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1961–2011
Prepared by the CIA History Staff,
January 2012
Years in Langley:
Recollections of the
Construction of CIA’s
Original Headquarters Building
50

The articles contained herein do not necessarily reflect official positions or views of the Central
Intelligence Agency or any other US government entity, past or present.

50 Years in Langley:
Recollections of the Construction of CIA’s
Original Headquarters Building
In late 1961, CIA employees began relocating from a disparate collection of buildings in Washington,
DC, to a newly constructed headquarters complex in Langley, Virginia. The Original Headquarters Build-
ing (OHB) was the first home designed specifically for Agency officers, and it still serves today as an iconic
symbol of CIA and its mission. As part of the commemoration of OHB’s 50 years of service, the Center for
the Study of Intelligence has compiled this collection of declassified articles and images that illustrate the
making of a key piece of CIA’s heritage.

Director, Center for the Study of Intelligence

Artist’s preconstruction rendering of CIA Headquarters.
50 Years in Langley

Recollections of Construction of CIA’s OHB
1
Before becoming executive director, "Red" White
had served as assistant to the deputy director for
administration (1952–54) and deputy director for
administration (1954–65). As DDA, he played a key
role in the construction of CIA’s new headquarters
complex.
The following excerpts concerning the construction
of the new headquarters are from an interview of
Colonel White at his home in Vero Beach, Florida,
on 7 January 1998.
Picking a Headquarters Site
Allen Dulles and I had decided to build a building
where it is now. The landed gentry out there didn’t
want us out there. They picked on [Lyman] Kirkpatrick,
who was our inspector general. One day at the DCI’s
morning meeting, Kirkpatrick made a speech about
how they didn’t want us out there. Of course, he lived
out there, too. He told Allen that he thought we were
going to get in a lot of trouble, and we ought not to do
it. Allen looked at me and said, “Red, find another site.”
He and I talked a little bit, and we were considering
tearing down the old Heurich Brewery, and it was right
where the Kennedy Center is now. We were thinking of
taking that over and building the building right here.
One Friday night Allen called me and said he’d had a
call from President Eisenhower, who wanted to see him
at 10 the next morning to talk about the building. Allen
asked me to go with him. I said, “What do you want
me to bring?” He said, “I don’t know what he wants to
talk about, so let’s don’t bring anything.” Before I left
home, I put a little map of Washington, DC, in my coat
pocket, and we go over to the White House.
Eisenhower was getting ready to go play golf and
[Colonel] Andy Goodpaster [Eisenhower’s military
aide] was the only person there. We sat down, and
the President said, “Allen, I want to talk to you about
this new building. Where are you going to build it?”
Allen said, “Mr. President, we’re looking at a number
of sites. We’re thinking about tearing down that old
brewery and building it right there.” Eisenhower went
through the roof. He said, “You are not going to build
that building in the District of Columbia. This town is
so cluttered up now you can’t get from one end to the
other, and you are going to get out of town.” I thought,
“My goodness, we’re going to end up in Texas or
someplace.”
Allen kept appealing that he had to be near the White
House, the Pentagon, and the State Department. Eisen-
hower would have none of it. Finally, I screwed up my
courage and said, “Mr. Dulles, since the President feels
so strongly about this, maybe we ought to reconsider
that old Leiter Estate.” Allen took off on that, about
what a nice place that was and what not. The President
said, “I never heard of the old Leiter Estate, where’s
that?” I pulled out my map and put it on the President’s
desk and said, “It’s right there, Mr. President.” He said,
“How far is that from the zero milestone?” I said, “It is
7.1 miles as the crow flies.” He said, “That’s okay.”
Excerpts from an Interview with Former CIA
Executive Director Lawrence K. “Red” White
From Studies in Intelligence

