From the early part of 1820 to November, 1866, the Department of State was located at the corner of Fifteenth Street and Pennsylvania Avenue NW., in what was known as the Executive Building. The picture shown below was given to William McNeir, chief of the division of accounts of that department, by Thomas Ridgate, who found it in the attic of the old building. It will be noted from the picture, which shows the Treasury Department Building columns at the extreme left, that it was taken before the building was razed to make room for the north wing of the present Treasury Department Building; the rest of the new building had at that time been erected. Of this building Jonathan Eliot states, in his Historical Sketches of the Ten Mile Square, describing Washington in 1830: At the distance of about 200 yards, on the east of the President’s house, are situated two buildings for the Department of State and of the Treasury; and at the same distance on the west are two others for the War and Navy Departments. These buildings are all of the same dimensions and construction; they are 160 feet long and 55 feet wide, of brick, two stories in height; they are divided in their length by a broad passage, with rooms on each side, and a spacious staircase in the center. The two most northerly buildings are ornamented with an Ionic portico of six columns and pediment. The grounds about these offices have been graduated and planted of late years, and the shrubbery begins to present a pleasing appearance. [Illustration: EXECUTIVE BUILDING, 1820-1866] W. K. Force, in his Picture of Washington for 1850, said, speaking of the northeast Executive Building: The first floor is occupied by the Fifth Auditor of the Treasury at the east end, and the Second Comptroller of the Treasury at the west end. On the second floor are the apartments of the Secretary of State and his suite; also the library of the department, containing some ten or twelve thousand volumes. John Quincy Adams was Secretary of State when the move to this new home was made, and thereafter followed a long list of distinguished Secretaries, the last to occupy this building being William H. Seward, from 1861 to 1869. The north wing of the present Treasury Department Building bears on its exterior wall on Fifteenth Street a tablet, erected April 30, 1929, by the Kiwanis Club of Washington, in cooperation with the Committee on Marking Points of Historic Interest, which contains the following inscription: FRIENDSHIP BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA WAS DEVELOPED AND STRENGTHENED BY THE SIGNING OF THE WEBSTER-ASHBURTON TREATY, ON AUGUST 9, 1842, IN THE OLD STATE DEPARTMENT BUILDING WHICH STOOD ON THIS SITE. THIS TREATY ESTABLISHED THE NORTHEASTERN BOUNDARY BETWEEN THE TWO COUNTRIES. On March 3, 1871, Congress appropriated half a million dollars to start work on the State, War, and Navy Departments Building. The act provided: