U.S. Department of the Interior
Office of Surface Mining
For immediate release							Contact:	Mike Gauldin
May 26, 2004										(202) 208-2565


OSM Office was World War II nerve center


(Washington, DC) -- Before there was a Pentagon, American military leaders and their British 
counterparts planned the defeat of Nazi Germany from an Octagon - the Octagon Office in 
what is now the South Interior Building at 1951 Constitution Ave, NW in Washington.

The distinctive room is now the office of Jeff Jarrett, director of the Office of Surface Mining, 
but when the building was constructed in 1932 it housed the Public Health Service. Architect 
J.H. deSibour, designed the three-story "E"-shaped marble building, including a very 
handsome private office for the Surgeon General himself. 
The room, an octagon shape placed where the west leg of the "E" joins the front wing, is 
embellished with pecan paneling, ornamental carving, a molded plaster ceiling, parquet floor, 
marble fireplace, and crystal chandeliers.
The room is reputed to be the largest government office in Washington, even larger than the 
Oval Office in the White House. 
In December, 1941, America entered the Second World War and a meeting known as the 
"Arcadia Conference" was held next door in the Federal Reserve Building. There President 
Franklin Roosevelt and Britain's Prime Minister Winston Churchill united the leadership of their 
armed forces under a Combined Chiefs of Staff who were to be the supreme military body for 
strategic direction of the Anglo-American war effort. 
To insure the closest possible communications between London and Washington, it was 
decided that representatives of the British Chiefs should remain in Washington and confer 
daily with their American allies. 
On January 30, President Roosevelt announced that the Public Health Service Building was 
to be renamed the Combined Chiefs of Staff Building. The American half of the CCS, which 
later became the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, held its first meeting on February 9, 1942, in this 
room. 
The Octagon Room became the room where the Combined Chiefs of the two allied nations 
met to make decisions affecting the lives of millions of people during World War II. The 
auditorium on the builiding's first floor became a map room. During the war, the doors of the 
map room were closed and sealed, and an opening was cut in the floor to allow a sliding 
carriage to raise maps from the basement-level boiler pit.
By  the close of the war, the Joint Chiefs of Staff had held 201 meetings, most of which took 
place in the Combined Chiefs of Staff Building. Many critical decisions on Allied war strategy 
and battle plans were decided by senior military officials at this location.  
While Allied Generals planned strategy in the Octagon Room, history was also being made 
in a secret structure on the roof.
There a temporary wooden structure atop the center wing of the building was the site of  
planning for the Manhattan Project, the super-secret effort that developed the atomic bomb. 
The Manhattan Project was deemed so important to the war effort  that the building was 
sealed, and sharpshooters maintained a round-the-clock vigil to guard it. 
After the war, the building was occupied by the Atomic Energy Commission, then the 
National Science Foundation. In 1965, the Department of the Interior took over the building 
and it housed the Bureau of Indian Affairs. In 1972 it was the scene of a dramatic seven-day 
takeover by American Indian activists attempting to make their concerns known to the 
government and public.
In 1977 the building gained its current tenant, the newly formed Office of Surface Mining.  
As a major renovation of the building was going on the  new OSM staff  was writing the 
regulations needed for implementation of the Surface Mining Law.  While the renovation was 
being done OSM employees moved from one section of the building to another until January 
1981, when work was completed. 
Shortly after OSM moved into the building, the temporary Manhattan Project structure on 
the roof was demolished. Preservationists attempted to stop the demolition; but, were 
unsuccessful. Each day as the wrecking ball finished its work preservationists would salvage 
pieces of the wooden walls that Manhattan Project scientists had used to scribble notes on. 
     Today, the Octagon Office, the former WWII nerve center, has been restored to its 
condition during that era. The room suite is detailed with filigree paneling, chandeliers, and a 
plaque designating the room as an important historic military location.

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Information and photos available at http://www.osmre.gov/southbldg.htm