The
Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House (originally
U.S. Custom House) is a building in
New York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States, and the center of the New York metropolitan area, which is among the most populous urban areas in the world. A leading global city, New York exerts a powerful influence over worldwide commerce, finance, culture, fashion and entertainment...
, built 1902 - 1907 by the federal government to house the duty collection operations for the port of New York. It is located near the southern tip of
ManhattanManhattan is one of the five boroughs of New York City, located primarily on Manhattan Island at the mouth of the Hudson River.New York County, which has the same boundaries as the Borough of Manhattan , is the most densely populated county in the United States, with a 2008 population of 1,634,795...
, next to
Battery ParkBattery Park is a 25-acre public park located at the Battery, the southern tip of the New York City borough of Manhattan, facing New York Harbor. The Battery is named for the artillery battery that was stationed there at various times by the Dutch and British in order to protect the settlements...
, at 1
Bowling GreenBowling Green is a small public park in Lower Manhattan at the foot of Broadway next to the site of the original Dutch fort of New Amsterdam. It is the oldest public park in New York City and the location of the Charging Bull bronze sculpture...
. The building is now the home of the New York branch of the
National Museum of the American IndianThe National Museum of the American Indian is a museum dedicated to the life, languages, literature, history, and arts of the native peoples of the Western Hemisphere. It was established in 1989 through an Act of Congress...
as well as the Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York.
Architecture
The building was designed by Minnesotan
Cass GilbertCass Gilbert was a prominent American architect. An early proponent of skyscrapers in works like the Woolworth Building, Gilbert was also responsible for numerous museums and libraries , state capitol buildings as well as...
, who later designed the
Woolworth BuildingThe Woolworth Building, at 57 stories, is one of the oldest—and one of the most famous—skyscrapers in New York City. More than 95 years after its construction, it is still one of the fifty tallest buildings in the United States as well as one of the twenty tallest buildings in New York City...
, which is visible from the building's front steps. The selection of Gilbert to design the building was marked with controversy. Until 1893 federal office buildings were designed by government architects under the
Office of the Supervising ArchitectThe Office of the Supervising Architect was an agency of the United States Treasury Department that designed federal government buildings from 1852 to 1939....
of the
United States Department of the TreasuryThe Department of the Treasury is an executive department and the treasury of the United States federal government. It was established by an Act of Congress in 1789 to manage government revenue...
. In 1893 the Tarsney Act permitted the Supervising Architect to hire private architects following a competition. The Supervising Architect
James Knox TaylorJames Knox Taylor was Supervising Architect of the United States Department of the Treasury from 1897 to 1912. As such his name is listed as supervising architect of hundreds of federal buildings built throughout the United States during the period....
picked Gilbert who earlier had been his partner at the Gilbert & Taylor architect firm in St. Paul, Minnesota. The scandal never quite blew over and in 1913 the Act was repealed.
It was constructed between 1902 and 1907. It is a masterpiece of the
Beaux-Arts styleBeaux-Arts architecture denotes the academic neoclassical architectural style that was taught at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. The style "Beaux Arts" is above all the cumulative product of two and a half centuries of instruction under the authority, first of the Académie royale...
, where public transactions were conducted under a noble Roman dome. It incorporates Beaux Arts and
City Beautiful movementThe City Beautiful Movement was a Progressive reform movement in North American architecture and urban planning that flourished in the 1890s and 1900s with the intent of using beautification and monumental grandeur in cities...
planning principles, combining architecture, engineering, and fine arts. Lavish sculptures, paintings, and decorations by well-known artists of the time, such as
Daniel Chester FrenchDaniel Chester French was an American sculptor. His best-known work is the sculpture of a seated Abraham Lincoln at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.-Biography:...
(the seated groups of the Four Continents on the front steps),
Louis St. GaudensLouis St. Gaudens , was a significant American sculptor of the Beaux-Arts generation....
and
Albert JaegersAlbert Jaegers was an American sculptor born in Elberfeld, Germany, who moved to Cincinnati, Ohio as a boy. Originally apprenticed to his father as a wood carver, he studied at the Cincinnati Art Academy and thereafter in London, Paris, and Rome.Jaegers was a member of the National Sculpture...
, embellish the facade, the two-story entry portico, the main hall parallel to the facade, the Rotunda, and the Collector's Reception Room. Sculpture was so crucial to the scheme that the figure groups had independent contracts. Above the main cornice are standing sculptures representing the great seafaring nations, representing American seagoing commerce as the modern heir of the Phoenicians. In 1936, during the
Great DepressionThe Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
, the Works Projects Administration commissioned murals for the main rotunda from
Reginald MarshReginald Marsh was an American painter, born in Paris, most notable for his detailed depictions of life in New York City in the 1920s and 1930s...
(
illustration, right).
The building sits on the site of
Fort AmsterdamFort Amsterdam was a fort on the southern tip of Manhattan that was the administrative headquarters for the Dutch and then British rule of New York from 1625 until being torn down in 1790 after the American Revolution.The construction of the...
, the fortification constructed by the
Dutch West India CompanyDutch West India Company was a chartered company of Dutch merchants. Among its founding fathers was Willem Usselincx . On June 3, 1621, it was granted a charter for a trade monopoly in the West Indies by the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands and given jurisdiction over the African slave...
to defend their operations in the
Hudson ValleyThe Hudson Valley refers to the valley of the Hudson River and its adjacent communities in New York State, generally from northern Westchester County northward to the cities of Albany and Troy...
. The fort became the nucleus of the
New AmsterdamNew Amsterdam was a 17th-century Dutch colonial settlement that later became the city now known as New York City.The town outside of Fort Amsterdam on Manhattan Island in the New Netherland territory which was situated between 38 and 42 degrees latitude of the Dutch Republic as of 1624...
settlement, and in turn, of
New York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States, and the center of the New York metropolitan area, which is among the most populous urban areas in the world. A leading global city, New York exerts a powerful influence over worldwide commerce, finance, culture, fashion and entertainment...
.
Historic Preservation
The building is on the
National Register of Historic PlacesThe National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
, and for both exterior and public interior spaces. The Customs House was one of the earliest designations of the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission, so in 1987 the completion of its preservation, spurred by Senator
Daniel Patrick MoynihanDaniel Patrick “Pat” Moynihan was an American politician and sociologist. A member of the Democratic Party, he was first elected to the United States Senate for New York in 1976, and was re-elected three times . He declined to run for re-election in 2000...
who saved the building from demolition in 1979, attracted much public attention: exterior and ceremonial interior spaces were cleaned and restored conserved, while old office space was renovated for Federal courtrooms and ancillary offices, for rental offices and meeting rooms, and for a 350-seat auditorium with state of-the art projection facilities. Upgrades of fire-safety, security, telecommunications, and heating, air conditioning, and ventilating systems accompanied alterations.
The site was declared a
National Historic LandmarkA National Historic Landmark is a building, site, structure, object, or district, that is officially recognized by the United States government for its historical significance. All NHLs are listed in the National Register of Historic Places...
in 1976.,
Further reading
Durante, Dianne,
Outdoor Monuments of Manhattan: A Historical Guide (New York University Press, 2007), has a chapter discussing each of French's
Continents in detail.
External links