The Great Depression, from 1929 to 1941, brought economic catastrophe to millions of Americans, but in Washington it also brought a building boom as the federal government expanded to confront the crisis. In 1931 alone, Congress approved new government buildings and schools, street paving, bridges, and sewers, providing badly needed work for thousands. By then, the Old City Hall/Courthouse had lost most of its D.C. government functions as the city's commissioners, police and fire chiefs, and engineers moved to the 1908 District Building on Pennsylvania Avenue, but growing office needs turned attention again to Judiciary Square. By 1943, the courthouses and offices there were complete. Municipal architect Nathan C. Wyeth designed the 1941 Art Deco Municipal Center across Indiana Avenue for police and fire headquarters and other agencies, and he also designed three courthouses for Judiciary Square to harmonize with the Old City Hall: the Juvenile Court at 409 E. Street and the Police and Municipal Courts framing today's National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial. One Judiciary Square, across Fourth Street, served as D.C.'s city hall from 1992 to 2001 while the District Building on Pennsylvania Avenue was renovated, and in 2007 it received a green roof as part of Mayor Adrian Fenty's Greening the District program. Along D Street, the Francis Perkins U.S. Department of Labor building honors President Franklin D. Roosevelt's secretary of labor, the first woman Cabinet member and the principal architect of the Social Security Act and other worker protections.
