Donors help restore fire-damaged Treasury building

Former and current Treasury Department employees proved recently that they love not only their work, but their workplace.

On June 26, 1996, 1,200 Treasury Department staffers were forced into the street by a fire in the roof of their 19th-century headquarters building next door to the White House. Almost four years later, more than 150 donors have raised $201,355 to restore the building's distinctive touches, including gilded ceilings and domes.

"We decided after the roof fire that we'd like to do something to cover the kind of things you can't expect the taxpayers to cover, like gilded ceilings," said Treasury retiree Michael D. Serlin, chair of the Special Treasury Restoration Committee.

The fire devastated a fourth floor conference room, ruined plastic moldings in the building's domes and caused serious damage to Treasury's historic Cash Room, a grand marble hall that has been used since 1869.

"Treasury got appropriations to make it an effective office building again, but the curator said it would cost about $200,000 to re-gild the building's ceilings, the two stairwell domes and the Cash Room," Serlin said.

So the all-volunteer committee was formed to raise money for the additional restoration work. They created a brochure with photos showing the damage the fire caused, and enlisted several former Treasury secretaries to support their cause.

Among the more generous contributors, said Serlin, were ex-Secretaries Robert Rubin, who served under President Clinton, C. Douglas Dillon (who served from 1961 to 1965) and G. William Miller (1979-1981).

Treasury employees who had worked in the building, particularly top management officials, were also solicited for donations. On April 15, 2000 the campaign ended, having exceeded its goal of raising $200,000.

"In a town as transient as Washington, it is really encouraging that over 150 donors care enough about a building in which most of them worked for a time that they were willing to contribute to its restoration," said Serlin.

The commission will formally provide a check to Treasury within the next two months and the restoration work will likely be completed by next May, Serlin said.