Old Post Office (Washington, D.C.) facts for kids
Quick facts for kids |
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Old Post Office and Clock Tower
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U.S. Historic district
Contributing property |
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The Old Post Office Building in 2012
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 Location in Central Washington, D.C.
Location in the District of Columbia
Location in the United States
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| Location | Washington, D.C. |
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| Built | 1892 to 1899 |
| Architect | Willoughby J. Edbrooke (original building) Karn Charuhas Chapman & Twohey (East Atrium) |
| Architectural style | Romanesque Revival (original building) Modernist (East Atrium) |
| Part of | Pennsylvania Avenue National Historic Site (ID66000865) |
| NRHP reference No. | 73002105 |
| Added to NRHP | April 11, 1973 |
The Old Post Office, listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the Old Post Office and Clock Tower, is located at 1100 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C. It is a contributing property to the Pennsylvania Avenue National Historic Site.
It succeeded an earlier 1839 edifice–the General Post Office–a building of the Classical Revival style, which was expanded in 1866 on F Street NW. This building was later turned over to the Tariff Commission and several other agencies. Today it is the Hotel Monaco.
The Old Post Office construction was begun in 1892 and completed in 1899. The building is an example of Richardsonian Romanesque, part of the Romanesque Revival architecture of the 19th-century United States. Its bell tower is the third tallest structure, excluding radio towers, in Washington, D.C.
It was used as the city's main General Post Office until 1914 at the beginning of World War I. Afterward, this Pennsylvania Avenue landmark structure functioned primarily as a federal office building. It was nearly torn down during the construction of the surrounding Federal Triangle complex in the 1920s and 1930s. In the 1970s, it was again threatened and nearly demolished to make way for the proposed completion of the enveloping Federal Triangle complex, the proposed buildings to be of similar Beaux Arts styled architecture government offices built in the 1920s and 1930s.
Major renovations to The Old Post Office Building occurred in 1976 and 1983. The 1983 renovation opened a new chapter in the structure's history and use. Added to the structure were a food court, a retail space, and a roof skylight over the building's central atrium. The building acquired the name of "Old Post Office Pavilion." A glass-walled addition on a former adjacent parking lot was added to the structure in 1991.
In 2013, the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) leased the property for 60 years to a consortium headed by "DJT Holdings LLC", a holding company that Donald Trump owns through a revocable trust. Trump developed the property into a luxury hotel, the Trump International Hotel Washington, D.C., which opened in September 2016 and closed on May 11, 2022, after its sale to CGI Merchant Group. It reopened as the Waldorf Astoria Washington DC on June 1, 2022.
The building's 315-foot (96-meter) high clock tower houses the "Bells of Congress," and its observation level offers panoramic views of the city and its surroundings.
Contents
Construction and opening
The United States Congress approved construction of a new post office for Washington, D.C., on June 25, 1890. The site, at the southwest corner of Pennsylvania Avenue and 12th Street, was chosen by Senator Leland Stanford in 1888 in the hope that the building would revitalize the Murder Bay neighborhood between the Capitol building and the White House. Willoughby J. Edbrooke, Supervising Architect of the Treasury Department, designed the structure in the tradition of the Romanesque Revival architecture of Henry Hobson Richardson. Construction began in 1892, and the building was complete in 1899. The total cost of construction was $3 million.
At the time of its completion, the Post Office Building contained the largest uninterrupted enclosed space in the city. Its clock tower reached 315 feet (96 m) into the air. It was also the city's first building to have a steel frame structure, and the first to be built with electrical wiring incorporated into its design. The structure featured elevators with cages of highly intricate wrought iron, a glass covered atrium and mezzanine level, and floors, moldings, railings, and wainscoting made of marble. The atrium was 196 feet (60 m) high, and 10 floors of balconies looked out onto the space (which provided interior light in an era when indoor lighting was not common). It boasted more than 39,000 interior electric lights, and its own electrical generator. Girders and catwalks spanned the atrium at the third floor level to allow post office supervisors to look down on the workers. The fifth floor housed executive offices in the corners. Each office had a turret, ornately carved wooden moldings, and red oak paneling. But there were problems with the structure. The Washington Star newspaper reported that the skylights and windows leaked air and water, the marble floors were poorly laid, and much of the construction was shoddy. The ninth floor was to have served as a file room, but a post-construction inspection showed it could not accommodate the weight. Technological advances in electricity and electrical wiring, mechanical engineering, movement of air, heating, and more made the building out of date as soon as it opened.
