The two lost observatory buildings, one pictured on far right, along with four sheds, in a c. 1900 photo (U.S. Navy photo)

The U.S. Navy upset astronomers across the country last week, when it demolished two telescope buildings in Washington, D.C.

The two structures, located at the U.S. Naval Observatory on the grounds of what is now the vice president's residence, were built in 1890 and rebuilt in the 1930s.

The U.S. Commission of Fine Arts recommended last year that the Navy save the two buildings, designed by Richard Morris Hunt (1828-1895), but the Navy decided to tear them down before workers begin constructing a new national master clock facility on the grounds.

"These two buildings weren't in the way of the new construction going on. There was really no need to take them down," says Gail Cleere, author of a book about the observatory. "It's like going to Greenwich, England, and picking apart the Royal Observatory."

Built to house transit telescopes, which determine precise locations of stars as well as precise time, the two buildings were in use until the late 1990s. The Navy could have reused them as a retreat center or conference center, says Cleere, who, along with others in the field of astronomy sent letters to the Navy last week, urging officials to stop the demolition. The buildings, along with four vinyl-sided sheds nearby, came down anyway.

"Were they beautiful? Of course not. They were utilitarian buildings," Cleere says. "The work that went on inside these buildings is so historic."

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