423 Canal St
New Orleans, LA 70130, USA

U.S. Customhouse (Old Post Office and Customhouse) - National Register of Historic Places

Statement of Significance:

The Custom House oh Canal Street is one of the most important buildings in New Orleans architecturally and historically. By its location at one of the comers of the Vieux Carre Historic District, it forms an anchor at the upper end of the district as the former U* S, Mint on Esplanade Avenue forms at the lower end, and has been rated of national historic and architectural importance by the Vieux Carre Survey. It occupies in part, the site of Fort St. Louis, one of the five forts erected in 1792 by the Spanish Governor Carondelet as part of the city fortifications. A large part of the site was occupied at that time by the Spanish Royal Tobacco warehouses, which with most of Fort St, Louis was destroyed in the great fire of December 8, 1794 that blew up the nearby powder magazine. The Spanish custom house, located across what is now Iberville Street, escaped destruction in this fire.

In 1^07 a new custom house was designed by the architect Benjamin Henry Latrober then surveyor of the Public Buildings of the United States, this building was contracted for by Robert Alexander of Washington and completed in 1809, probably the first federal building erected in the recently acquired Louisiana Purchase territory. This custom house was replaced by a larger structure on the same site, designed by the architect Benjamin Buisson an engineer in the Napoleonic armies and built by Joseph Jenkins of Boston, in 1828 the New Orleans Mariners Church Society was permitted to erect a Seaman’s Bethel on part of the site at the comer of Canal and Decatur streets. This handsome design by Joseph Piled architect was never fully completed and when the present Custom House was begun in 1848, both the church and the former custom house were demolished.

The cornerstone of the building was laid on February 22, 1849 in the presence of Henry Clay; the architect was Alexander Thompson Wood who died in October I854 before the completion of the building. In January 1848 Thomas K, Wharton was appointed as a resident supervising architect. Major G. T, Beauregard of tie Corps of Engineers, U.S, Army being superintendent of construction, Beauregard served until his appointment as superintendent at West Point just prior to the beginning of the Civil War, Wharton served until his death in 1862, recording details and sketches of the construction in the building in his diary.

Most of the better known mid-nineteenth century architects of New Orlean were at one time connected with the building of the Custom House, James Gallier, Sr,, architect, submitted a report and estimates for a new custom house to the Treasury Department in January later submitted designs for the building which were not adopted, James Dakin, who had submitted a Gothic design for the building in January 1846, temporarily replaced Wood as architect in 1850-51, Louis Reynolds also served as architect for a time.

During the Civil War the unfinished building was occupied by Confederate forces and then re-taken by the Federal Amy When New Orleans was captured in 1862, and a portion of it was used to house Confederate prisoners. It was not until 1881 that the building was finally completed with the addition of the present cast iron cornice. It served as the city's main post office and federal court house until the U, S, Post Office and Court house on Lafayette Square was competed in I915. When first ‘built it was considered the largest federal building in the United States except the capitol in Washington, Itis one of the city's most significant landmarks.

U.S Custom House, 423 Canal St New Orleans, Orleans Parish, LA

The structure is architecturally significant, not only because of its monumental size, but also because of the unusual foundation system on which it rests. This system was quite common in the mid-nineteenth century in New Orleans. Notable also is the main business room, the Marble Hall, regarded as one of the finest Greek Revival interiors in America. Several important architects of the time were connected with its construction.