statedepartment

It wouldn't surprise me if even at the height of WWII, it wasn't nearly as paranoid a "Fortress Washington" as it is today.

This is now the State Department building. It was completed in the late 1930s, yet the War Department still needed to build the Pentagon to keep up with its growth and employees.

Given where the building is relative to the Potomac River, that plane could simply be on approach to National Airport, or back then even Bolling Air Force Base. Even today, looking in that (probable) direction you would likely see planes on approach to National. Still, that doesn't condone "Fortress Washington" :(

My mom worked here for a period of time during WWII. She worked in the section that notified family members of soldiers deaths.

I wish it were still named the War department.. a more accurate term.

I always find it abit odd when one person of a married couple chooses to wear ethnic clothes and the other one wears western dress. However it is usually the woman in the ethnic apparel

It looks like his wife might have been a Westerner. She looks Caucasian.

Regardless, NO SOUP FOR YOU!

According to the New York Times: Persian Charges d'Affaire in Washington from 1909 to 1915 (when he was appointed Consul General to New York), he was married to Florence Breed of Boston. "Mirza" is a title of honor. Ref: query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?_r=1&res=980CE...

From US Department of State: www.state.gov/s/cpr/94046.htm Confirming Noel's comment, he was Charge d'Affaires for Iran/Persia.