[3] Completed in 1908, during the administration of 26th President Theodore Roosevelt, the building is a contributing structure to the Pennsylvania Avenue National Historic Site.

Previously, the D.C. government had been housed in the old District of Columbia City Hall, a historic neoclassical styled structure on Indiana Avenue, constructed 1822–1849 by George Hadfield.

During the crisis, later known as the 1977 Hanafi Siege, two of those gunmen held about a dozen hostages inside the council chambers on the fifth floor of the District Building.

Then-councilman Marion Barry was hit by a stray bullet during the commotion, which left two others dead, including DC Protective Services Police Officer Wesley Cantrell.

The District Building was designed in the American Beaux Arts classical revival style and takes up the entire block between 14th and 13 1/2th Streets NW, south of Pennsylvania Avenue across from Freedom Plaza.

[3] In January 2005, the statue of Alexander Robey Shepherd, Governor of the District of Columbia from 1873 to 1874, was restored to its original location in front of the Wilson Building at the northwest corner.