Washington Post Feb 15 2009 Interest in Armenian Museum at Bank Building Still Strong, Answer Man Finds By John Kelly Sunday, February 15, 2009; Page C03 Today I was at the corner of 14th and G streets NW, and once again I wondered what the story is on the southeast corner of that intersection, where the National Bank of Washington and Hahn Shoes were. It's quite a handsome building. But with all that has been going on in downtown Washington, I'm surprised it is allowed to remain an eyesore. -- Marilyn A. Jones, Washington Answer Man first answered this question in 2004. Back then, he said that the handsome 1925 structure -- designed by Alfred C. Bossom and Jules-Henri de Sibour in the Classical Revival style, with touches of the Baroque -- would reopen in 2008 as a museum devoted to the Armenian genocide. You will recall that 2008 came and went, and there is no museum. I asked Rouben Adalian, director of the Armenian National Institute, what's taking so long. He said there are several factors. Usually you assemble a museum collection and then build a building to put it in. "In this case, the property came first," he said. Wealthy Armenian Americans purchased the building, and several adjacent properties, and donated it to Rouben's group for a museum. "So we've had to think about how to create the museum following the purchase of the property." Another complication is that both the exterior and interior of the building have historic designation protection. Martinez & Johnson Architects and museum designers Gallagher & Associates can't just rip out the inside and start from scratch. Finally, this isn't the greatest time to be raising money. But Rouben was gracious enough to let Answer Man inside to take a look -- with a video camera. (Check out the exclusive footage at http://www.washingtonpost.com/johnkelly.) Answer Man can report that it's like entering a beautiful post-apocalyptic time capsule. A wall clock is stopped at 3:18. Deposit slips sit in drawers. The interior is incredibly ornate, with an intricate coffered ceiling, large arched windows and enormous columns. When the bank opened -- as the Federal-American Bank -- it was the first to have the banking room on the second floor. This reduced noise from the street and served as a security measure: Robbers would have to run down a flight of stairs or take the elevator. Some of the tellers' counters date to the bank's earliest days. A tiny plaque on one reads "Patent 1,673,639. John Poole." Poole, the bank's president, invented an open counter system that replaced the individual tellers' cages that had been common before. (Poole wrote that the cages and tiny windows through which business was traditionally conducted "keep the customer and teller from personal contact and prevent the cultivation of friendly relations.") Downstairs, a massive circular safe door opens onto the safe deposit boxes. They look like they've been ransacked, the drawers open, tiny keys dangling from each lock. In some rooms, paint curls from the walls. Engineers have drilled holes to test walls and foundations, leaving piles of concrete and plaster dust. But there's still a certain grandeur about the building. The centenary of the Armenian genocide -- the killing of 1.5 million Armenians at the hands of the Turks -- is in 2015. "It'd be ideal to have [the museum] open way before then," said Rouben. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/14/AR2009021401565.html