The Pentagon: A History

by Steve Vogel

  “By command” Newsweek, 7 Dec. 1942.

  The water spared the Pentagon Journal of Military District of Washington, 17 Oct. 1941, NARA RG 551; Frierson, The Pentagon, 16; photographs of flooding, box 1317, OSD HO; WP, 23 Oct. 1942.

  Our lives depend on that

  From outside, the Pentagon “Pentagon Telephone Conversations—Groves,” Groves and Renshaw, 30 Oct. 1942; Groves memo to Renshaw, 22 Oct. 1941, I, CEHO.

  Much exacting work Ibid.; Life, 21 Dec. 1942; Groves memo to Styer, 9 July 1942, I, CEHO; Matthias, memo to Renshaw, 28 Oct. 1942, I, CEHO; Star, 14 Nov. 1942.

  Groves had been unsure Voorhees, F&R interview, CEHO.

  Inspecting the building, Somervell “Pentagon Telephone Conversations—Groves,” Groves and Renshaw, 26 Aug. 1942.

  The same was true “Pentagon Telephone Conversations—Groves,” Groves and Renshaw, 31 Aug. 1942; “Pentagon Telephone Conversations—Groves,” Renshaw and Matthias, 1 Sept. 1942.

  Most irritating of all French memo to Chief of Engineers, 4 Nov. 1942, I, CEHO; Matthias memo to Renshaw, 6 Oct. 1942, I, CEHO; French memo to Renshaw, 31 Oct. 1942, I, CEHO; French memo to chief of engineers, 4 Nov. 1942; Major C. H. Humeline memo to chief of engineers, 29 Oct. 1942.

  Renshaw appealed for help Renshaw memo to Robins, 4 Nov. 1942, I, CEHO; Robins memo to chief signal officer, 11 Nov. 1942, I, CEHO.

  The first Signal Corps workers George W. Good, Jr., e-mail to author, 9 Jan. 2004; Kelly, “Pentagon Veterans Recall Construction Days.”

  Renshaw roared “Pentagon Telephone Conversations—Groves,” Renshaw and Matthias, 2 Oct. 1942.

  This is the War Department

  The Pentagon had to be WP, 12 Sept. 1941; Frierson, The Pentagon, 15.

  Frank E. Watts Frank E. Watts, “Working in the Pentagon,” 30 July 1994, box 1303, OSD HO; “Largest P.B.X. in the World,” Nov. 1942, I, CEHO.

  Just before midnight WP, 12 Sept. 1941; Clayton, author interview; Jim Fearson, “The Telephone in Northern Virginia from the Beginning to World War II,” monograph; WP, 30 Apr. 1951.

  “It really was the eighth” Marian Bailey, author interview; WP, 26 Mar. 1992; Des Moines Register, 20 Dec. 1992.

  Indeed, the switchboard Military District of Washington memo, 4 Aug. 1942, NARA RG 551.

  The whip

  “Certainly, even the greatest” Groves comments, 115, CEHO.

  Groves had been consumed Norris, Racing for the Bomb, 233–4.

  After writing the letter Groves diary, 29–31 Oct. 1942, entry 7530 G, NARA RG 200; “Pentagon Telephone Conversations—Groves,” Groves and Renshaw, 30 Oct. 1942.

  There were not enough trucks Ibid.; War Department letter to Capital Excavating Co., 14 Nov. 1942, I, CEHO; Capt. F. T. Johnson, memo to Office of Judge Advocate General, 22 Oct. 1941, I, CEHO.

  On October 24 Atkinson, An Army at Dawn, 40.

  The timing of the move War Department press release, 13 July 1942, I, CEHO; WP, 17 Sept. 1942.

  But in Stimson’s own office Helen McShane Bailey, author interview; John Connell, oral history, 1991, box 1311, OSD HO.

  Reporters were appalled Fred Morrison, Radio Correspondents’ Galleries, letter to Stimson, 24 Sept. 1942, I, CEHO; Stimson letter to Clifford A. Provost, National Press Club, 21 Sept. 1942, I, CEHO.

  Carry me back to Old Virginny

  Yet Admiral Ernest King Stimson diary, 31 Oct. 1942.

  The cantankerous Eric Larrabee, Commander in Chief: Franklin Delano Roosevelt, His Lieutenants, and Their War, 155, 193–4; Stimson diary, 31 Oct. 1942.