The anticipated economic development never occurred. At the 1898 meeting of the American Institute of Architects, the structure was criticized as supremely ugly during a plenary address by New York City architect George B. Post. That same year, Senator Joseph Roswell Hawley called it "a cross between a cathedral and a cotton mill". By the time it opened, the building was also too small to accommodate the government agencies which occupied it. The city postmaster had advocated a building with a 50,000-square-foot (4,600 m2) footprint, but only 10,000 square feet (930 m2) were purchased. The post office used the main floor and mezzanine, but these were already too crowded by January 1900. Treasury Department offices were to have taken over the eighth floor, but the structure was so overcrowded that this move was suspended.
A year after the building opened, an accident there took the life of D.C. Postmaster James P. Willett. On September 30, 1899, Willett fell 90 feet (27 m) down an open elevator shaft. Nothing more than a flimsy wooden barrier prevented access to the shaft. Willett died a day later.
First 50 years
In the early 1880s, Senator Justin Smith Morrill and Senator John James Ingalls proposed razing all the structures between Pennsylvania Avenue and B Street (now Constitution Avenue) to the south to create a park. The influential McMillan Plan of 1902, however, proposed retaining the structure. (It could hardly have done otherwise, with the building only just having been completed.) Nonetheless, the same year the Washington Post editorialized in favor of its demolition. In discussing plans to beautify Washington, essayist Sammuel E. Moffett disparagingly called the building in 1906 a "Kansas City emporium so utterly out of keeping with the general atmosphere of official Washington that it sets the teeth of architects on edge". Later that year, Senator Weldon B. Heyburn introduced legislation to authorize the federal government to purchase all the land between Pennsylvania Avenue (northeast side), the National Mall (south side), 15th Street N.W. (west side), and the U.S. Capitol grounds (to the east) for the construction of an architecturally "harmonious" set of massive office buildings. Heyburn's plan retained the architecturally dominating Old General Post Office Building of 1899 with its commanding tower, but adjusted its Pennsvylania Avenue side to be parallel with the street.
The clock in the building tower was originally mechanical in nature, and kept accurate time via gravity. A cable was wrapped around a drum, and a large weight attached to the end of the cable. As the cable unwound due to the force of gravity, the clock hands turned. The cable was rewound once or twice a day. On October 10, 1956, the weight came loose from the cable and plunged through two floors (narrowly avoiding killing a man, who had just gotten up from his desk). The mechanical clock was later replaced with an electric one.
In 1914, the District of Columbia's General Post Office moved to a larger Beaux Arts / Classical Revival building constructed next to recently completed Union Station of similar impressive style, taking advantage of heavy use of the national railroad system for speedier mail delivery. Although only now 15 years old, the building at 12th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue was now commonly called the "old" post office. For the next forty years, the GPO building served as office space for several government agencies.
The Old Post Office Building was slated for demolition during construction of the Federal Triangle. In 1926, the United States Congress enacted the Public Buildings Act, which authorized the construction not only of the Federal Triangle complex of buildings but also a new U.S. Supreme Court building opposite the east front of the United States Capitol on the site of the Civil War era Old Capitol Prison and just north of the recent 1897 Library of Congress first building, along with a major extension of the U.S. Government Printing Office building on North Capitol Street, and significant widening of B Street N.W. (later renamed Constitution Avenue) on the north side of the National Mall. Government officials, other experts, and the press believed that the demolition of the 1898 District Building ("city hall" for the District of Columbia), the Old Post Office Building and the closure of many streets in the area would occur. A Board of Architectural Consultants was created on May 19, 1927, to advise the federal agencies developing Federal Triangle on how to proceed. By July 1927, the board had fashioned a general plan for the area, but did not address whether the Old Post Office Building, the District Building, or the Southern Railway Building should be torn down or not. Planning for the complex was deeply influenced by the City Beautiful movement and the idea of creating a civic center to achieve efficiency in administration as well as reinforce the public's perception of government as authoritative and permanent. For the architectural style of the buildings, the board adopted the McMillan Plan's recommendation of the Neoclassical style. Rather than a mass of tall, imposing buildings, two unifying open spaces (intended for ceremonial use, and under discussion by the Board at least by March 1928) would be utilized. The first would be a Circular Plaza (inspired by the Place Vendôme) bisected by 12th Street NW, and which would require the demolition of the Old Post Office Building.
