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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Whendric, post: 13485351, member: 143854&quot;]I think I just answered my own question: <a href="https://home.treasury.gov/about/history/the-treasury-building/treasury-cash-room" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://home.treasury.gov/about/history/the-treasury-building/treasury-cash-room" rel="nofollow">https://home.treasury.gov/about/history/the-treasury-building/treasury-cash-room</a></p><p><br /></p><p>&quot;When the Cash Room opened officially in June 1869 it functioned principally as a &quot;banker&#039;s bank,&quot; supplying area commercial banks with coins and currency f rom Treasury vaults and handling the government accounts of the District of Columbia. Services were also offered to the public, including cashing of government checks, exchanging new money for old, redeeming silver certificates and gold certificates, and selling U.S. Treasury bonds.</p><p><br /></p><p>Up until the early 1900s, gold, silver, and paper currency were delivered to the Treasury Building in horse-drawn vans and unloaded at the sidewalk entrance on Fifteenth Street, then hauled through corridors on hand-carts and deposited on a cargo lift, the first elevator in the building, which carried them to the Cash Room vaults. Several million dollars might be contained in the vaults at any given time; bags of notes, coins, and bullion were stacked floor to ceiling.</p><p><br /></p><p>Changes made to modernize and meet the demands posed by the great numbers of patrons were not always attractive, and they contributed to a general deterioration in the appearance of the room that occurred over years of wear and tear. By the 1970s, the costs of operating the Cash Room and maintaining its staff and security could no longer be justified. The Cash Room closed on June 30, 1976.&quot;[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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