Architecture of the U.S. Custom House
- The Site: Bowling Green
- Constructing the Custom House
- Architecture and Design of the Custom House
- Management, Preservation, and Maintenance
The Site: Bowling Green
The monumental U.S. Custom House sits prominently on Bowling Green, the island’s first parade ground and park. It was originally the site of the city’s first custom house, which burned down in 1814.
Established in 1789, the Customs Service occupied various buildings up until 1888, when an updated, larger residence was needed for its expanding activities in the prospering port of New York. The old Custom House on Wall Street was overcrowded and the function of this service of the government was important enough to merit a building of considerable size and stature. In 1892, the U.S. Government purchased the Bowling Green site with plans to build the U.S. Custom House.
Constructing the Custom House
The Tarsney Act of 1893 played an important role in the design of the Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House. It authorized the Secretary of the Treasury to use private architects, selected through architectural competitions, to design federal buildings. As a process, it manifested the growing demand for greater architectural standards for public buildings. In 1899, Supervising Architect of the Treasury James Knox Taylor (1857 -1929) invited twenty firms to compete for the U.S. Custom House commission. Cass Gilbert’s elaborate Beaux Arts design was selected.
Under the supervision of John Peirce, construction began in 1900 and the building was completed in 1907. The first cornerstone was laid in October of 1901. A small copper casket was inserted into this cornerstone with 24 items—a photograph of the new Custom House, photos of the floor plans, U.S. Currency, newspapers of the day, and Fulton’s Guide to the Port and District of NY.
Architecture and Design of the Custom House
The U.S. Custom House is a steel-framed, seven story structure on the south side of Bowling Green at the foot of Broadway. The building was intentionally designed to face the historically significant Bowling Green rather than the harbor—reversing the usual orientation of a custom house. The building’s rusticated first story supports three stories of single and paired full-height, engaged Corinthian columns. The fifth story is encompassed within the frieze of the massive entablature. Above the entablature is the sixth story. The seventh story is within the mansard roof. A grand stair, facing Bowling Green, provides a stately approach to the building. The cavernous entry is set within a barrel vault, enhanced with blue, gold, rose, and green mosaics and marble columns. Bronze gates secure the paneled bronze doors leading into the great hall.
Enclosed pediments with molded brackets cap the windows of the piano nobile. Typical of the Beaux Arts style, the openings on the third and fourth stories are decorated with granite surrounds less detailed than the more prominent lower stories. Small rectangular openings pierce the frieze, providing daylight to the fifth story. Copper cresting outlines the red slate roof and dormer windows. The most significant decorative features on the exterior are the Daniel Chester French’s (1850 -1931) monumental sculptures representing the four continents of international commerce.
The interior of the Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House is an exquisite example of Beaux Arts planning combining clarity and symmetry, alongside ceremonial spaces. The building presents a square-plan with a central rotunda and surrounding corridors. The Rotunda, an elliptical structure sited in the middle of the interior court, is connected to the main building above the basement by corridors on four sides, so that four courts are formed. The structure rises two stories, and its domical roof rises a full story, making a grand space for what was the principle area of public contact with the Customs Service. The three-story oval rotunda measures 135 by 85 feet, with a skylight by Raphael Guastavino and murals by Reginald Marsh.
The ceremonial, two-story Great Hall, on the piano nobile, is ornately detailed with marble finishes in a variety of textures and colors quarried in the United States, Switzerland, and Italy. At both ends of the Great Hall are curved staircases finished with decorative plaster, bronze railings, and marble treads and risers. Other ceremonial places include the Collector’s Suite (with oak panels designed by Tiffany Studios), Cashier’s Office, and Naval Officer’s rooms. Nautical motifs, such as shells, snails, dolphins, tridents, and ships’ wheels and prows decorate these spaces.
Management, Preservation, and Maintenance
The design and management of federal buildings was reorganized in 1939. The work was shifted out of the Treasury Department and was assumed by the Public Buildings Administration of the Federal Works Agency. In July 1949, PBA was reorganized under the General Services Administration and renamed the Public Buildings Service. It is this agency which today is responsible for the management, preservation and maintenance of the former Custom House.
The building was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1972 and designated a National Historic Landmark in 1976. In 1979, New York City’s Landmarks Preservation Commission gave city landmark status to the exterior and public interest spaces. In recognition of Alexander Hamilton's many accomplishments and contributions to this country as the first Secretary of the Treasury, Congress passed legislation in October 1990 to redesignate the U.S. Custom House at Bowling Green as the Alexander Hamilton United States Custom House. His policies helped place the newborn nation on firm financial ground. Among his many accomplishments, Hamilton founded a national bank, the U.S. Coast Guard and the New York Post. The legislation went into affect on the 200th anniversary of the creation of Hamilton's financial plan for the nation. This plan was the foundation upon which we built a system that made the United States the leading financial power in the world, and New York the financial capitol of America in the 20th Century.
This Beaux-Arts monument to sea trade, the United States Customs Service, and the City of New York, is as rich in historic associations as it is in architectural details and intelligent planning. Its location in an open and historic space, its unashamed exuberance, internationality and pride make this building an important cultural artifact, and iconic of the American spirit.