  Stimson was often dismayed Stimson and Bundy, On Active Service in Peace and War, 194.

  The secretary of war was pleased Stimson diary, 31 Oct. 1942; Larrabee, Commander in Chief, 171.

  Marshall, even more Stimson diary, 31 Oct. 1942; Pogue, Organizer of Victory, 42.

  Open-faced Goodwin, No Ordinary Time, 71; WP, 29 and 30 Apr. 1944.

  Knox responded warmly Stimson diary, 2 Nov. 1942; King letter to Marshall, 26 May 1944, Otto L. Nelson Papers, GCM Lib.

  After their meeting Stimson diary, 2 Nov. 1942; Star, 3 Nov. 1942; Furman, author interview.

  At a press conference Star, 3 and 4 Nov. 1942; WP, 4 Nov. 1942.

  The admirals were less pleased Washington Daily News, 4 Nov, 1942; WP, 6 Nov. 1942.

  Some Navy employees “Pentagon Building, 1941–1944,” vertical files, MLK Lib.

  Carry me back WP, 6 Nov. 1942.

  The real opening of the Pentagon

  The convoys started rolling memo, 31 Oct. 1942, NARA RG 107; memo for commanding general, Military District of Washington, 7 Nov. 1942, NARA RG 107; “Early Occupants’ Introductions,” about Robert Sanders, fiftieth-anniversary preparations, box 1303, OSD HO; Brinkley, Washington Goes to War, 73.

  The invasion of North Africa Stimson diary, 7, 9, 15 Nov. 1942.

  At 4 P.M. Saturday War Department memo, 19 Nov. 1942, NARA RG 407; Pogue, Organizer of Victory, 38.

  Inspecting his new Merrill Pasco, oral history with Pogue, GCM Lib.; author visit, George C. Marshall Museum, Lexington, Va., 6 May 2004; NYT, 3 Oct. 1943; The Papers of George Catlett Marshall, vol. 3, xxix, 439–40.

  Stimson arrived the next day Stimson diary, 16 Nov. 1942; Life, 21 Dec. 1942; Star, 14 Nov. 1942; Isaacson and Thomas, The Wise Men, 192.

  The high command William T. Sexton, undated interview, Forrest C. Pogue Collection, GCM Lib.; Helen McShane Bailey, author interview.

  Those damned admirals

  Stimson was hoping Stimson diary, 19, 20, 24 Nov. 1942; McCloy diary, 12 Nov. 1942; WP, 1 Dec. 1942.

  The press was starting Star, 21 Nov. 1942; Stimson diary, 20 Nov. 1942.

  The beleaguered Renshaw Renshaw memo to Chief of Engineers, 3 Nov. 1942, box 702, NARA RG 77; Renshaw memo to Groves, 20 Nov. 1942, entry 5, box 1, NARA RG 200; Alan Renshaw, author interview; Stimson letter to Roosevelt, 28 Nov. 1942, OF 380, FDR Lib.

  Marshall told Stimson Stimson diary, 24 and 26 Nov. 1942.

  Stimson set to writing Stimson diary, 28 Nov. 1942; Stimson, letter to Roosevelt, 28 Nov. 1942, OF 380, FDR Lib.

  Roosevelt sent his regrets Roosevelt letter to Stimson, 29 Nov. 1942, President’s Secretary’s File: Stimson, FDR Lib.; “Federal Diary,” WP, 2 Dec. 1942.

  Knox announced Star, 1 Dec. 1942; WP, 1 Dec. 1942. Pogue observed that “the Army had revenge of a sort, for the public assumed that all the services were operating from the Pentagon. The building became so identified with the direction of the war that many later writers had difficulty realizing that it was not there from the beginning. As a result occasional subsequent accounts of the attack at Pearl Harbor had officers rushing up and down in confusion in the fabled—and then uncompleted—Pentagon maze.” Pogue, Organizer of Victory, 42.

  The Navy had legitimate telephone transcript, Styer and Adm. Robinson, 14 Dec. 1942, entry 2, Styer, SDF, NARA RG 160; Pogue, Organizer of Victory, 42; Goldberg, The Pentagon, 157.

