Tours of the Treasury Building on Pennsylvania Avenue are available to the public on Saturdays by reservation only. There is now a preview of the tour via the Internet at http://www.ustreas.gov/treasury/archives/archive.html and worth a visit. U. S. Treasury Department’s full color guide to restoration click here.
To help support the preservation of this building, an Association of members of people interested in the restoration and history of the Treasury Department is now operating. To find out more about the Treasury Historical Association, write to them at: P.O. Box 28118, NW, Washington, DC 20038-8118. For those who live in Washington, there are interesting programs on the building, on the Department of the Treasury and on Washington given during the winter months. Ornaments, calendars and other gifts are available for purchase from THA to help raise money for their programs and to aupport the various restoration programs for Treasury building, Docent Training program, historical research on the entire Treasury Department and other charitable activities.
East Wing
The Treasury Building was originally designed by Robert Mills. An excellent book on Robert Mills is available from the American Institute of Architects and other sources. John Bryan was editor and author of much of the chapters on the South Carolina portion of the carrer of Robert Mills. It contains little specifically on the Treasury Building but the Mills Papers prepared by Pamela Scott is a good resource as is the curator’s office of the Treaury building located at the Treasury Department. The Treasury Department quickly outgrew the space and Mills was asked to design an extension. His life ended before the decision was made for the continuation of construction. The construction was controversial but the main intention was to build a large fire proof structure. Several fires in Washington destroyed important records and Congress recognized the importance of future Government buildings surviving fires. The design selected was the best technologically known at the time for a building that could survive fire hazards. The classical design was in keeping with the desire of Congress to use a style of architecture that symbolized democratic republics of ancient Greek and Rome. They also insisted Mills use sandstone from a nearby quarry for the exterior (which Mills resisted because the stone deteriorated in time and had to be replaced with the present exterior with the exception of the inner court exterior walls). Interior walls are brick. In public stories the brick walls were faced with plaster. It is simple and functional. The original entrance is seen in the drawing to the present second floor.
South Wing
The design chosen for the addition to the Treasury Building was by Thomas U. Walter. This design was changed under the various construction engineers in charge but is essentially as planned. It is unfortunate that Walter never supervised any of the work on this wing because there were some in charge of finances who double vouchered to steal from the Government and some who cut corners on plumbing or other features that caused terrible health problems that persisted for more than a decade. It is most probable that Walter would never have allowed these situations. Some construction supervisors were more interested in buildings they designed in other parts of the country leaving the oversight of construction to the other architects and draftsmen in the Treasury Department. With all of these troubles to the South Wing, it contains some of the most interesting and intricate interior designs in iron freeze work and decorative painting of the period of the early 1860s. Special effort was made to represent each State in native American agriculture, fauna, commerce, and populace (there were candelabra with Native American Indian motifs). Most of these were the design work of J. Goldboro Bruff. The only trouble with some of it was that it was so intricate that it was costly to cast or create in final working form. We are fortunate to have his fine work represented and restored in the Treasury building.
West Wing
The West wing to the Treasury Building was an alteration to the design of Thomas U. Walter. Isaiah Rogers wished it to be the main entrance because it faced the White House and so would be the entrance used by the President. The area between the White House and Treasury have been very nicely restored to reflect this intention.
The Rogers’s patented vault.
Isaiah Rogers was Chief of Bureau of Construction during the Civil War or War Between the States. He discovered that workers wanted more light and air in the building so he cut skylights in the roof down through each floor in the corridors installing glass lights between floors. The Treasury Department was growing in size so fast the building could not keep up with the it so Rogers added somewhat temporary structures on the roof of the completed floors. Concerned about costs he looked for ways to reduce orders and cancelled the order for stonework… an action which led to constant threats of legal action by the Maine stone quarry which had the original contract. He replaced some with stucco which deteriorated and had to be replaced in a few years. A positive cost cutting action was the canellation of a very thick walled vault that was supposed to discourage burglars in favor of his own patented vault with had thinner walls but at strategic places within the walls were large ball bearings. If a burglar tried to drill into the vault to insert dynamite or otherwise blast the wall, the drill would encounter the ball bearing and spin without penetrating any further. Visitors to the Treasury building will see this with a cutaway section of the vault wall on their tour.
West and North Wings
A suite of rooms originally designed for the use of the Secretary of the Treasury is now restored and named the Andrew Johnson Suite. When Abraham Lincoln was assassinated, Johnson allowed Mrs. Lincoln time to move out of the White House and chose to occupy this suite of rooms which at the time were among the first government office rooms to include a bath. Secretary Chase objected to the installation of a bath considering it “un-Republican” and too expensive. President Andrew Johnson had a comfortable suite of rooms because of the full bath, making the rooms comparable to the best hotels.
A. B. Mullett completed the West Wing and then redesigned the plan for the North Wing to accommodate the increasing needs of the growing Treasury Department. The most famous room is the Cash Room. Marble everywhere and a glorious room now used for receptions, lectures, and other special occasions by the Treasury Department. This room was the one most damaged by the roof repairs fire in June 1996 that closed the building for several days. The ceiling plaster was falling, the chandeliers were filled with water, the marble floor and walls were badly stained. The rooms on tour are open again to the public. The cash room is also open again. Damage has been repaired. Congress appropriated funds to help repair some of the damage because the roofer did not have sufficient insurance to cover the repair costs. At one point, 8 inches of water stood in the floor of the cash room. The detail work and historical elements needed to be restored. The work on this was finally completed thanks to the donations by many private individuals and a number of foundation grants. You can learn more about the activity currently going on in restoring the entire treasury building at the Treasury Historical Association web site.