Tours of the Main Treasury Building, located at Fifteenth Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, in Washington, D.C. are available by advanced reservation through your Congressional offices. For more information on tours and reservations, please click here. Please note that this is NOT the tour for seeing the production of United States currency notes. To see currency production, you need to tour the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. You can also take a narrated Virtual Tour of the Main Treasury Building.
The Main Treasury Building is located at 1500 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, in Washington, D.C. This view is taken from the north. In the distance is the Washington Monument.
On the building's south side, you will see a statue of Alexander Hamilton, the first Secretary of the Treasury. On the north side, there is a statue of Albert Gallatin, the 4th Secretary of the Treasury, serving during the Jefferson and Madison administrations. On west side, next to the White House, you will see a reproduction of the . All visitors must enter through the Fifteenth Street entrance.
Follow this link to learn more about the History of the Main Treasury Building.
The first stop on the tour is the Salmon P. Chase Suite, one of the restored historic rooms on the third floor. This suite of offices was used by , who served as Secretary of the Treasury during the Civil War. Entries from Chase's diary indicate several meetings took place with President Lincoln in this room. This suite of offices is currently used by the General Counsel of the Treasury Department.
The next stop on the tour is the Secretary's Conference Room and Diplomatic Reception Room. The conference room is located directly across the hall from the Secretary's Office and next door to the Diplomatic Reception Room by a connecting hallway.
These rooms recreate a typical mid-19th century government interior. They are used by the Secretary of the Treasury for senior staff meetings, diplomatic receptions, press conferences and interviews, and meetings with other Cabinet officers and foreign dignitaries.
The final stop on the third floor is the Andrew Johnson Suite, location of the restored office used by President Johnson as his temporary White House immediately following the assassination of Abraham Lincoln in 1865. Black mourning cloth draped the Reception Room during the days following the assassination. The portrait of President Johnson is on loan courtesy of the Corcoran Gallery of Art.
On the second floor is the Burglar-proof Vault, with its restored decorative cast iron wall. Built in 1864, the wall lining was composed of metal balls sandwiched between three steel plates that were intended to prevent a burglar from penetrating the vault. It is now part of the office of the Treasurer of the United States.
The historic marble Cash Room on the second floor is the final stop on the tour. It was first used for President Grant's Inaugural Reception in 1869 and was restored to the way it looked then. It has been the site of many press conferences, meetings, receptions and bill signing ceremonies. Unfortunately, it was severely damaged in the fire that occurred on June 26, 1996, but the restoration to repair water damage caused by the fire is now complete.
We wish to thank the for helping us to maintain this information. We also invite you to visit the Curator's Home Page to read more about the architecture of the Treasury Building and its historic collection.