An online poll conducted by Federal Times shows that respondents think the FBI's new headquarters should still be named after former Bureau director J. Edgar Hoover.
Hoover led the poll with more than 31 percent of the vote, narrowly beating out not naming the building at all, a choice that garnered almost 27 percent.
FBI agent Edwin C. Shanahan, the first FBI agent killed in the line of duty in 1925, came in third with 18 percent of the vote. Fictional FBI agent Fox Mulder, a popular character on the TV show "The X-Files," followed with 15 percent.
Famed Watergate source W. Mark Felt—also known as "Deep Throat"—and former directors Louis Freeh, William Webster and Robert Mueller rounded out the poll.
Hoover—who served as director of the FBI for 37 years and 11 years as head of its predecessor, the Bureau of Investigation— had the agency's D.C. headquarters named after him following his death in 1972.
The former director remains a controversial figure in the Bureau's history, mainly for his use of surveillance and illegal wiretaps against Americans.
On April 20, Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., sent a letter to General Services Administrator Denise Turner Roth, asking her not to name the proposed new FBI headquarters after Hoover.
The planned headquarters will be in either Greenbelt and Landover, Md. or Springfield, Va.
Roth, as GSA administrator, has the power to name the new building, but many such dedications derive from legislation in Congress.
The GSA has not yet named a location for the proposed building.