  Lost perpendicularly and horizontally

  dozens of Army officers WP, 2 and 3 Dec. 1942; Star, 2 Dec. 1942; McCloy diary, 2 Dec. 1942.

  We are in the Pentagon Dorothy Potter Benedict, letter to the editor, WP, 21 Nov. 1942.

  Newspapers reported AP, 17 Oct. 1942; Lauterbach, “The Pentagon Puzzle” “Race Between Claustrophobia and Agoraphobia for Those Pent Up in Washington’s Pentagon,” Newsweek, 15 Feb. 1943.

  “The generals are right” G. Dorrance, letter to the editor, WP, 3 Nov. 1942.

  “Looming across” Life, 21 Dec. 1942.

  Somervell was impervious Brenza, author interview; Somervell letter to van der Gracht, 12 Sept. 1942, series 45.1, White, RG 45, AOC; WP, 3 Nov. 1942.

  Those least impressed Hastie memo to Under Secretary of War, 31 Oct. 1942 Hastie papers, NARA RG 107.

  It was not an isolated Laura Freeman and Constance J. Riley, letter to Hastie, 9 July 1942; investigation of reports of segregation on buses at Pentagon, 12 Nov. 1942; memo to secretary of war, 16 Dec. 1942, all in Hastie papers, NARA RG 107. />
  In January, he would resign NYT, Hastie obituary, 15 Apr. 1976; Hastie, oral history, HST Lib.

  “It is ironic” Dorothy J. Williams, letter to chief of ordnance, August 1943, NARA RG 107.

  The glorious chords of free men singing

  By Christmas Eve War Department press release, 22 Dec. 1942, SDF, NARA RG 160; Stimson diary, 24 Dec. 1942; Gene Gurney, The Pentagon: A Pictorial Story, 11.

  A vast crowd Star, 25 Dec. 1942; Washington Daily News, 25 Dec. 1942; Frierson, The Pentagon, 12; program for Christmas celebration, 24 Dec. 1942, SDF, NARA RG 160; Stimson diary, 24 Dec. 1942.

  Somervell spoke first Somervell remarks, 24 Dec. 1942, entry 18, box 88, SDF, NARA RG 160.

  Stimson was relieved Stimson remarks, 24 Dec. 1942, Henry L. Stimson Papers, Manuscript Division, LOC; Stimson diary, 24 Dec. 1942.

  As darkness approached Program for Christmas celebration, 24 Dec. 1942, SDF, NARA RG 160; Washington Daily News, 25 Dec. 1942.

  CHAPTER 15: HEADQUARTERS FOR THE WAR

  Able and fearless constructors

  The Pentagon was still not “The Pentagon Telephone Conversations—Miscellaneous,” Renshaw and McShain, 4 Feb. 1943; memo to adjutant general, 17 Dec. 1942, SDF, NARA RG 160; Furman, author interview.

  The goal Groves memo to Styer, 1 Jan. 1943, entry 5, box 1, NARA RG 200; field progress report, 31 Mar. 1943, NARA RG 319.

  thousands of employees “Occupancy During Construction of the Pentagon,” undated graph, I, CEHO. The population as of Jan. 15 was 26,086.

  The main holdup checklist of work to be completed, 7 Jan. 1943, I, CEHO; McShain, Doyle, and Paschall, letter to Groves, 14 Jan. 1943, I, CEHO.

  The auditor Bureau of the Budget, “Report Covering Pentagon Building,” 31 Aug. 1942, I, CEHO. It is perhaps more appropriate to consider the building’s opening to be Apr. 30, 1942, when the first employees moved in, or Nov. 14, 1942, when the secretary of war moved in.

  The Pentagon

  In the Pentagon Frierson, The Pentagon, draft, 25, Records of the Office of Chief of Military History, entry 145, NARA RG 319.

  Originally proposed memo to the chief of engineers, 17 Jan. 1944, I, CEHO; Hadden report to Renshaw, 14 Jan. 1944, I, CEHO.

  At a price Goldberg, The Pentagon, 112; “Estimate—Pentagon Building,” 8 Jan. 1943, Records of the Office of Chief of Military History, entry 145, NARA RG 319; Commissioner of Public Buildings, letter to Woodrum, 15 Mar. 1944, entry 145, NARA RG 319; Defense Project Agency audit, 22 Aug. 1942, I, CEHO.

  the Pentagon’s first cost Jacob Weisberg, “Edifice Wrecked,” The New Republic, 1 Apr. 1991.

