Navy Annex

Navy Annex
Part of Naval Support Activity Washington
Arlington, VA
The Navy Annex in 2006 with part of Arlington National Cemetery in the background
Type	Multi-use
Site information
Condition	Fair
Site history
Built	1941
Demolished	Jan 2013

The Navy Annex was a building near the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia mainly used as offices for the United States Department of the Navy. The facility was also known as Federal Office Building 2. It was demolished in 2013 to make room for an expansion of Arlington National Cemetery and other uses.

The Navy Annex was originally built as a warehouse in 1941, with one million square feet of space arranged into eight wings. It housed 6000 workers at its peak. The building was not considered to be architecturally distinguished, and it was never renovated during its lifetime except for minor upgrades made in the 1970s.

In November 1941, the United States Marine Corps moved their headquarters from the Main Navy Building on the National Mall to the Navy Annex, where it would stay until 1996. During this time the Commandant of the Marine Corps was the only one of the four Department of Defense service chiefs who did not have his office in the Pentagon. The Missile Defense Agency also came to be located in the Navy Annex. During the September 11 attacks, when the Navy Command Center at the Pentagon was destroyed, it was reconstituted at the Navy Annex.

A 1998 Congressional proposal to expand Arlington National Cemetery onto land that the Navy Annex and Fort Myer then occupied led to concerns that Arlington County officials had not been properly consulted, leading to the withdrawal of the proposal. However, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2000 (Public Law 106-65), which was enacted into law during October 1999, subsequently required the Secretary of Defense to transfer to the Secretary of the Army administrative jurisdiction of the 36 acres (15 ha) Navy Annex property. The Act required the Secretary of Defense to demolish the Annex's buildings and prepare the property for use as part of the Cemetery, while requiring the Secretary of the Army to incorporate the Annex property into the Cemetery.