But by 1934, although the government had cleared land around the Old Post Office Building, Congress was increasingly opposed to demolishing the structure. Tearing down a structurally sound 35-year-old building during the Great Depression seemed foolish. But the executive branch agencies overseeing the Federal Triangle's construction still wanted it gone. Yet, it was not demolished. Four years passed. Although a push was made to remove the Old Post Office Building again in 1938, Senator Elmer Thomas defended it and attacked the erection of a Neoclassical office building in its place as financially unacceptable.
The 1938 effort to remove the building was the last one for 30 years. Various reasons have been suggested for why the Old Post Office Building survived. A common claim is that the federal government, fighting the Great Depression, simply did not have the money. Press reports at the time, however, noted that voters would have punished congressmen who tore down a perfectly good building. Architectural historians have also argued that President Franklin D. Roosevelt (who took office in March 1933, five years into the Federal Triangle's construction) was not interested in completing the expensive complex of white marble office buildings or making the Federal Triangle architecturally harmonious.
The Old Post Office Building's tower slowly became an iconic one in the city. The United States Information Agency often used it as a backdrop for propaganda films to be shown in foreign countries. In one instance, a portion of a film about Soviet dissident Alexander Solzhenitsyn was taped in the tower.
1970s demolition attempt
By the 1950s, and Eisenhower era, the neighborhood around the Old Post Office Building had also declined. Pennsylvania Avenue N.W. was marked by deteriorating homes, shops, and office buildings on the north side and monumental Neoclassical federal office buildings of the 1920s-30s era Federal Triangle on the south. After observing the poor state of the Avenue during his inaugural parade from the Capitol to the White House, 35th President John F. Kennedy appointed a President's Council on Pennsylvania Avenue to study ways to improve the area. The council's draft plan was ready for Kennedy's approval almost two and a half years later when he was assassinated in Dallas Texas on November 22, 1963. The draft plan retained the Old Post Office Building.
Kennedy's successor, 36th President Lyndon B. Johnson, agreed to move forward with the plan and appointed a Temporary President's Commission on Pennsylvania Avenue, although it did not hold its first meeting until May 21, 1965. The new commission recommended that the Old Post Office be torn down in favor of completing the plan for the Federal Triangle. The temporary commission managed to prevent development of the avenue which was contrary to the draft plan, but it never was able to win congressional approval for its plan. It ceased to function on November 15, 1969, due to lack of funds. A permanent Pennsylvania Avenue Development Corporation (PADC) was finally created by Congress on October 30, 1972.
An attempt to demolish the Old Post Office Building began in February 1970. The National Capital Planning Commission, a federal agency with legal jurisdiction over major building projects in the Washington metropolitan area, agreed (although it said the tower might be preserved). Within days, Wolf Von Eckardt, the influential architectural critic of The Washington Post, began campaigning for the structure's preservation. No action was taken on the demolition project in 1970, and Von Eckardt continued to press for the building's preservation in 1971. By early 1971, a group of local citizens and architects formed a group known as "Don't Tear It Down" (predecessor to the D.C. Preservation League). The group's members included Nancy Hanks, the politically influential chairwoman of the National Endowment for the Arts. Don't Tear It Down began heavily lobbying the PADC, the GSA (which owned the building for the federal government), White House, Congress, and D.C. city government to stop the demolition. Opposition to the demolition began to grow in the U.S. Senate, which held hearings on the buildings in April 1971. Preservation forces received a major boost in May 1971 when the federal Advisory Council on Historic Preservation recommended retaining it.
The Nixon administration, however, continued to seek its demolition so that Federal Triangle could be completed in time for the United States Bicentennial in 1976. But by this time, Senator Mike Gravel, chair of the Subcommittee on Public Buildings and Grounds of the Committee on Public Works was strongly opposed to the effort. Gravel sought allies in the United States House of Representatives, and in June 1972, the House Committee on Appropriations voted down Nixon's request for money to demolish the Old Post Office.
Rejuvenation in 1970s
The Old Post Office was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973. That same year, the GSA formally dropped its intention to demolish the building and instead developed a plan to preserve it. The National Capital Planning Commission agreed to the project.
