The Eisenhower Executive Office Building (previously the old Executive Office Building // State, War, and Navy Departments Building), on the west side of the White House, and part of the surrounding White House and presidential / executive branch offices complex around Lafayette Square, in northwest Washington, D.C.. It was recently renamed in 1999 (rededicated 2002), to commemorate 34th President and U.S. Army commanding general Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969). It replaced two earlier smaller War and Navy Departments office buildings on the site across from the then Executive Mansion, from 1800 / 1817. It was designed by Alfred B. Mullett (1834–1890), and built beginning in 1871 during the 18th President Ulysses S. Grant administration and continuing for 17 more years, through four more presidents to the first administration of 22nd & 24th President Grover Cleveland in 1888. It initially served from that year in the 1880s for 54 years to 1942, as the State, War and Navy Departments Building, before the construction of The Pentagon, across the Potomac River in Arlington County, in northern Virginia, during the beginning of World War II, when the two old military departments in the President's Cabinet relocated. The State Department moved to its current headquarters in the Harry S. Truman Building in the nearby Foggy Bottom neighborhood of Washington in 1941. Nicknamed "Old State. War and Navy", it is one of the most famous, prominent and largest examples of Second Empire architecture in the United States and the world.
Second Empire architecture in the United States and Canada is an architectural style that was popular in both nations in the late 19th century between 1865 and 1900. Second Empire architecture was influenced by the redevelopment in the mid-19th century of ancient Paris, the capital city of France, under former President of the French Republic (1848–1852), and later Emperor Napoleon III's Second French Empire (1852–1870), and was influenced partly by the architectural styles of the earlier French Renaissance (15th to 17th centuries).
Second Empire architecture is typically characterized by a mansard roof, elaborate ornament, and a strong massing. It was common in public buildings, commercial buildings, and something residential structures.