  Upon its creation Charles E. Brownell, Calder Loth, William M.S. Rasmussen, and Richard Guy Wilson, The Making of Virginia Architecture, 400.

  As time goes on Surles memo about designation of War Department headquarters, 12 Feb. 1943, box 3905, NARA RG 407.

  not everyone Complete Presidential Press Conferences of Franklin D. Roosevelt, vol. 19–20, 11 Dec. 1942, 292; WP, 7 Mar. 1943; Hadden, memo with suggested revisions to “Basic Data on the Pentagon,” 28 Sept. 1943, I, CEHO.

  The miraculous takes a little longer

  At the Casablanca conference Burns, The Soldier of Freedom, 323; Pogue, Organizer of Victory, 23, 31, 182, 209.

  Marshall’s routine Life, 3 Jan. 1944; Russell Lynes letter to Pogue, 8 Mar. 1961, GCM Lib.; Cora Thomas, oral history with Pogue, 1961, GCM Lib.; author visit, Gen. Lib., 6 May 2004; Pogue, Organizer of Victory, 55–61.

  Early on the agenda Handy oral history, GCM Lib.; Pogue, Organizer of Victory, 65–66; NYT, 3 Oct. 43; Life, 3 Jan. 1944.

  Somervell was a frequent Millett, The Army Service Forces, 174; Styer memo to Somervell, 8 May 1942, SDF, NARA 160; Styer memo about move to Pentagon, 30 Sept. 1942, I, CEHO; Murphy, “Somervell of the S.O.S.” Frierson, The Pentagon, 14.

  There was no downtime Newsweek, 7 Dec. 1942; “The S.O.S.” Fortune, Sept. 1942; Murphy, “Somervell of the S.O.S.” Saturday Evening Post, 16 Oct. 1943.

  Attending the Casablanca Eisenhower, Crusade in Europe, 149; Eisenhower address at Pentagon, 10 June 1946, Somervell papers, MHI; Janney, “The Man Behind the Invasion” NYT, 7 Aug. 1943.

  A foretaste of the future

  Just arriving “Pentagon Building,” Architectural Forum, Jan. 1943.

  Most people “A Visit to the Pentagon Building,” Baltimore Evening Sun, 8 March 1943; Frierson, The Pentagon, draft, 13.

  “Here is the picture” “Pentagon Building,” Architectural Forum.

  The terminal “The Army’s Giant ‘Five-by-Five,’” Popular Mechanics; Star, 8 and 9 Nov. 1942; WT-H, 10 Nov. 1942; Frierson, The Pentagon, draft, 13.

  At the top The Pentagon: A Description of the World’s Largest Office Building. 1954, 5, OSD HO; “Pentagon Building,” Architectural Forum; Frierson, The Pentagon, draft, 13; Carl Rose, “My Life in Pentagonia,” New York Times Magazine, 7 May 1944; “The Pentagon,” Witmer papers, 16.

  A reception desk Star, 23 Jan. 1943; Frierson, The Pentagon, 11.

  Once past security Alden P. Armagnac, “Nerve Center of the Fighting Forces,” Popular Science, Feb. 1943; Frierson, The Pentagon, 12–15; Gurney, The Pentagon, 90–92; “Pentagon Building,” Architectural Forum; “The Army’s Giant ‘Five-by-Five,” Popular Mechanics.

  The fifth floor Conference on fifth floor, 16 July 1942, Witmer notebook, OSD HO; National Register of Historic Places Inventory, 4, OSD HO; Goldberg, The Pentagon, 97.

  The first floor Rogner, The Pentagon, 20; “Pentagon Building,” Architectural Forum; Gurney, The Pentagon, 13.

  Most unnatural were the basement Rogner, The Pentagon, 19; Condrell, author interview; Frierson, The Pentagon, 16; Christensen, “Miscellaneous Data Pentagon Building” memo, 7 Oct. 1944, I, CEHO.

  The building’s low setting Benjamin Forgey, “The Pentagon at 40,” WP, 15 Jan. 1983.

  Likewise, from National Register of Historic Places Inventory, 3–6, 20–22, OSD HO; Forgey, “The Pentagon at 40” Federal Architect, Jan.–Apr. 1943.

