The state treasury office's historic restoration was officially completed Monday, with the doors opened to the public for the first time in almost two years.
State Treasurer Dennis Milligan reopened the suite in the state Capitol during a news conference that unveiled the effort to return the office to its original 1912 appearance.
"When you walk through the doors of the office, you are going back to 1912," he said in an interview with the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. "For the most part, if you looked at a picture snapped from 1912 or 1913, you will be hard-pressed to see the difference. From the teller windows to the bars and the woodwork and the vault itself, which is over 100 years old. We tried to get as close as we can get to the original details."
Milligan said more than 100 people attended the ceremony in the Capitol Rotunda. The first tour came soon after.
"We are expecting to have a lot of visitors throughout the course of the day with the legislators being in session," he said. Lawmakers are in session to consider congressional redistricting.
The renovations also included raising the ceilings, fixing cracked marble, updating the 108-year-old vault, restoring the paint scheme to its original colors and creating more public space.
"I always want to leave things better than I found them," Milligan said in a news release. "So my hope is that by restoring this office, we've preserved a piece of history that will be able to be enjoyed for many generations to come."
Milligan said the treasurer's office is one of the most-toured places in the Capitol -- with around 23,000 visitors annually -- making the restorations a much-needed addition.
"We are one of the only states in the country where you can store up to $500,000 in the vault and have your picture taken with it," he said. "The vault is something to see in itself as well."
The Arkansas Natural and Cultural Resources Council awarded Milligan's office two grants in 2020 and 2021 that totaled $1.65 million to complete the project.
"The Treasurer and his staff have done a wonderful job restoring the offices to reflect the importance of this National Register-listed building," Stacy Hurst, secretary of the state Department of Parks, Heritage and Tourism, said in a news release.
Hurst, who is also the state's historic preservation officer and secretary of the Arkansas Natural and Cultural Resources Council, said the organization has invested about $17 million into the Capitolover the past 17 years.
"This classical structure remains one of the most-visited locations in all of Arkansas," she said at the news conference, which was being livestreamed on Facebook until the website went down. "The state Capitol is well-kept over the past 100 years, but she needs frequent attention and care."
The Capitol was completed in 1915, but officials had moved in starting in 1911, according to the Encyclopedia of Arkansas.
The restoration of the treasurer's office started in 2019.
"It was bittersweet, I would say," Milligan said. "We officially shut down in November of 2019 and things went longer than what we planned for, but everything has been in a quandary since covid. Better late then never."
Large group tours of the space can be scheduled, while no appointments are needed for solo tours.
"We got a tour guide who will help assist with that, and photos can be taken and digitally downloaded later in the afternoon," Milligan said.
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story misstated the amount that can be stored in the state treasury’s vault. $500,000 can be stored in the vault.