<p>The Lewis F. Powell Jr. United States Courthouse, also known as the USA Post Office and Customhouse, is a historic custom house, post office and courthouse located in Richmond, Virginia. Originally constructed in 1858, it was for decades a courthouse for the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia and the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. A new federal district courthouse opened in 2008, but the Powell Courthouse still houses the Fourth Circuit. The United States Congress renamed the building for Supreme Court justice Lewis F. Powell Jr., in 1993. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as USA Post Office and Customhouse.</p><br>
<h2>Building history</h2><br>
<p>The courthouse is one of only two buildings in the historic core of Richmond to survive the devastating 1865 fire that marked the evacuation of the Confederate Army during the last days of the Civil War. It is the oldest courthouse in GSA&#39;s inventory. Constructed as the USA Custom House, Post Office and Courthouse, the original portion of the building was completed in 1858 to designs of Ammi B. Young, then Supervising Architect of the USA Treasury Department. The building received additions that were completed in 1889, 1912, and 1932, all three of which hewed closely to the imposing Italianate forms that characterized the original building.</p><br>
<p>The building played a significant role in the American Civil War when the Congress of the new Confederate States of America selected Richmond as its capital. The courthouse provided offices for Confederate President Jefferson Davis. Following the conflict, the federal government reoccupied the building. Ironically, in 1866, the Grand Jury of the United States District Court met on the third floor and indicted Davis for treason. Davis returned to the courthouse in 1867 for a hearing, but was granted amnesty and never stood trial.</p><br>
<p>Pressure to enlarge the courthouse began in the first decade of the 20th century, when the antitrust policies of President Theodore Roosevelt and associated legislation created an expansion of judicial oversight. In 1910, construction began on a massive expansion of the courthouse, which increased the size of the original building twelve-fold. Matching wings on the east and west were constructed between 1910 and 1932. An Art Deco Annex was constructed in 1935–36 adjacent to the courthouse.</p><br>
<p>In 1993, by which time the building housed only judicial functions, President Bill Clinton dedicated the building as the Lewis F. Powell Jr. United States Courthouse in honor of the retired Associate Justice of the USA Supreme Court Lewis F. Powell Jr., a native Virginian.</p><br>
<h2>Architecture</h2><br>
<p>The building is an impressive example of the Italianate architecture that became popular in this country during the third quarter of the 19thcentury. Originally sited in the middle of the block between Tenth and Eleventh Streets, the two primary facades of the courthouse faced Main and Bank streets. Constructed between 1855 and 1858, the original block of the courthouse was designed by Supervising Architect of the USA Treasury Department Ammi B. Young. Five round arches formed an arcade marking the entrance on Main Street, and a heavy granite portico of three arches, reached by three granite steps, fronted the Bank Street entrance, which was set back from the property line. The three-story exterior of the courthouse was clad in ashlar granite on the first floor and ashlar limestone on the second and third floors. The remaining elements of the original construction can still be seen on the lower levels of the Bank and Main street facades, including the Main Street arcade and the Bank Street portico.</p><br>
<p>The Courthouse exhibits an early use of iron as a structural material in a federal building. As noted in a letter from Secretary of the Treasury James Guthrie, the use of "wrought iron beams and girders" in federal building construction at that time was "wholly new." The structural system employed groin vaults to support upper floors, with cast-iron columns supporting beams and girders.</p><br>
<p>The 1887–89 additions to the building, completed under the direction of Supervising Architect Mifflin E. Bell, consisted of one-by-one-bay wings attached to each of the building&#39;s corners, giving the courthouse an I-shaped plan. The Bank Street facade, including its portico, was moved forward to the property line, and a classical pediment added to the Main Street entrance.</p><br>
<p>Federal courts expanded the range of their oversight at the beginning of the twentieth century, requiring an expansion of court facilities. The Richmond courthouse was enlarged in 1910–12 and 1930–32, expanding to fill the entire city block. Once again the designs emanated from the Office of the Supervising Architect under James Knox Taylor for the earlier addition, and under James A. Wetmore for the latter. The enlargement called for demolition of the courthouse interiors, the addition of a fourth floor and expansion to Tenth and Eleventh streets. While maintaining the general features of the original design, stylistic changes evolved in the additions: the cornice was extended along Bank and Main streets with restrained classical motifs to encompass the new wings, and the Italianate windows were replaced with windows featuring semicircular transoms. So precisely was the work carried out that today it is nearly impossible to distinguish between the four phases of construction.</p><br>
<p>The courthouse was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1969. By 1991, the USA Postal Service had vacated the building and only judicial functions remained. The courts undertook a master plan for the renovation and preservation of some of the most significant spaces within the original building, hoping to restore the finishes to their 1858 appearance. The first phase of the work, which took place in 1996–99, included the restoration of a part of the Greek Revival Main Street Lobby and office space on the third floor.</p><br>
<h2>Significant events</h2><br>
<p>1855–1858: The Custom House, Post Office and Courthouse is constructed to designs produced in Office of Supervising Architect of the USA Treasury Department, headed by Ammi B. Young.</p><br>
<p>1887–89: One-story wings are added at building corners under direction of Supervising Architect Mifflin E. Bell.</p><br>
<p>1910–12; 1930–32: The courthouse is expanded to fill the entire block.</p><br>
<p>1969: The building is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.</p><br>
<p>1991: The USA Postal Service vacates the building.</p><br>
<p>1993: President William J. Clinton dedicates the courthouse as the Lewis F. Powell Jr. USA Courthouse, after the former Associate Justice of the Supreme Court.</p><br>
<p>1996–99: The Main Street Lobby and third floor offices undergo renovation.</p><br>
<h2>Building facts</h2><br>
<p>Architects: Ammi B. Young; Mifflin E. Bell; James Knox Taylor; James A. Wetmore</p><br>
<p>Construction Dates: 1855–58; 1887–89; 1910–12; 1930–32</p><br>
<p>Landmark Status: Listed in the National Register of Historic Places</p><br>
<p>Location: 1000 East Main Street</p><br>
<p>Architectural Style: Italianate</p><br>
<p>Primary Materials: Steel, granite, and limestone</p><br>
<p>Prominent Features: Bank Street porticoes, restored Main Street lobby, 1910 Courtrooms</p><br>
<p>The Ronald N. Davies Federal Building and USA Courthouse is a historic post office and federal office building located at Grand Forks in Grand Forks County, North Dakota, United States. It is a courthouse for the United States District Court for the District of North Dakota. Also and historically known as USA Post Office and Courthouse, the building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places under that name.</p><br>
<h2>Building history</h2><br>
<p>The building was among the first monumental civic buildings in Grand Forks. Originally completed in 1906, the building was envisioned to be a majestic Post Office and Federal Courthouse at a time when Grand Forks was achieving increasing prominence in the agricultural hub of the Red River Valley. The city&#39;s existing post office, housed in an 1870s log cabin, had become obsolete and rising political and business influences demanded a more monumental and permanent post office and courthouse. The new Federal building was sited at the north corner of Fourth Street and First Avenue in the downtown business district.</p><br>
