The 1937 Galveston Federal Building | Art Deco & Federal power

This building is one of Galveston‘s courthouses, post office, and customs house. Built in 1937 and designed by architect Alfred C. Fin, this building replaced an earlier Federal building and post office on the same site. It has been home to a number of federal agencies and, at one point, housed the Galveston Bureau of the national weather service. Originally the building housed the post office on the first floor, the postal inspectors on the second floor, various government offices on the third floor, the customs department on the fourth floor, grand jury space on the fifth floor, judges, US attorneys, and US marshals in the ceremonial courtroom on the sixth floor, and finally on the seventh floor, cotton classifying rooms, the Bureau of Navigation, and the Bureau of Agriculture. The Art Deco style is distinctive in Galveston, as it stands out from most of Galveston‘s late 1800 buildings. It is noted that both the design and location of the building serve as symbols of the high power of the federal government. At the time of designing the building in the 1930s, it was a practice of the day that the art deco style used regional materials whenever possible. The stone on the outer edges of the building is porous fossiliferous limestone, a rock typically found in coastal areas. As a rendition of one of Galveston‘s federal buildings and customs house, the building still houses many federal agencies and continues to stand strong in Galveston’s skyline.

Interested in information covered in this episode? Reference links below:
The Living New Deal
Quick History of the 1937 Galveston Federal Building
1857 Federal Building

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