Although as the name implies it was built to be a foreign mission, it was never in fact used as such; instead, it served as the central office of the District's municipal parks department for nearly seventy years.

The Renaissance Revival building was designed in 1928 by George Oakley Totten Jr., and constructed by Mary Foote Henderson in 1929–1930 as part of her attempt to create a new Embassy Row "in the vicinity of Meridian Hill Park and Mount Pleasant".

[2] She died in 1931 and, perhaps due to "the onset of the Depression as well as the failure of Henderson's heirs to pursue her business interests",[2] the building never became an embassy.

"[2] — the context has been lost: at some point, the section of Lamont Street adjacent to the building was closed, consolidated with the property immediately to the north, and turned into a parking lot and playground.

[3] In 2020, the Junior Achievement of Greater Washington organization, which operates the Powell Recreation Center in Embassy Building No.