Major renovation of the structure was made possible in 1976 by enactment of the Public Buildings Cooperative Use Act. The law gave GSA the legal authority to lease federal buildings and use the money received for renovations and upgrades. It also legalized the use of a portion of federal office buildings for commercial retail and restaurant use. The Old Post Office was the first major project begun under the law.
An $18 million renovation began in 1977. The building badly needed it: The atrium roof had been covered over, making the interior dark; the building leaked and had suffered extensive water damage; there was mold throughout the building; and the heating system often broke down.
1979–1983 renovation
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The GSA held a competition in 1978 to find a partner willing to redevelop the Old Post Office Building. The agency believed that the configuration of the interior space and downtown real estate market would only support a hotel. But the winning bid did not propose a hotel. A joint venture by four firms—McGaughy, Marshall, and McMillan; Arthur Cotton Moore Associates; Associated Space Design, Inc.; and Stewart Daniel Hoban & Associates—won the competition. GSA and the bidding team reached an agreement for a 55-year lease. GSA collected $166,000 a year in rent, which increased just 5 percent during the life of the lease. GSA also received a percentage of all profits from the enterprise.
The $29 million renovation was completed in 1983. Much of the building was gutted to utilize the interior space more efficiently, but some "preservation zones" were established to retain the interior's historic character. Much of the old marble was replaced with new, pink marble, and the interior repainted in shades of cream, gray, green, and ivory pastels. A glass-enclosed elevator to the observation deck was also added, as well as a new grand staircase to the second floor and two 6,000-square-foot (560 m2) restaurants. The renovated building was officially dedicated on April 19, 1983. Vice President George H. W. Bush presided over the event. The re-opening was celebrated with peals from the Bells of Congress from the clock tower. Federal tenants included the Institute for Museum Services, National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities. (Modular office furniture was used to allow more people to work in the offices, which proved controversial among federal employees used to traditional desks and chairs.) The retail levels, which occupied the first three floors of the building, opened on September 13, 1983. The retail section included a performance space known as the Nancy Hanks Center. Hanks died on January 7, 1983, just weeks before the building's re-opening. The clock tower and observation deck reopened to the public on May 1, 1984. The 1983 renovation won strong praise from architectural critic Benjamin Forgey.
The commercial space was designed by the Boston firm of Benjamin Thompson & Associates, and it was leased by Evans Development Co. of Baltimore. More than 50 restaurants and boutique retail stores were anticipated to sublet portions of the three-story retail section, and it was 98% leased at its opening. The building's atrium and retail spaces thereupon acquired the name of "Old Post Office Pavilion". During the mid-1980s, Hillman Properties bought out its partner, Evans Development, and took control of the Old Post Office Pavilion.
In October 1986, Congress enacted legislation formally renaming the Old Post Office the Nancy Hanks Center.
New Year's Eve celebrations
During 1983, the District of Columbia government and the United States Postal Service created a 14 feet (4 m) by 21 feet (6 m) wooden replica of the Postal Service's new 1984 twenty-cent "Love" stamp (see Post-World War II United States postage stamps and postal history). Starting at the beginning of 1984, replicas of the latest versions of the "Love" stamp were lowered from the spire of the Old Post Office Building's Clock Tower around midnight during each New Year's Eve.
Musicians entertained ballroom dancers within the building while fireworks and searchlight beams illuminated the night-time sky and celebrities performed on outdoor stages. At midnight, bells pealed from the tower and neon signs flashed "Happy New Year" amid laser light shows. As 1985 waned, D.C. Mayor Marion Barry predicted: "We're going to outdo New York. We think we might just take over and become the best single event."
The stamp became larger over the years. The celebration that marked the beginning of 1986 featured a 900 lb (408 kg) illuminated replica of that year's twenty-two cent puppy "Love" stamp. By the beginning of 1990, the neon-lighted stamp had reached a size of 20 feet (6 m) by 30 feet (9 m) and a weight of two tons (1814 kg).
Up to 100,000 people celebrated at the event during each of its early years.
In 1990, the Postal Service decided to stop dropping the stamp. Although the Pavilion hosted a party for 2,500 during which a smaller version of a "Love" stamp descended within the building's atrium to mark the beginning of 1991, the outdoor events disappeared.