<p>James Knox Taylor, Supervising Architect of the USA Treasury Department, was responsible for the building&#39;s Beaux-Arts Classical design. The building inspired similar architecture for the adjacent enclave of Classical Revival buildings, including City Hall and Central High School.</p><br>
<p>In 1936, the demand for more space prompted the construction of a three-story addition to the rear of the building, designed by Louis A. Simon of the Supervising Architect&#39;s Office. The addition harmonized modern infrastructure with the original architecture by using like materials and details. The new configuration included passenger elevators and a light well to illuminate the first-floor work areas.</p><br>
<p>In 1964, when the USA Postal Service moved out of the building and into a new, larger facility, interior renovations remodeled the first floor into offices, adding a new stair tower to the north side of the building.</p><br>
<p>In 2002, the building was renamed after Federal District Judge Ronald N. Davies. Judge Davies served in the municipal courts in Grand Forks from 1932–40, and was appointed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower as the USA District Court Judge of North Dakota. Most notably, Judge Davies presided over the Stromsodt v. Parke-Davis and Company case in 1966, a case that involved a damage suit against one of the nation&#39;s largest pharmaceutical manufacturers.</p><br>
<p>The building was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1976.</p><br>
<h2>Architecture</h2><br>
<p>The Ronald N. Davies Federal Building and USA Courthouse reflects James Knox Taylors mannered use of classicism to create an imposing architectural statement of the Federal Governments presence in Grand Forks. The building is a three-story, rectangular, masonry structure of yellow brick and limestone detailing that creates one of the most prominent displays of Beaux-Arts Classicism in the city. Federal Government architects embraced classicism during the early twentieth century as a method of symbolizing democratic ideals of government and power. The distinctive style is exemplified in the building&#39;s symmetry, central emphasis, and classical ornamentation.</p><br>
<p>On the facade, the most elaborate decorative features are reserved for the centralized three-bay section. Like the secondary elevations, the facade is composed of three horizontal zones. A rusticated base of alternating bands of limestone and brick courses is differentiated from the smooth limestone walls of the upper stories, which form the middle zone. The upper stories are articulated fenestration framed by colossal Tuscan order pilasters. The third zone is defined by the entablature, including a blank frieze surmounted by a heavy dentil molding, projecting cornice, and balustraded parapet, composed of alternating balusters with raised panels. A large festooned cartouche at the parapet is a crowning feature of the central bay&#39;s vertical axis.</p><br>
<p>Refined Beaux-Arts embellishments accentuate the facade&#39;s key features. The main entrance is prominently centered and framed by a segmental arch bedecked by a keystone and festooned swags, and banded pilasters, which support an "audience balcony" above.</p><br>
<p>The interior public spaces are monumental in scale and classical in detail. The first-floor entry lobby, while reduced in size from its original configuration, retains its 16 ft ceiling, featuring a cast-plaster cornice, moldings, soffits, and modillions. Marble adorns the walls and window sills. A central marble staircase with a richly ornamented cast-iron balustrade ascends from the first-floor lobby to the upper floors. The second- and third-floor finishes are generally unchanged from their original condition, consisting of white marble wainscoting and green marble base and trim. Second- and third-floor public corridors have coved ceilings with cast-plaster picture moldings at the spring line.</p><br>
<p>The courtroom - with monumental proportions - represents a dignity apropos of its function as a Federal courthouse. Its coffered, 24 ft ceiling features dentil molding, modillions, and plaster acanthus leaves and buds that grace each coffers perimeter. The walls are divided by wood wainscoting surmounted by raised plaster panels with molding surrounds. Windows extend upwards from the wainscoting and are partially trimmed on three sides with cast-plaster acanthus leaves matching those on the ceiling. From its earliest period, the courtroom has been carefully preserved. When the judges bench and jury boxes were relocated from the east to the west wall in 1936, the alterations to the wainscoting, plaster ceiling details, and the wall panels were painstakingly matched to existing 1906 finishes.</p><br>
<p>Because few older buildings in the city&#39;s central business district have survived unmodified, the Ronald N. Davies Federal Building and USA Courthouse stands as an unusual example of a monumental structure essentially unaltered. As it has for the past century, the building today represents the Federal presence and stands as a visual focus and historic architectural antecedent in downtown Grand Forks.</p><br>
<h2>Significant events</h2><br>
<p>1905-06: The Post Office and Federal Courthouse in Grand Forks is constructed.</p><br>
<p>1927: Designs are made for the building&#39;s rear addition, providing more space for USA Postal Service offices.</p><br>
<p>1936: The rear addition is completed and opened to the public.</p><br>
<p>1964: The USA Postal Service moves to a new, larger facility. Major renovations convert the existing workspaces into offices.</p><br>
<p>1976: The building is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.</p><br>
<p>2002: The building is named after Federal District Judge Ronald N. Davies.</p><br>
<h2>Building facts</h2><br>
<p>Architects: James Knox Taylor; Louis A. Simon</p><br>
<p>Construction dates: 1905-06; 1936</p><br>
<p>Landmark status: Listed in the National Register of Historic Places</p><br>
<p>Location: 102 North 4th Street</p><br>
<p>Architectural style: Beaux-Arts</p><br>
<p>Primary materials: Yellow brick masonry, limestone</p><br>
<p>Prominent features: Beaux-Arts exterior ornament, Historic Courtroom with original 1906 detailing.</p><br>
<p>The Federal Building and USA Courthouse, also known as USA Courthouse, Sioux Falls, is a historic federal office and courthouse building located at Sioux Falls in Minnehaha County, South Dakota. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.</p><br>
<h2>Building history</h2><br>
<p>The monumental Romanesque USA Courthouse in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, embodied and validated the federal governments faith in westward expansion. The USA Government purchased a two-lot parcel dedicated to the construction of a Federal building in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, on July 22, 1891. South Dakotas first senator, Richard Pettigrew, introduced a bill to fund the structure, recommending that native Sioux quartzite be used for its construction. Willoughby J. Edbrooke, Supervising Architect of the Treasury and architect for the original portion of the building, designed it to house a post office on the entry level and a courthouse on the second floor. Originally constructed between 1892 and 1895, the building was expanded in 1911 and again in 1931.</p><br>
<p>In the early 1890s, South Dakota was a young state that had recently witnessed a major conflict between the USA Army and Native Americans at the Wounded Knee Massacre. The construction of a Federal building at Sioux Falls was intended to create a sense of stability and permanence among the newly arrived settlers.</p><br>
<p>Since its construction, the federal building has been a landmark in the downtown area, where it occupies most of an entire city block. In May 1995, the Centennial Observance of the building was held to celebrate 100 years of service to the federal government. During the celebration, the building was rededicated and a historical marker, provided by the Minnehaha County Historical Society, was unveiled. At the same time, the building was officially renamed as the USA Courthouse. Historic memorabilia, photographs, and art were displayed throughout the building.</p><br>
<h2>Architecture</h2><br>
