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1861 U.S. Custom House Architectural Details
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The U. S. Custom House, then one of the grandest public buildings in Texas, appears in an engraving from the 1880s.
No. 5 on the Places to Visit Map.
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The U.S Custom House in Galveston is a simply-detailed classical revival two-story brick building located near the boundaries of Galveston’s Downtown and the residential East End Historic District, not far from the waterfront. The most notable features are the projecting double gallery on the west façade and the inset double galleries on the longer, north and south façades. The exterior walls are hand-fired, red-brown bricks with tan bricks used as accents around the corners and doorjambs. The prominent location at the southeast corner of 20th and Post Office Streets emphasizes its importance to Galveston’s shipping-based economy.
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The emblem of the United States was worked into the second-floor pediments of the U.S Custom House, a designation shortly to be contested by war.
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Nearly all the original decorative elements on the exterior of the building are cast-iron including column, cornices, balustrades, dentils, entablatures and window architraves. These elements, from the specifications and designs of the original architect Ammi B. Young, were made in New York and shipped to Galveston. The first-story galleries have Ionic columns set on a granite base. An entablature extends completely around the building separating the first and second floors. The piano nobile is larger in height, and the galleries contain taller, Corinthian columns and a cast-iron balustrade. A classically- inspired balustrade caps the building.
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Both Ionic and Corinthian colums were employed in the classically-inspired design of the Custom House galleries.
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The interior of the building is H-shaped in plan and was originally designed to provide space for the Customs Service and the Post Office. Extant original elements include the elaborate cast-iron, double-return stair leading to the second floor. The stairs’ ornamental newel posts have an acanthus motif and fluted shafts set on octagonal bases. The cast-iron risers are pierced with a circular fret design.
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Like the exterior ironwork, the grand staircase on the north entrance to the Custom House was shipped, ready to assemble, from the New York.
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