1988–1992 expansion
Despite the positive news about the Old Post Office Pavilion, it was not doing well. GSA imposed conditions on the 1983 renovation that left the retail pavilion looking like an office building rather than a shopping mall. There was also too little retail space, the retail space was poorly configured due to the architectural design of the building, and GSA refused to allow any storefronts on the exterior that would signal that there was retail or restaurants inside. The pavilion's revenues were generated in about equal parts from tourists, local office workers, and local residents. Although most retailers were making money, revenues fluctuated wildly on a seasonal basis. Restaurants had a difficult time earning money, and turnover among them was high.
Old Post Office Joint Venture (a group led by Hillman Properties), the developer of the pavilion, was also losing money. Old Post Office Joint Venture (OPOJV) received $166,000 a year in rent from GSA, but its agreement with the federal government called for doubling the size of the retail space to 100,000 square feet (9,300 m2). Approval for that expansion had never been given. OPOJV originally proposed expansion of the retail space into the Internal Revenue Service Building, but this was rejected for security reasons. It then proposed an underground parking lot and pavilion expansion in the area occupied by the IRS building's parking lot, but this, too, was not approved.
With the financial situation at the Old Post Office Pavilion worsening, OPOJV proposed building a glass-enclosed annex on the IRS building's parking lot. The proposal was strongly opposed by the D.C. Historic Preservation Review Board. Nonetheless, Congress appropriated $1.7 million for the project and OPOJV agreed to contribute another $15 million. The National Capital Planning Commission also gave its approval to the project.
The new East Atrium opened on March 6, 1992. The three level structure had 100,000 square feet (9,300 m2) of interior space and a glass roof. Under the terms of the development agreement, the federal government owned the land beneath the structure, but the building was owned by Hillman Properties. As construction occurred, the Old Post Office Pavilion lost many of its high-end retailers and replaced them with low-end shops selling mugs, souvenirs, T-shirts, and other items aimed at tourists. The East Atrium, however, included larger and more upscale retailers. The addition also featured a 5,000 square feet (460 m2) miniature golf course and bar. The East Atrium was managed by General Growth Properties, which said about 78 percent of the space was leased. The East Atrium was not well received, critically. Architecture critic Benjamin Forgey acknowledged that the building achieved its goals; incorporated many modern architectural design features (such as glass curtain walls, setbacks, and good connections to sidewalks and pedestrian areas); and it added a piece of the 1982 master plan for Federal Triangle. But Forgey called the design by the local architectural firm of Karn Charuhas Chapman & Twohey awkward, with "clunky" proportions and over-heavy elements. The interior, however, won praise for its lightness.
Post-expansion
A small fire broke out on the west side of the Old Post Office Building between the ninth floor ceiling and the roof on August 26, 1992. Workers repairing the roof accidentally caused the blaze, which began at 3:45 pm and was extinguished 45 minutes later. Although small, the fire snarled downtown traffic during the evening rush hour.
By October 1993, despite more than 3 million visitors a year, OPOJV was behind on its rent to GSA and in default on its mortgage to Collin Equities (a subsidiary of Wells Fargo). Real estate experts blamed the cost of heating and cooling the vast atrium, heavy tenant turnover, and the lack of a theater for a space below the East Atrium. Although the D.C. Convention and Visitors Association said the Old Post Office was the eighth most-visited attraction in the District of Columbia, retail experts believed it had never made money, and the East Atrium did not bring in enough rent to support the Old Post Office Pavilion.
Collin Equities/Wells Fargo foreclosed on OPOJV in October 1993. The bank hired Hill Partners, a real estate management firm from Charlotte, North Carolina, to revitalize the retail aspects of the development. Hill Partners said that improving access to and shoppers' awareness of the retail area, it could double the number of visitors to the Old Post Office to more than 7 million. Hill Partners began reevaluating its tenant mix with a view to adding retailers which D.C. residents needed. It also revealed that the East Atrium was a money-loser, never filling more than half its space. Whether the East Atrium would remain open was not clear. The company agreed, however, to keep the Pavilion area a "festival marketplace" (one which offers a combination of entertainment, food, and retail shops).
In March 1995, the Cineplex Odeon Corporation said it would open a seven-screen movie theater in East Atrium (which now had no tenants). But the company pulled out in May 1996, saying it could not reach a lease agreement with Hill Partners.
Hill Partners had a difficult time finding any new tenants for the East Atrium and for the Pavilion. Virgin Group said in June 1996 it might build a Virgin Megastore, eight-to-12 screen Virgin Cinema, and possible a rock music-themed restaurant at the Old Post Office. But the company wanted the main building for its retail outlets, not the East Atrium. But nothing came of these discussions.