<p>The original 1892-1895 building was a two-story structure with an attic and basement built in the Romanesque style. Popularized by master architect Henry Hobson Richardson in the late 19th century, the Romanesque style was widely emulated by other architects throughout the nation. The character-defining Romanesque features of the USA Courthouse, an excellent example of the style, include handsome, wide (Romanesque) arches; rough-hewn stone finishes accented with smooth stones; and heavy, monumental massing.</p><br>
<p>The exterior walls are primarily of rose-colored quartzite (also known as jasper), which was shipped by train from nearby Jasper, Minnesota. Like granite, quartzite is durable with a similar texture and workability. Unlike granite, however, the surface of quartzite has a slightly translucent appearance. A smoothly finished quartzite that looks much like terracotta was used for the trim and voussoirs (wedge-shaped stones in the arches).</p><br>
<p>Belt courses encircle the building, delineating the interior floors. A distinctive cornice, which echoes the arched shape of the windows on the first and second stories, is topped by a slate roof. The roof form is primarily hipped, crossed by central gable parapet-wall dormers and terminated at each end with octagonal turrets. Entrance to the building is gained through a large, central Romanesque arch on the Phillips Street facade.</p><br>
<p>In 1911, under James Knox Taylor, Supervising Architect of the Treasury, the building was extended 30 feet to the east, and the third floor was added. Substantial interior alterations, compatible with the original design, were also completed. The post office lobby was extended, and a new marble stair was placed in the southwest portion of the original building, replacing the turret stair. An elevator was installed adjacent to the stair lobby. The new public hallways, lobbies, and stairs featured marble baseboards, treads, and landings, and terrazzo with a marble border served as flooring.</p><br>
<p>In 1931, a two-story wing with a full basement was added to the rear (east side) of the building under the direction of the Office of the Supervising Architect under James A. Wetmore. Like the 1911 alterations, this addition was sympathetic to the original building. The same quartzite stone was used, and cornice and fenestration patterns found in the existing structure were repeated in the addition. Handsome decorative elements and finishes in these areas included marble wainscot and trim, marble and terrazzo flooring, and brass elevator doors and frames. The basement and first floor are organized around a central corridor flanked with offices. The second and third floors have offices located around the perimeter as well as within the central core of the building. The large, second-floor courtroom, and another on the first floor, remain.</p><br>
<p>Interior modernizations have occurred during the course of the building&#39;s history, including alterations made in 1968 when the post office relocated to another building. However, many features remain, including the 1911 iron and marble stairs, the oak-paneled courtroom, and two small vaults with mural scenes painted on the doors.</p><br>
<p>In 1974, the building was listed in the National Register of Historic Places.</p><br>
<h2>Significant events</h2><br>
<p>1892-1895: The building is constructed.</p><br>
<p>1895: President Benjamin Harrison appoints Judge Alonzo J. Edgerton as the first judge to occupy the courthouse.</p><br>
<p>1911-1913: The first major addition, including a 30-foot extension to the east and a complete third story, is constructed.</p><br>
<p>1931-1933: A two-story wing is added to the rear.</p><br>
<p>1968: The post office relocates, resulting in interior and exterior modifications.</p><br>
<p>1974: The building is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.</p><br>
<p>1995: The building&#39;s centennial celebration occurs.</p><br>
<h2>Building facts</h2><br>
<p>Architects: W.J. Edbrooke, with additions by James Knox Taylor (1911) and James A. Wetmore (1931)</p><br>
<p>Construction Dates: 1892-1895, 1911–1913, 1931</p><br>
<p>Landmark Status: Listed in the National Register of Historic Places</p><br>
<p>Location: Corner of Phillips and Twelfth Streets</p><br>
<p>Architectural Style: Romanesque</p><br>
<p>Primary Materials: Jasper quartzite</p><br>
<p>Prominent Feature: Romanesque design elements, such as arched openings and stone finishes</p><br>
<p>The United States Custom House is a historic United States federal government building in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Built between 1932 and 1934 to the Art Deco designs of the architectural firm of Ritter & Shay, the building occupies an entire block between Second, Chestnut, and Sansom Streets and the former Exchange Place in the heart of the oldest section of the city. Its south and west sides border Independence National Historical Park. At 17 stories and 287 ft tall, the massive building towers above other nearby historic buildings of the shipping, financial, and commercial quarter. The building currently houses federal offices for the USA FDA, Department of State, Department of Homeland Security, National Park Service and U.S Customs and Border Protection agencies.</p><br>
<p>The building was rehabilitated in 1991-93 and underwent a major renovation in 2010-13. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on May 25, 2011.</p><br>
<h2>Building history</h2><br>
<p>The United States Custom House in Philadelphia is a product of the great federal building projects of the Depression era. Begun in December 1932 under the Works Progress Administration (WPA), a massive federal unemployment relief program, it opened on November 10, 1934, having cost over $3,500,000. Distinguished by richness of materials, by the quality of its design, and by a decorative program by a major local artist, the USA Custom House is a fitting architectural monument to Philadelphias status as one of the nations largest ports.</p><br>
<p>The growth of Philadelphia as a prosperous center of industry at the turn of the twentieth century resulted in a greatly increased number of ships entering and leaving the port. As the USA Customs Service expanded to fulfill its duties, it outgrew its home since 1845 in the renowned Second Bank of the United States building, which was designed by William Strickland and completed in 1824.</p><br>
<p>The new USA Custom House documents the social and economic history of the early 1930s — vividly illustrating the WPAs role in combating unemployment through large-scale building projects that employed local craftspeople, suppliers, and manufacturers while providing workers with a fair wage. In an effort to stimulate the economy following the stock market crash of 1929, Congress passed a bill appropriating funds for the USA Custom House in Philadelphia. The buildings construction helped spur the local economy by directly employing more than 4,000 workers for two years. Construction of the USA Custom House was the initial component of an early urban redevelopment plan that ultimately spread to include the creation of Independence National Historical Park and the revitalization of Society Hill.</p><br>
<h2>Architecture</h2><br>
<p>The final major work by Ritter & Shay, one of the most prominent architectural firms in Philadelphia, the new building respected its historic eighteenth-century neighborhood through the use of classical details on the broad, low base. However, it also reflected its own time with a bold, setback Art Deco tower with sheer surfaces and a tapered silhouette.</p><br>
<p>The USA Custom House occupies an entire city block in the heart of Philadelphia&#39;s Historic District between Second, Chestnut, American, and Sansom Streets. It rises 17 stories from its base to its lantern. The 264-foot-square, three-story base is clad in limestone with decorative aluminum details and steel casement windows. The classically inspired base is highly responsive to the surrounding Georgian and Federal architecture. Semicircular metal bas-relief panels depicting American industry, commerce, and trade are set beneath the arched door openings of the main entrance.</p><br>
