erected, work on them commencing March 31, 1883, and being completed January 31, 1888. For a long time each wing was necessarily separated by a solid wall--and later by an iron grill, or gates in the corridors--but finally these disappeared, and the beauty of the long corridors as they now are appeared. The total cost of the whole building was slightly more than $10,000,000, and appropriations therefor spread over a period of 17 years. Separate permanent buildings for the War and the Navy Departments are now to be erected, these two departments being housed at present largely in temporary buildings. The Department of State alone remains in the building. In 1910 a building for the Department of State was recommended for a site along Fifteenth Street, south of Pennsylvania Avenue, where now the Department of Commerce has been built. In 1917 it was recommended that a Department of State Building be erected on the west side of Lafayette Square. In the new Federal building program Congress has provided that the present State, War, and Navy Building be remodeled to conform in design to the Treasury Department Building, and to be known as the Department of State Building. The building will thus properly balance the White House. Congress made a fund of $3,000,000 available for this work. The Secretary of the Treasury appointed Waddy Wood, architect of Washington, to prepare the design, which has been approved by the Commission of Fine Arts. However, the project has been held in abeyance.