It was built for the Shannon & Luchs real estate firm and designed by local architect Arthur B. Heaton, whose landmark buildings in the city include Riggs National Bank, Stockton Hall, and the Churchill Hotel.

Heaton had already designed numerous commercial and residential buildings in the city, including the Equitable Bank Building, Riggs National Bank, Corcoran Hall, Stockton Hall, The Augusta, The Highlands (now the Churchill Hotel), and would later design the Park and Shop, the nation's first planned neighborhood shopping center which was also developed by Shannon & Luchs.

[1] The concrete and granite façade featured large windows on the third through tenth floors and ornamental details including 7 feet (2.1 m) sculptures flanking the main entrance depicting winged wheels below a 1926 automobile with 1926 license plates, stone bas-reliefs on the second floor depicting headlights and radiator grilles, and lion-headed grotesques below the roof line.

[2][3] To promote the opening of the Capital Garage, owners organized a contest whereby car dealerships would have someone drive their automobiles to the top of the building, with the fastest time winning the race.

[2][9] The garage proved popular with area businesses including the Woodward & Lothrop and Palais Royal department stores, who would often entice customers by paying their parking costs or offering valet services.

[10] For three years during World War II General Philip Bracken Fleming authorized the federal government leasing the building for $500,000, which was later criticized by former Interior Secretary Harold L.

Hitler had only ridden in the car twice, and it was given as a gift to Finnish Field Marshal Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim after Finland became allies with Nazi Germany.

Journalist Charles McDowell Jr. wrote about the struggles of parking in the garage, calling it an "adventure every work day."

For a reduced rate, customers could park their own vehicles, which McDowell described as "squeezing past the monsters so swollen through the years."

[15] Because the front wall of the Capital Garage was largely intact after the implosion, some of the architectural features that adorned the façade were saved.

[2][16] The Smithsonian notes "only the iconic sculptures remain to mark the pomp and grandeur that helped to usher in the automobile age in Washington.

"[16] Both McDowell and author James M. Goode, a Smithsonian Institution historian, suggested the Capital Garage would have likely been saved if it had survived a few more years due to the increased popularity of historic preservationism.

[1][2] The garage's site remained undeveloped until 1981, when the Daon Development Corporation paid $615 a square foot, a record price in the city, for the New York Avenue property.

The 720,000 square-foot (66,890 sq m) office building is twice the size of the Capital Garage and houses the Inter-American Development Bank.