Old Pension Building

Friday, February 27: The Old Pension Building is the home of the National Building Museum, a nonprofit museum that examines the role of architecture and construction in American life. One of the highlights of the museum was a tour of the building itself, which was originally constructed as an office building to pay military pensions in the late nineteenth century. Over the years the building was converted to other uses, and has been the site of several presidential inaugural balls. Shown in this photo is the great hall of the building, with the huge columns giving support to a roof that makes the building tower over 150 feet tall.