<p>Set back from the base&#39;s perimeter, the tower rises in a cruciform plan, and is built of red brick with limestone trim and double-hung wood windows. The building culminates nearly 300 feet above the ground in an octagonal lantern (based on the ancient Lantern at the Greek Island of Rhodes) of white high-relief terra cotta with decorative side grilles and handsome limestone eagles. The lantern, the apex of which housed a powerful light, originally burned logs and crude oil to produce a bright flame by night and dark smoke by day. A 30-space garage was part of the original basement design.</p><br>
<p>The interior was the result of an extraordinary collaboration among Brandywine School artist George Harding, architect Howell Lewis Shay, and Philadelphia Museum of Art director Fiske Kimball (who recommended Harding). Hardings significant mural program consists of a series of 31 separate panels in the vestibule, elevator lobby, and rotunda area. The selection of ornamental motifs, based entirely on nautical vignettes and images of commerce, underscore the buildings function. Ships, planes, conch shells, seahorses, and reclining Neptunes in George Hardings murals are all representative of the buildings function next to one of the world&#39;s largest freshwater ports.</p><br>
<p>The first floor follows a strong axial plan that focuses on a three-story rotunda with an elaborate plasterwork ceiling and adjacent light wells. A coffered plaster dome, supported by eight fluted serpentine marble columns, caps the striking three-story rotunda. Each coffer essentially consists of a large gold shell, and the frieze has eight panels showing the winds as depicted in Greek mythology. On either side of the main north-south corridor are spectacular circular stairs that rise under small secondary domes and provide access to offices on the second and third stories.</p><br>
<p>Although it appears to be in the center of the building, the rotunda is located in the front portion of the USA Custom House and cleverly disguises the loading docks, which comprise nearly half of the first floor.</p><br>
<p>The USA General Services Administration completed an extensive restoration of the USA Custom House in the early 1990s. The three-year project included conservation of original surface finishes, upgrading mechanical and lighting systems, and ensuring access for the disabled. The building is once again fully occupied, and annual energy costs have been reduced 60 percent.</p><br>
<h2>Significant events</h2><br>
<p>1789: On July 31, the USA Customs Service is established.</p><br>
<p>1845: The USA Customs Service moves into the Second Bank of the United States.</p><br>
<p>1932: The Economy Act reduces the building&#39;s budget, necessitating the substitution of limestone for the originally proposed marble trim.</p><br>
<p>1934: The USA Customs Service moves into current building at Second and Chestnut Streets.</p><br>
<p>1984: The building is listed on the Philadelphia Register of Historic Places, 12/31/1984</p><br>
<p>1991: The building is listed in the National Register of Historic Places as part of the Independence National Historical Park Historic District.</p><br>
<p>1991-1993: The USA General Services Administration undertakes a major restoration and renovation of the structure.</p><br>
<p>2010-2012: The building undergoes a major renovation.</p><br>
<p>2011: The building is listed separately on the National Register of Historic Places</p><br>
<p>The USA Customhouse is a historic custom house in Portland in Multnomah County, Oregon. It was constructed to house offices of the United States Customs Service. It was built in 1898–1901 and is listed on the USA National Register of Historic Places. It is currently used as the Portland, Oregon location for WeWork, a coworking space provider.</p><br>
<h2>Building history</h2><br>
<p>Fueled by Portland&#39;s economic development during the late 19th century, the USA Custom House was constructed to accommodate the city’s burgeoning prosperity and status. In 1875, the USA Customs Service first established a presence in Portland, moving into the newly constructed USA Post Office, Courthouse, and Custom House building (now known as the Pioneer Courthouse). As the city outgrew the space, a new Federal building was planned to house the Customs Service and additional courtrooms. In 1898, construction began on the present USA Custom House, reaching completion in 1901.</p><br>
<p>The building was designed in the office of James Knox Taylor, Supervising Architect of the USA Treasury Department, and constructed under the supervision of locally noted architect Edgar M. Lazarus. Lazarus is known for his designs for the Vista House at Crown Point and the Agricultural Palace for the Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition (no longer extant). Together, Taylor and Lazarus brought the new Custom House to fruition in a style inspired by the English Renaissance architecture of the 17th and 18th centuries, with similarities to the mannered style that characterized London architect James Gibbs&#39;s public architecture.</p><br>
<p>In 1938, the east and west wings gained fourth floors to accommodate additional office space. In 1968, when the USA Customs Service moved into the Old Post Office Building at 511 NW Broadway, the North Pacific Division of the USA Army Corps of Engineers occupied the building, until they moved to a new location in December 2004. The building&#39;s scale and distinguished design aesthetically enhances its neighborhood and serves as an anchor on the margin of the North Park Blocks, a row of seven blocks originally intended as open space in the late 19th century. In 1970, upon the recommendation of the Portland Historic Landmarks Commission, the City Council designated the USA Custom House as a Historic Landmark. In 1973, the USA Custom House was listed in the National Register of Historic Places.</p><br>
<h3>Current plans</h3><br>
<p>After The International School backed out of acquiring the building for free, the General Services Administration decided to auction off the property, and began accepting bids on May 25, 2010. An investigation showed the building would take $8–10 million in renovations for accessibility and earthquake retrofits. Responding to calls for "someone with a vision" to "take on future" of the architectural landmark, contributors to Portlands civic wiki began suggesting possible uses for the site, one of the citys more prominent historical landmarks. The auction&#39;s winner, PREM Group, was unable to finalize the purchase, and the building was put back to auction on December 1, 2011. The second auction was won by Eastern Real Estate LLC in March 2012 with a bid of $4.74 million, with the sale finalized in October 2012. In April 2015, WeWork announced plans to expand to Portland, leasing the Custom House for use as shared office space.</p><br>
<h2>Architecture</h2><br>
<p>Portland’s USA Custom House is a large edifice, encompassing a full block bounded by NW Broadway, Everett and Davis Streets, and Eighth Avenue, near the downtown. The four-story building is symmetrical, H-shaped in plan, featuring pavilions extending to the north and south from the central mass. An elegant one-story granite loggia of five tall, arched openings with rusticated walls and a scrolled parapet encloses the entry courtyard and opens onto Eighth Avenue and the North Park Blocks beyond.</p><br>
<p>The USA Custom House is an exemplary display of the Italian Renaissance Revival style of architecture, exhibiting Baroque and Mannerist features. The building&#39;s first-story walls are brick masonry sheathed in light-gray granite, with rusticated joints and quoins at the corners, and are pierced by window and door openings headed with articulated semicircular arches. A continuous granite stringcourse carved with Vitruvian scrolls and a balustrade above divide the first and second floors. The upper stories are composed of Roman brick with terra-cotta detailing and crowned with a dentil cornice molding supported by scrolled consoles. The flanking pavilions are capped with slate-covered pyramidal roofs, prominently featuring two ornamental vent stacks clad in terra cotta atop a rusticated stone base.</p><br>
<p>A distinctive feature that evokes the interpretative style of the mid-16th-century Italian Mannerist architecture is the ornamentation of the fenestration. This is most prominent with the second- and third-story windows’ display of the "Gibbs surround," which is characterized by keystones and spaced blocks surrounding large windows. Here, this motif is composed of terra-cotta displaying bead and reel decoration, elaborately carved quoins, keystones, and Doric order moldings. Framing the second- and third-story bays of the north and south pavilions are two-story engaged Corinthian columns, supporting a continuous architrave, which is capped with a dentiled cornice and a parapet of alternating brick panels and open balusters.</p><br>
