The WWI-era Liberty Loan building has been sold to a little-known Virginia buyer, Bisnow reported last week. Originally built as a “tempo” building — one of the boxy structures that sprang up during the wars to house a rapidly expanding government — the building was home to the wartime bond program. It most recently housed a minor Treasury office.

Now it’s being deaccessioned as part of a real-estate sell-off that has gathered steam under the Donald Trump administration. It’s not clear what the new owner, Satvik "Vinny" Raj, intends to do with the place. According to the Washington Business Journal, the property was marketed as a candidate for residential or hotel conversion, or as a trophy office.

Trophy sure seems like the right word: Considering that the building is just steps from the Tidal Basin, the $17 million sale price is quite a bargain — especially since the deal includes a slice of the National Mall.

Americans worried about their tax dollars might look at the news and ask whether they’re getting good value in return for their properties. D.C.ers should ask another, related question: So long as our government is selling off local real estate, shouldn’t we maybe have some idea what it’ll be used for?

A building like Liberty Loan could become something really cool. Or it could be part of another generation of dreary, lifeless buildings on the south side of the Mall. Watch the progress closely: Obscure real estate deals like this one can shape a city for years to come.

Welcome to City Cast’s occasional series introducing Washington to the namesakes behind all those alphabetized streets that crisscross D.C.. Today’s request comes from newsletter reader Elliott B. of Sigsbee Place, NE.

A tiny little road running between 10th and 12th Streets NE in Brookland, Sigsby Place is named after someone associated with an epochal event in U.S. History. Charles Dwight Sigsbee is best known for having been the captain of the U.S.S. Maine, which blew up in Havana harbor in 1898, killing 268 sailors and marines.

American media blamed the Spaniards, though many historians eventually disagreed. By then, it was too late: Fury over the explosion caused the Spanish-American war, which in turn led to the U.S. conquest of Puerto Rico and the Philippines. As for Sigsbee, he survived the calamity, went on to command a couple other ships in the war, and was later exonerated for the Maine’s sinking.

He died in 1923, just as houses were being laid out on a quiet new D.C. street that needed a name starting in “S.”