50 Years in Langley
2
Signs of Trouble
Placing the Headquarters building in Langley
meant that the George Washington Memorial Park-
way had to be extended up the Potomac. Road signs
along the parkway identifying the location of the
CIA caused a problem with the Kennedy administra-
tion.
I don’t think you’ve ever heard rhe story about the
signs out there [at the Headquarters building]. You see,
the National Park Service built that road out there [the
George Washington Memorial Parkway]. The authori-
zation for the road had been on the books for 20 years,
but they didn’t have any money. So we got the money,
it was $8.5 million, I think, to build the parkway out
there. Before the building was ever finished, they put
up these signs, “Central Intelligence Agency.” Bobby
Kennedy didn’t like those signs, and so the President
spoke to Allen that he didn’t like the signs. Allen didn’t
pay much attention to it. One day, during the DCI’s
morning meeting, the President [Kennedy] called and
he said, “Allen, if you don’t get those signs down, I’m
going to come out there and take them down myself.”
Allen turned to me and said, “Red, get the signs down.”
I called up the director of the National Parks, and 1
said, “The President says get those signs down.” And I
said, “Take them down quick, but take them down qui-
etly; we don’t need any publicity.” They were down for
a month or so before anybody noticed, and then all the
newspapers came out with some headline; the Washin-
gon Post, I think, said, “Oh, CIA Can You See?”
Spies in Suburbia
The peace-loving people of beautiful Langley
Are speaking in voices all tensed up and strangly
Spurning in aggregate
All cloak-and-daggregate
Eyes on their homes.
They chant incantations, they deal in invective,
They rant imprecations at each new directive.
Struggle is protean
No one is dote-y on
Spies in their homes.
‘Tho CIA’s secret, we know it won’t blow to
Where Langley so sharply tells Dulles to got to.
–Ellen Wise

3
An original model of the new Headquarters complex.

5
President Dwight Eisenhower addressing construction workers and CIA employees at
the cornerstone-laying ceremony.

50 Years in Langley
6
The state of construction in October 1959.

7
Original classification: SECRET
Approved for release date: 29-Nov-2011

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The emergent “Bubble” and main entrance courtyard.

21
The cafeteria taking shape.

23
Excerpted from John McCone As Director
of Central Intelligence, 1961–1965, Chap-
ter 2, by David Robarge1
By McCone’s tenure, CIA had long occupied a scat-
tering of accommodations around the city, including
its complex at 2430 E Street NW, an abandoned roller
rink nearby, and deteriorating temporary buildings on
the Mall left over from World War I. Those quarters
were crowded, uncomfortable, and expensive to secure,
and created serious communications problems in an
era when secure telephones did not exist and classi-
fied documents had to be hand-carried between offices.
Allen Dulles’s solution was to build a single Headquar-
ters building for CIA at a remote and easily protected
site in Langley, Virginia. Design work on the campus-
like compound began in mid-1956, the first ground was
broken in late 1957, the cornerstone was laid in
November 1959, and the first occupants (from the DI)
began moving in during September 1961.2
McCone regarded the geographical consolidation
of CIA as an important part of his effort to central-
ize control over it. He wanted the Headquarters
building filled up as quickly as possible and made
a point of occupying an office there immediately to
symbolize his own presence and authority. More-
over, he was sensitive about the perquisites and
comforts of high position and insisted on working
in surroundings that suited his tastes. Right after
his appointment, he began complaining to DDS
White about construction and logistical delays, and
once he moved into temporary workspace at Head-
quarters after his swearing-in, he expressed dissat-
isfaction with the pace of work on his own suite.
He was disappointed that only employees
were in the new building when he took over but
reluctantly accepted that no more would relocate
until the whole DDP wing was ready in early
1. Originally classified SECRET; Approved for release date:
29-Nov-2011. Portions redacted.
2. “The Construction of the Original Headquarters Building,” pas-
sim.
1962. He had his personal secretary, Terry Lee,
check the progress on the executive offices every
day. White wrote at the time that “Mr. McCone is
going to be
champing at the bit until he is installed in his
seventh floor offices, and we should do every-
thing we can to expedite their completion.” They
were finally ready in March 1962. The DCI was
not pleased with the parking arrangements or the
heating system, either, and sometimes called White
to have the temperature in his office adjusted. By
September 1962, the new Headquarters was almost
93 percent occupied, with over employees
working there. After security concerns were raised
about the four parcels of privately owned land ad-
Completing the Move to Langley