<p>Italian Renaissance Revival finishes and details are reflected on the interior spaces of the Custom House. Arched doorways, marble-clad piers, and beams with classical plaster moldings define the three bays of the first-floor entry vestibule, extending into the first- floor lobby where they are articulated with groined vaults and paneled arch soffits. Marble wainscoting continues around the room and extends to the spring line. Each story&#39;s lobby is similarly treated, but using ascending classical orders – Doric on the first floor, Ionic order on the second, and Corinthian order on the third.</p><br>
<p>A grand cast-iron stairway extends from the center of the first floor to the fourth floor, featuring marble treads, double balusters with spiral and acanthus ornamentation, paneled stringers and soffits, and a molded oak handrail. Originally, windows at the landings opened into a light court, which was covered with solid panels in 1949, leaving the oak framing and trim intact. The existing vestibule and main stair lobbies are well-preserved spaces which remain as the most detailed and significant areas in the building.</p><br>
<p>Typically, the office spaces include plaster finishes with oak baseboards, chair rails, and picture moldings. Although initial plans in 1897 called for two-story courtrooms in the large spaces at each end of the central wing at the third floor, these were omitted from the design after construction began in 1900. While the courtroom spaces were simplified, their large, central skylights in the paneled ceilings above were retained. The interiors were rehabilitated in 1977, removing obtrusive firewalls that had been installed in the stairwells. In 1992, GSA undertook an extensive exterior preservation project to clean, repair, and restore the historic building to its original condition.</p><br>
<h2>Significant events</h2><br>
<p>1898-1901: The USA Custom House is constructed.</p><br>
<p>1901: The building is opened.</p><br>
<p>1937-1939: The north and south pavilions gain a fourth floor.</p><br>
<p>1968: The USA Customs Service moves into the old Post Office Building, and the USA Army Corps of Engineers becomes the primary tenant.</p><br>
<p>1970: The building is designated as a Portland Historic Landmark.</p><br>
<p>1973: The building is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.</p><br>
<p>1977: The interiors are rehabilitated.</p><br>
<p>1992: An extensive GSA exterior preservation project renews masonry work, windows and courtyard entry doors.</p><br>
<h2>Building facts</h2><br>
<p>Architect: James Knox Taylor and Edgar Lazarus</p><br>
<p>Construction Dates: 1898-1901; 1937–1939</p><br>
<p>Landmark Status: Portland Historic Landmark; Listed in the National Register of Historic Places</p><br>
<p>Location: 220 NW Eighth Avenue</p><br>
<p>Floor Area: 99,742 sq.ft</p><br>
<p>Architectural Style: Italian Renaissance Revival</p><br>
<p>Primary Materials: Granite, Roman brick, terra-cotta</p><br>
<p>Prominent Features: Mannerist exterior detailing, featuring "Gibbs Surrounds&quot cast-iron staircase</p><br>
<p>The United States Post Office and Courthouse, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma is a historic post office, courthouse, and Federal office building built in 1912 and located at Oklahoma City in Oklahoma County, Oklahoma. It previously served as a courthouse of the United States District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma, and of the United States Court of Appeals, briefly housing the Eighth Circuit and, then the Tenth Circuit for several decades. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974. It continues to house the Bankruptcy court for the Western District of Oklahoma. The building includes Moderne and Beaux Arts.</p><br>
<h2>Building history</h2><br>
<p>The United States Post Office and Courthouse was the first monumental structure in Oklahoma City and served as an anchor for future federal development. Plans for the construction of the building began in 1903 when Congress appropriated funds for a downtown facility. Due to the regions rapid growth, original funding was insufficient and additional money was allotted in 1906, 1908, and 1910. It was the first federal building constructed in Oklahoma, which became a state only five years prior to the buildings 1912 completion.</p><br>
<p>As a courthouse, the building housed the United States District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma. In 1926, the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit began using the building, until the Courts of Appeals were reorganized in 1929, and Oklahoma was placed in the Tenth Circuit. The Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit met here from 1929 until 1962.</p><br>
<p>Two important cases were decided in this building. George "Machine Gun" Kelly, a notorious outlaw of the Prohibition era, was found guilty of kidnapping Oklahoma City oilman and millionaire Charles F. Urschel. Kelly was sentenced in 1933 to life in prison and sent to Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay. Kellys trial was the first in the nation to allow sound and picture equipment in a federal courtroom. In 1949, the case of McLaurin v. Oklahoma State Regents was heard. The courts decision desegregated graduate schools in Oklahoma.</p><br>
<p>The building is part of a Federal complex that included a separate courthouse constructed in 1959 and the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. In April 1995, a terrorist bomb destroyed the Murrah building causing tragic injuries and fatalities. Portions of the USA Post Office and Courthouse, most notably the tower, were damaged by concussions from the blast. Repairs were made to windows, ceiling tiles, and lights. Today, the site of the bombing is the Oklahoma City National Memorial. A new federal building is located several blocks north of the USA Post Office and Courthouse.</p><br>
<p>The building was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1974. In 1992, the USA General Services Administration completed a restoration of significant interior spaces. The restoration was recognized with awards from the Oklahoma State Historic Preservation Office and the Oklahoma Chapter of the American Institute of Architects. Although the post office relocated in 1966, the building continues to function in its historic capacity as a federal courthouse and office building.</p><br>
<h2>Architecture</h2><br>
<p>This landmark building was designed the Office of the Supervising Architect of the USA Treasury Department under James Knox Taylor. The building was constructed in 1912 in the Beaux Arts Classicism style. This style of architecture was commonly used for important public buildings from the end of the 19th century until the early years of the 20th century. The building&#39;s symmetry, monumental form, balustrade, and pilasters (attached columns) are characteristic of Beaux Arts Classicism. The original portion of the building is three stories tall and faced with limestone. Pediments, arched openings, and shallow balconies are other notable components of the facade. The roof is covered with red tiles.</p><br>
<p>The original building was enlarged on two separate occasions. In 1919, an addition that doubled the building size was constructed on the west side of the original building. The Office of the Supervising Architect was once again responsible for the design, which was executed in the Beaux Arts Classicism style to blend with the original portion of the building. The facility was enlarged again in 1932 when another addition was completed. Both additions were carried out by the Office of the Supervising Architect under James A. Wetmore. This second addition, located on the western end of the 1919 portion, once again respected the Beaux Arts Classicism of the earlier portions. As part of the 1932 expansion, a centrally placed tower was added over the 1919 addition. The tower features stylized decorative motifs that are characteristic of Art Deco architecture, which emphasizes the verticality of the design and incorporates Classical forms while minimizing ornate elements.</p><br>
