Treasury Historical Association

Treasury Building

To learn more, visit the Treasury Department webpage

A Brief History of the Treasury Building

The present Treasury Building is the Department’s third office building in Washington, DC.  The first two had been burned in 1814 and 1833.  The third oldest, continuously occupied Federal office building in Washington (after the center portion of the White House and two portions of the US Capitol Building), the Treasury Building was constructed between 1836 and 1869 in four major phases. Treasury is unique among Cabinet agencies in that it has remained on the same parcel of land since the Seat of Government transferred from Philadelphia to Washington, DC in 1800.

The first part of the Building, completed in 1842, is the East or Fifteenth Street wing, with its magnificent colonnade of 30 36-foot columns, and the center wing which together formed a T-shaped building of austere Neoclassical style.  The more ornate Greek Revival South and West wings were added later, and were completed in 1860 and 1864, respectively.  The last wing, the North wing, also Greek Revival in style, was completed in 1869 and contains the Cash Room, a two-story marble room of impressive dimension and detail.

In October 1972, the Treasury Building was dedicated as a National Historic Landmark, in recognition of its monumental architecture and historical significance.

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