In 1997, a hotel development firm, Denhill D.C. LLC, approached GSA and offered to take over Collins Equities/Wells Fargo lease. The company said it would spend more than $100 million to turn the office space on the upper floors into hotel rooms and open the Pennsylvania Avenue walls to create more access and street-front retail space. In return, the company asked the GSA to extend the 55-year lease to 65 years, and give it the option of adding three more decade-long lease extension options. According to Denhill D.C. officials, the negotiations were so far advanced that they had a management company ready to operate the hotel and retail tenants ready to take space. GSA said it then ended the negotiations over legal concerns that it was about to enter into a long-term lease without advertising it to other bidders.
By August 2000, business conditions at the Old Post Office had sunk even lower. Operations there had never turned a profit in 17 years, the vacancy rate in the Pavilion was 80 percent, the East Atrium was closed, and GSA had stopped charging Wells Fargo rent because no income was being generated. Realizing that a retail/office combination was not going to make money, GSA began negotiating with Collins Equities/Wells Fargo to cancel the lease. GSA by now had realized that if retail space was to be retained, it would need to open onto Pennsylvania Avenue NW. But the agency also was considered scrapping the retail floors and turning them into office space or getting rid of both retail and office space to allow the structure to be developed as a hotel. The hotel option was proving far more appealing than in the early 1980s because of the agency's overwhelmingly positive experience in allowing Kimpton Hotels to transform the 170,000-square-foot (16,000 m2) vacant Tariff Commission Building into a 172-room luxury Hotel Monaco.
Redevelopment as a hotel
In 2013, the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) leased the property for 60 years to a consortium headed by "DJT Holdings LLC", a holding company that Donald Trump owns through a revocable trust. Trump developed the property into a luxury hotel, the Trump International Hotel Washington, D.C., which opened in September 2016 and closed on May 11, 2022, after its sale to CGI Merchant Group. It reopened as the Waldorf Astoria Washington DC on June 1, 2022.
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During the presidency of Donald Trump, the Old Post Office has become a frequent location of political protests.
In 2019 the Trump Organization announced that it was exploring the possible sale of the hotel. President Trump's son, Eric Trump, told The Wall Street Journal that “People are objecting to us making so much money on the hotel, and therefore we may be willing to sell.”
The hotel reopened as the Waldorf Astoria Washington DC on June 1, 2022.
Clock tower and bells
The Old Post Office Building's 315-foot (96 m) clock tower is the third-highest building in Washington, D.C., after the Washington Monument and the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. The tower's 270-foot-high (82 m) observation deck offers panoramic views of the city and its surroundings. The tower includes an exhibit depicting the building's long struggle for survival and a view of the interior workings of the illuminated clock.
The Clock Tower houses the Bells of Congress (also known as the Ditchley Bells), which the Whitechapel Bell Foundry cast and are replicas of bells in Westminster Abbey. Sir David Wills, founder of the Ditchley Foundation, donated the bells to the United States in commemoration of the nation's 1976 Bicentennial. However, the bells were not brought to the United States and installed in the Clock Tower until 1983.
The 10-bell peal consists of bells ranging from 300 to 3,000 pounds (140 to 1,360 kg) and from 2 to 4.5 feet (0.61 to 1.37 m) in diameter. Their composition is 78 percent copper and 22 percent tin. Each bell features the Great Seal of the United States, the Great Seal of the Realm, and an image of the flower London Pride in relief. Because the tower was not designed to hold bells, the architectural firm of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill and the structural engineering firm Cagley & Associates were hired to modify the tower so that it could accommodate the weight of the bells and the stress of their swings.
The Washington Ringing Society sounds the Bells of Congress every Thursday evening and on special occasions. The official bells of the United States Congress, they are one of the largest sets of change ringing bells in North America. Tower visitors can see the colored ropes that the bell-ringers pull to sound the bells but not the bells themselves, although plans are in the works to open a viewing area for the bells as well.
Prior to the 2014 renovation, National Park Service rangers provided tours of the Clock Tower. After stopping for three years during the tower's renovation, the ranger tours resumed in February 2017. The service continued during the United States federal government shutdown of 2018–2019 of "all but the most essential" federal government services, including the National Park Service.