<p>The interior is as impressive as the exterior. In 1992, the USA General Services Administration restored major public spaces to their original splendor. The lobby, which runs the length of the building, contains a barrel-vaulted ceiling with arched openings that contain geometric, metal grilles. Also in the lobby, the patterned tile floor, green-and-gold starburst ceiling stencils, brass chandeliers, and bronze elevator doors were restored. Elaborate ceilings in the courtrooms, some of which contain skylights with grilles, were refurbished. An ornamental painted ceiling was added to the ninth-floor courtroom. Although the ceiling was shown as part of the architect&#39;s original design, it was not executed during construction in 1932.</p><br>
<p>Two murals near the main entrance were painted in 1935 as part of the Works Progress Administration program. Covered up during modernization work, the murals have since been restored. One depicts a Postal Service Pony Express rider seal, and the other is an image of the Great Seal of the United States.</p><br>
<p>The first floor lobby contains two paintings by James D. Butler that were installed in 1993. "Sunset Near the Chisholm Trail" symbolizes the cowboy heritage and agricultural significance of Oklahoma. "A View Near Tahlequah, Cherokee County" symbolizes the state&#39;s Native American legacy and natural beauty.</p><br>
<h2>Significant events</h2><br>
<p>1903: Initial plans made for a post office building in the Oklahoma Territory</p><br>
<p>1907: Oklahoma statehood</p><br>
<p>1912: USA Post Office and Courthouse completed</p><br>
<p>1919: First Addition to the original building completed</p><br>
<p>1932: Second addition, including the Art Deco tower, completed</p><br>
<p>1933: George "Machine Gun" Kelly trial</p><br>
<p>1949: McLaurin v. Oklahoma State Regents case decided</p><br>
<p>1974: USA Post Office and Courthouse listed in the National Register of Historic Places</p><br>
<p>1992: Restoration of the building completed</p><br>
<p>1995: Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building bombed</p><br>
<h2>Building facts</h2><br>
<p>Location: 215 Dean A. McGee Avenue</p><br>
<p>Architects: James Knox Taylor; James A. Wetmore</p><br>
<p>Construction dates: 1912; 1919; 1932</p><br>
<p>Restoration: 1992</p><br>
<p>Landmark Status: Listed in the National Register of Historic Places</p><br>
<p>Architectural Style: Beaux Arts Classicism with Art Deco Tower</p><br>
<p>Primary Material: Limestone</p><br>
<p>Prominent Features: Art Deco Tower; Restored First-Floor Lobby</p><br>
<p>The William O. Douglas Federal Building is a historic post office, courthouse, and federal office building located at Yakima in Yakima County, Washington. It is a courthouse for the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Washington. Renamed in 1978, it was previously known as USA Post Office and Courthouse, and is listed under that name in the National Register of Historic Places.</p><br>
<h2>Building history</h2><br>
<p>The first post office in Yakima opened in 1885. By 1910, federal officials selected a location for a new post office and courthouse building in the town. Designed by Supervising Architect of the Treasury James Knox Taylor, the building is Yakimas premier example of Second Renaissance Revival style architecture. To celebrate the grand buildings opening in June 1912, Postmaster W.L. Lemon hosted an open house and employees led citizens on tours. The building&#39;s first tenants included the post office, federal courts, USA Marshals, Reclamation Service, Land Office, and Weather Bureau. The first court case was tried in the building in July 1912.</p><br>
<p>In 1926, a single-story annex was added to the rear of the building. In 1939, Supervising Architect of the Treasury Louis A. Simon designed three-story wings that extended the north and south elevations to the east; Simon also demolished and replaced the 1926 annex with a single-story addition that connected the wings. Construction was complete by 1940. In 1987, the architectural firm of Paddock & Hollingbery designed a two-story, brick-faced infill addition that was built on the existing rear addition. At the same time, interior spaces were renovated and restored, and the building&#39;s mechanical systems were upgraded to current standards.</p><br>
<p>In 1978, Congress passed a resolution to rename the building to honor Justice William O. Douglas, who served on the Supreme Court from 1939, when he was nominated by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, until his retirement in 1975. Although born in Minnesota, Douglas grew up in Yakima. With a term of more than 36 years, Justice Douglas remains the longest-serving justice in Supreme Court history. The building was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.</p><br>
<h2>Architecture</h2><br>
<p>The monumental William O. Douglas Federal Building is an excellent example of Second Renaissance Revival architecture, a classically inspired and dignified style that conveyed the stability of the federal government.</p><br>
<p>The nearly square, three-story structure features concrete spread footings, a steel frame, reinforced concrete floors, and exterior brick walls that are faced in high-quality granite and limestone. The symmetrical facade faces west onto South Third Street and first story is clad with deeply incised rusticated New Hampshire granite. This first-story articulation is a character-defining feature of Second Renaissance Revival architecture. A belt course divides the first and second levels. Smooth Indiana limestone panels clad the upper stories. Recessed bays flank a central, seven-bay, projecting pavilion. The street level is dominated by a series of regularly spaced round-arch openings containing both double-hung sash windows and entry doors, all of which feature fanlights. Radiating voussoirs surround each of the arched openings. Recessed entrances are located at each end of the projecting pavilion, and the entry stairs are flanked by tall, cast-bronze pedestal lamps topped with spherical globes. Articulated voussoirs capped with pediments top the pavilions second story flat-arch windows. Textured consoles featuring anthemia leaves support the pediments gable returns. Projecting window sills are supported by brackets that flank simple rectangular panels. Smaller square windows with prominent scrolled keystones are aligned above the second-story windows. Upper story windows are separated by two-story engaged Ionic order columns that form an impressive colonnade that dominates the central upper bays of the facade. The colonnade supports an unadorned architrave and frieze that are surmounted by a molded cornice with prominent modillion blocks. A parapet with a classical balustrade tops the building.</p><br>
<p>The architects of subsequent additions successfully designed them to be compatible with the existing building. The wings, added in 1940, extend to the east on both the north and south elevations and employ similar materials and design tenets. However, instead of modillion blocks, a convex molding is in place on the wings&#39; cornice. South wing walls are clad in buff-colored brick. The 1987 infill uses a similar brick finish.</p><br>
<p>Interior spaces retain many original materials and features. Although no longer a tenant, the post office originally occupied the first floor. Large round-arched postal windows with oak frames and sash remain in the postal lobby. Bronze postal lock boxes featuring Greek key patterns also allude to the spaces prior use. Floors are covered in terrazzo with dark marble borders. The baseboard and wainscot are grey Vermont Light Cloud Rutland marble, while remaining wall surfaces are covered in plaster. A coffered ceiling tops the lobby and features pendant lights that date to 1940. A marble staircase is located at the lobbys south end.</p><br>
<p>The two-story, second-floor courtroom also retains some historic features. Details include original oak panel doors with classical surrounds, wainscot, baseboards, plaster walls with classically inspired panel molding, and ornamental plaster ceilings. Second-floor corridors have plaster walls with marble baseboards and oak chair rails. Square 1940 light fixtures remain.</p><br>
<h2>Significant events</h2><br>
<p>1910 Yakima selected as site for new federal building</p><br>
<p>1912 Building completed</p><br>