  None of this “Pentagon Building,” Architectural Forum; “Race Between Claustrophobia and Agoraphobia,” Newsweek; Shalett, “Mammoth Cave, Washington, D.C.”

  David Witmer Witmer planning memorandum, OSD HO.

  “The world’s largest” Frierson, The Pentagon, 5.

  A little chiseling

  The building was completed Maj. Charles Smith memo to Groves about landscaping work, 14 Feb. 1943, I, CEHO; field progress report, 31 Mar. 1943, RG 319; “The Pentagon,” Witmer papers, 7; F&R, The Corps of Engineers, 266; “Basic Data on the Pentagon,” III, 6 NARA RG 160; Groves, “A Few Facts on the Pentagon,” circa 1968, Groves papers, entry 5, box 1, NARA RG 200.

  “The General figures” “Pentagon Telephone Conversations—Groves,” Renshaw and Matthias, 17 Feb. 1943.

  That accounting trick Cong. Rec., 29 Feb. 1944, 2104–05; Time, 22 Feb. 1943.

  Groves responded Groves memo to Renshaw, 9 Apr. 1943, entry 5, box 1, NARA RG 200.

  “almost entirely” Shalett, “Mammoth Cave, Washington, D.C.”

  I prefer not mentioning our fee

  Constructing a building Groves memo, 16 Mar. 1943, entry 5, box 1, NARA RG 200.

  Groves mercilessly Ibid.; “Basic Data on the Pentagon,” IV, 4, NARA RG 160; McShain address to engineers, McShain papers, HML.

  Perhaps to soften WP, 17 Apr. 1943; Star, 18 Apr. 1943.

  “I prefer not mentioning” McShain letter to Billy Sams, 28 June 1978, VII, McShain papers, HML. McShain’s biographer, Carl Brauer, suggests that McShain’s fee after further negotiations may have been closer to $500,000, though the figure does not appear in War Department documents. Brauer also reports that McShain’s profits were increased because he apparently owned a sizable interest in Potts & Callahan, which did most of the excavating and grading work. Brauer, The Man Who Built Washington, 87–88.

  Pierre L’Enfant may have designed Brauer, The Man Who Built Washington, xi; excerpt from broadcast on radio station WRC, 9 Dec
. 1949, VII, McShain papers, HML. In addition to the Pentagon, Jefferson Memorial, National Airport, and various federal buildings, McShain built the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. He renovated the White House during the Truman administration and completed the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, one of the largest cathedrals in the world. But the glory that McShain accrued in Washington proved ephemeral. When he died in 1989, “the man who built Washington” rated a four-inch obituary buried deep in the Washington Post, more than ten days after the fact. McShain had dissolved his business in the late 1970s and left most of his considerable fortune to Catholic charities. Exegi Monumentum Aere Perennius was the title of the homily given at his memorial mass at Rosemont College outside Philadelphia. It was a Latin verse from the poet Horace that McShain had read seventy years earlier as a student at Georgetown University: “I have built a monument more lasting than bronze.”

  A Herculean enterprise

  By late spring Groves memo to Renshaw, 18 Feb. 1943, entry 5, box 1, RG 200; Col. H. W. Isbell memo to Col. O. L. Nelson, 27 Apr. 1943, I, CEHO; Nelson memo to Styer, 28 Apr. 1943, I, CEHO; “Building Engineer for the Pentagon,” 17 May 1943, entry 5, box 1, RG 200; Renshaw memo to Farrell, 24 May 1943, I, CEHO.

  As the project wound down “The Society of the Pentagon, Roster of the Membership,” Sept. 1942, Somervell papers, MHI; Star, 30 May 1943; van der Gracht, White interview.

  Van der Gracht had been commissioned Renshaw letter to van der Gracht, 12 Aug. 1942, series 45.1, White, RG 45, AOC; van der Gracht service records, series 45.1, White, RG 45, AOC; van der Gracht, White interview.

  McShain’s performance McShain autobiographical notes, 20–21, VII, I, McShain papers HML; Polly McShain, author interview; Brauer, The Man Who Built Washington, 89. Groves recalled discussing such a proposition with McShain and Somervell but placed the discussion shortly after Pearl Harbor. Groves “Seabees” memo, 29 Mar. 1967, Groves collection, USMA.