50 Years in Langley
24
jacent to the compound, McCone ordered a study
of the feasibility of buying them. 3
CIA’s new environs affected organizational re-
lationships and cultures in ways that reinforced
McCone’s plans for change. One of his goals was
to begin breaching the wall of compartmentation
between the DI and the DDP. Now that the overt
and covert parts of CIA were sharing quarters for
the first time, meetings and casual contacts eroded
some of the suspicion and tension that had hin-
dered cooperation between analysts and operators.
The relocation also improved communication
throughout the Agency—an essential part of Mc-
Cone’s effort to put its sprawling activities under
his and his deputies’ control. Before the move,
strict management was hindered by components’
physical separation and the lack of secure tele-
phones and a rapid courier service. Afterward,
distances between offices shrank from, in some
cases, many city blocks to at most a few floors or
corridors. Executives could schedule short-notice
meetings conveniently and drop by each other’s
offices for informal discussions, while secure
telephones and pneumatic tubes enabled officers
to exchange information and documents quickly.
In addition, the collocation of the Office of Central
Reference and the DI gave analysts ready access
3. Knapp, 235; White diary notes for 29 and 30 November and
4 December 1961, HS Files, Job 84-00499R, box 1, folder 9; Kirk-
patrick Diary, vol. 5, entry for 20 September 1962; “The Construc-
tion of the Original Headquarters Building,” 136 n. 9; “Chronology
of DCI Office Space,” 6 May 1971, HS Files, HS/HC-429, Job
84T00286R, box 3, folder 1. As a civil defense precaution, McCone
wanted an emergency relocation center for CIA constructed outside
the Washington, DC, metropolitan area. As AEC chairman, he had
learned details about the inept evacuation exercise the US govern-
ment had conducted in 1956, and, especially after the Cuban missile
crisis, he wanted to ensure that a small-scale CIA survived a nuclear
strike against the capital,
to full library facilities and specialized repositories
of information, helping them produce the high
quality, timely assessments the DCI demanded.
Working conditions at Langley were far superior
to those across the river, and the climate controls,
availability of food and banking services, new
furniture, larger workspaces, and woodland set-
ting improved the morale and, more importantly to
McCone, the efficiency and productivity of most
employees.4
The trek to suburbia took CIA geographically out
of the close-knit downtown policymaking com-
munity, causing a marked dropoff in day-to-day
contacts with the executive branch. Although this
isolation forced most Agency employees to turn
inward professionally and socially, it forced senior
management to work harder at reaching out to
administration officials, community counterparts,
and allies in Congress and the press. This demand
suited McCone perfectly well, given the priority
he placed on his responsibilities as DCI and on
the “political” roles he assumed as a presidential
policy adviser and the White House’s intelligence
liaison to Capitol Hill and the Republican Party.
4. Some older hands, however, found the new building coldly
modernistic, gray, and sterile despite its semirural surroundings. As
with an old baseball glove, they preferred the Mall and E Street of-
fices for their well-worn “feel,” and for the memories they harbored
and the sense of shared triumphs and adversities they evoked. “The
real trouble with this new building,” an Agency officer was quoted
as saying in 1964, “is that it tends to make an honest woman of
the old madam—you know, no spittoons, keep the antimacassars
clean, and no champagne in the morning. We ought to be lurking
in scrabby old hide-outs, with the plaster peeling and stopped-up
toilets. There’s something about the atmosphere of this building that
leads to too many memos, too many meetings, and not enough dirty
work.” Alsop and Braden, 263

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