<p>1926 One-story annex added to east elevation</p><br>
<p>1940 Annex demolished and wings and rear addition built</p><br>
<p>1978 Building named to honor Justice William O. Douglas</p><br>
<p>1979 Building listed in the National Register of Historic Places</p><br>
<p>1987 Two stories added to rear addition and interior restored</p><br>
<h2>Building facts</h2><br>
<p>Location: 25 South Third Street</p><br>
<p>Architects: James Knox Taylor; Louis A. Simon; Paddock & Hollingbery</p><br>
<p>Construction Dates: 1911-1912; 1940; 1987</p><br>
<p>Architectural Style: Second Renaissance Revival</p><br>
<p>Landmark Status: Listed in the National Register of Historic Places</p><br>
<p>Primary Materials: Limestone; Granite</p><br>
<p>Prominent Features: Monumental, Classical Facade; Second-Story Ionic Colonnade; Former Postal Lobby with Historic Finishes</p><br>
<p>The Federal Building is a historic post office, courthouse and custom house on Kennedy Plaza in downtown Providence, Rhode Island. It is a courthouse for the United States District Court for the District of Rhode Island. It was built in 1908 by Clarke & Howe of limestone and steel and has a courtyard in the center.</p><br>
<h2>Building history</h2><br>
<p>In 1900 the rapidly growing city of Providence began pressing Rhode Island’s congressional delegation and officials in Washington about the need for a new federal building to replace the USA Customshouse. Congress was ultimately persuaded, in 1902, to appropriate $1,000,000 for a Post Office, Court House and Custom House. In return, the city donated a site across from City Hall, at the eastern end of Exchange Place, to the federal government. The transfer was completed July 7, 1902.</p><br>
<p>The following year, the USA Treasury Department held a national design competition that attracted ten entries. The local firm of Clarke and Howe was unanimously selected as the winner. The jury, which consisted of James Knox Taylor, Supervising Architect of the Treasury, and several other prominent architects, remarked that the design was "an artistic building, excellently planned for its purpose," and that it would be "an ornament to the city of Providence." It was one of 35 federal buildings contracted to architectural firms under the provisions of the Tarsney Act of 1893. The Act authorized the Treasury Secretary to use private architects, selected through competition, to design Federal buildings and reflected a growing demand for greater architectural standards for public buildings.</p><br>
<p>Contractors Horton and Hemenway began construction in 1904—only two years after passage of the first omnibus public buildings law, which significantly changed the federal construction process. Construction was closely monitored by the Supervising Architect’s Office with monthly progress photographs and building material samples sent to Washington. Construction required relocating railroad tracks and bridging the Providence River. Completed in 1908 at a cost of about $1,300,000, the Providence Post Office, Court House and Custom House was hailed as one of the finest federal buildings outside Washington.</p><br>
<p>Customs and postal functions were relocated over the years and the building was turned over to the USA General Services Administration in 1961. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1972. Extensive renovation and restoration activities have been undertaken, most notably in the late 1970s and again in 1999-2001. The exterior of the Federal Building and USA Courthouse is virtually unchanged, and the lobby and two major courtrooms have been restored.</p><br>
<h2>Architecture</h2><br>
<p>Located at the east end of Kennedy Plaza (formerly known as Exchange Place), in downtown Providence, the Federal Building and USA Courthouse is a notable example of the Beaux Arts style. The design seems to owe aspects of its form and detail to the New York Custom House (1900–1907), designed by Cass Gilbert. Completed in 1908, it is a five-story, rectangular structure, faced in New Hampshire granite over a steel frame, with a rusticated base. The building is almost perfectly on axis with the Second Empire style Providence City Hall (1873–1874) at the opposite end of the plaza, and was designed to complement it in style and massing.</p><br>
<p>The building is seven bays wide on the east and west sides and twelve bays long on the north and south sides. The east and west facades are dominated by central projecting pavilions. Each pavilion is articulated by four, three-story Corinthian order columns flanking window openings and linked by balustrades. At the second story, French windows are framed by engaged Doric columns and topped with sculptured swags and car-touches. Arched openings, enriched by keystones and swags, encompass the double-height windows that light the interior court-rooms at the third story.</p><br>
<p>The north and south sides of the building are less ornate. Above the rusticated base are a series of tripartite window openings flanked by colossal Corinthian pilasters. A heavy balustrade rises above the fourth-story cornice. It runs around all four sides, partially concealing the fifth story and the batten-seam lead-coated copper roof.</p><br>
<p>Two groups of allegorical statues, designed by J. Massey Rhind of New York, flank the major entrances on the building’s west side. The marble statues are twice life-size, and each consists of a central seated figure with smaller figures on either side. The group on the right represents "the Nation as Sovereign Power," flanked by "Justice, and Law and Order&quot the one on the left depicts "Providence as Independent Thought," flanked by "Industry and Education".</p><br>
<p>The main lobby, located inside the west entrance, extends the width of the building. Finished in Indiana limestone, it has a 24 ft, groin-arched and coffered ceiling that is detailed with rosettes. The ceiling remains among the building’s most distinctive features. The curving main staircase opens off the south end of the lobby and leads to the upper stories.</p><br>
<p>Perhaps the most impressive interior space is the double-height chamber of the Federal District Court, located on the third floor above the west entrance. The walls are paneled in oak set behind paired colossal columns supporting an entablature topped by a vaulted ceiling with an elliptical stained-glass skylight. The main entrance, on axis with the judge’s bench, is framed by pilasters carrying a broken segmental pediment, set on beautifully carved consoles. At the center of the pediment is an eagle, carved in oak, above a wreath with crossed flags and fasces.</p><br>
<p>The courtroom of the Equity Court is on the east side of the third floor. While somewhat smaller than the courtroom of the District Court, it is also a double-height space. The walls are similarly paneled in oak and set behind fluted columns and pilasters that support an entablature at the ceiling level.</p><br>
<h2>Significant events</h2><br>
<p>1893: Passage of the Tarsney Act permits the Federal Government to hire private architects through competitions.</p><br>
<p>1900: Providence City Council meets with state’s congressional delegation and Washington officials to discuss the city’s need for a new federal building.</p><br>
<p>1902: Congress appropriates $1,000,000 for construction, and the City Council transfers the site to the federal government. The first omnibus public buildings law is passed.</p><br>
<p>1903: Competition design by Providence architectural firm of Clarke and Howe is unanimously selected.</p><br>
<p>1904–1908: The Providence Post Office, Court House and Custom House is constructed.</p><br>
<p>1961: The building is turned over to the USA General Services Administration and renamed the Federal Building and USA Courthouse.</p><br>
<p>1972: The building is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.</p><br>
<p>Late 1970s: Interior renovation and restoration work completed.</p><br>
<p>1999–2001: Building modernization includes systems replacement, new District Courtroom, seismic retrofitting and restoration work.</p><br>
<h2>Building facts</h2><br>
<p>Architects: Clarke and Howe</p><br>
<p>Construction Dates: 1904–1908</p><br>
<p>Landmark Status: Listed in the National Register of Historic Places</p><br>
<p>Location: Kennedy Plaza</p><br>
<p>Architectural Style: Beaux-Arts</p><br>
<p>Primary Materials: Granite</p><br>
