Longworth House Office Building
congressional office building in Washington, D.C.
The Longworth House Office Building (LHOB) is one of five office buildings used by the United States House of Representatives. The building is located south of the Capitol, bounded by Independence Avenue, New Jersey Avenue, C Street S.E., and South Capitol Street, in southeast Washington. It has a floor area of 599,675 square feet (55,711.6 m2) and has a total of 251 congressional offices and suites, five large committee rooms, seven small committee rooms, a large assembly room in which the House Ways and Means Committee assembles, and a secondary office or headquarters' annex for the Government Accountability Office.
The building was named in 1962 in honor of former speaker of the House Nicholas Longworth of Ohio, who served as speaker from 1925 until the Republicans lost their majority in 1931. He died that year, and the building was authorized the same year.
Description
With a floor area of just under 600,000 square feet (56,000 m2), it is the smallest of the House office buildings.
"Because of its position on a sloping site, the rusticated base of the Longworth Building varies in height from two to four stories. Above this granite base stand the three principal floors, which are faced with white marble. Ionic columns supporting a well-proportioned entablature are used for the building's five porticoes, the principal one of which is topped by a pediment. Two additional stories are partially hidden by a marble balustrade.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Longworth House Office Building” is congressional office building in Washington, D.C. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Longworth, House and Office, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “congressional office building in Washington, D.C” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Place names and jurisdictional language are key evidence: both can reveal earlier catalogue descriptions and overlooked record series. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 15, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6674545. VIAF identifies the subject as 254144782718613633082. Authority coordinates are 38.887, -77.008. 1 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1962, 1925 and 1931.
Modern boundaries and familiar names can conceal earlier jurisdictions or structures that do not align with the present site. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.
- Historic place names
- Jurisdictional context
- Routes into maps and plans
Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Longworth House Office Building”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Longworth House Office Building primary sources, Longworth House Office Building archive and Longworth research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Longworth House Office Building”?
- Which earlier names or jurisdictions may reveal additional records?
- Which authority defined the place, boundary or structure at the relevant date?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Longworth House Office Building” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.