<p>Prominent Features: Three-story Corinthian columns in central pavilions on east and west facades; allegorical statues at main entrance</p><br>
<p>The USA Post Office and Courthouse is a historic post office and courthouse located at Charleston in Charleston County, South Carolina. The building and its annexes serve the federal court for the Charleston Division of the United States District Court for the District of South Carolina. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.</p><br>
<p>The building, completed in 1896 in the Renaissance Revival style, was designed by Charleston architect John Henry Devereux using gray granite from Winnsboro, South Carolina. The design includes a square tower, heavy balustraded balconies, rusticated base and quoins, great double doors, and high and broad steps meant to resemble an Italian Renaissance palace.</p><br>
<h2>Building history</h2><br>
<p>The USA Post Office and Courthouse in Charleston, South Carolina, is located on the southwest corner of Meeting and Broad Streets at the intersection known as the "Four Corners of Law." On the northwest corner, a 1792 courthouse represents the role of county government in Charleston. City Hall, built in 1802 on the northeast corner, symbolizes the presence of municipal government. Finally, St. Michael&#39;s Episcopal Church, built between 1752 and 1761, signifies divine law as a component in community life.</p><br>
<p>The Charleston Post Office is one of the oldest in the United States, having been established by George III in 1740, during the provisional governorship of William Bull. The site of todays USA Post Office and Courthouse was originally called Trotts wharf. A guardhouse and armory was built there the 1830s. Col. Isaac Hayne was incarcerated in the basement and executed by the British in this complex in 1781. The guardhouse was destroyed during the devastating 1886 Charleston earthquake. A decade later, the site was redeveloped.</p><br>
<p>In 1887, Congress authorized funds for construction. South Carolina architect John Henry Devereux designed the building. He was an Irish immigrant who started his career as a plasterer, and became a noted architect and builder of churches and public buildings in South Carolina&#39;s Lowcountry. In 1885, Devereux accepted a job as Superintendent of Construction and Repairs of the USA Treasury Department, and it was in this capacity that he designed the USA Post Office and Courthouse. He selected the Second Renaissance Revival style to convey the grandeur associated with public architecture at that time.</p><br>
<p>Construction of the building was not finished until 1896 when a gala viewing complete with a German band took place. Completed for a cost of $500,000, the building is credited with playing an important role in the downtown revitalization of Charleston at the end of the 19th century.</p><br>
<p>The building was individually listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1974, and is also within the boundaries of the National Register and National Historic Landmark Charleston Historic District.</p><br>
<h2>Architecture</h2><br>
<p>The USA Post Office and Courthouse is an excellent example of Second Renaissance Revival architecture. This style conveyed the dignity of government and was often used for civic buildings during the late nineteenth century. Some of the hallmarks of the Renaissance Revival style found on the building include a prominent cornice, balustrades, and quoins (corner blocks). Belt courses, another common feature, encircle the building at each level.</p><br>
<p>The building is clad in granite quarried from Winnsboro, South Carolina. On the first story, the granite is finished in rock-faced coursed blocks that are slightly darker in tone than the smooth blocks used on the remainder of the building. The quoins also have a rough finish.</p><br>
<p>Openings on the first story are arched, which is another characteristic of the Second Renaissance Revival style. The second story features rectangular window openings topped with prominent triangular pediments and flanked with pilasters (attached columns). The pilasters are paneled on the bottom, but fluted with parallel, vertical, linear grooves on the top. This pattern continues on pilasters found in the interior lobby. Windows on the third floor are flanked with plain pilasters, but have molded trim above the openings.</p><br>
<p>Pediments with dentils (square blocks) are centrally located on the top story of the street-front facades. A prominent corner tower that ascends a full story above the rest of the building is located at the confluence of Meeting and Broad Streets. The uppermost story of the tower contains a series of arched windows. The tower is topped with an open balustrade.</p><br>
<p>The interior contains opulent public spaces, which were restored in 2002. Like the dignified exterior, the interior splendor indicates the importance of public buildings at the end of the nineteenth century. The postal lobby on the first floor appears much as it did when the building opened in 1896. Rich finishes include red Brazilian marble wainscot and floors, and mahogany walls at the sales and box areas. The grand staircase is ornately finished. The same red Brazilian marble is used on the runners and wainscot, but the risers and the railing are ornamented brass. The prominent brass newel posts are topped with finials and connected by mahogany railings. Ornate brass designs with geometric, curvilinear patterns and rosettes are beneath the railings. Massive plaster columns are painted in a faux marble technique to emulate the red marble and rest on hexagonal brass bases. The magnificent effect of these high-quality finishes is distinctive to the Victorian era.</p><br>
<p>The courtroom on the second floor features many handsome original details, most notably carved woodwork. The room has carved mahogany wainscot and elaborate mahogany window surrounds. A carved mahogany panel with floral and patriotic motifs, including a shield with stars and stripes, is located directly behind the judge&#39;s bench. Oil portraits of past USA District judges hang on the walls. On the second and third floors, many original wood-panel doors with mahogany pilasters remain.</p><br>
<p>In 1922, a modest, single-story, gray concrete addition for service functions was added to the south side of the building. The Hollings Judicial Center was also added to the south side in the 1980s.</p><br>
<h2>Significant events</h2><br>
<p>1887: Funding for new Federal building authorized</p><br>
<p>1896: Construction completed</p><br>
<p>1922: Addition completed</p><br>
<p>1974: USA Post Office and Courthouse listed in the National Register of Historic Places</p><br>
<p>1980s: Hollings Judicial Center added</p><br>
<p>2002: Interior restoration</p><br>
<h2>Building facts</h2><br>
<p>Location: 83 Broad Street</p><br>
<p>Architect: John Henry Devereux</p><br>
<p>Construction Date: 1896</p><br>
<p>Landmark Status: Individually listed in the National Register of Historic Places; Located within the boundaries of the National Register of Historic Places Charleston Historic District and the National Historic Landmark Charleston Historic District</p><br>
<p>Architectural Style: Second Renaissance Revival</p><br>
<p>Primary Material: Granite</p><br>
<p>Prominent Features: Corner Tower, Postal Lobby, Ornate Staircase</p><br>
<h2>Bibliography</h2><br>
<p>The United States Customs House and Court House, also known as Old Galveston Customhouse, in Galveston, Texas, is a former home of custom house, post office, and court facilities for the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, and later for the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas. Completed in 1861, the structure is now leased by the General Services Administration to the Galveston Historical Foundation. The courthouse function was replaced in 1937 by the Galveston United States Post Office and Courthouse.</p><br>
<h2>Building history</h2><br>
<p>The building symbolized the importance and prosperity of Galveston which was Texas leading seaport and commercial city during the nineteenth century, and the port where most of the imported commercial goods entered the state. The citys business community was primarily concerned with wholesale commerce, and furnished the trade goods for all of Texas, the Indian Territory, and parts of Louisiana and New Mexico. With rising revenue from customs receipts, the United States Congress approved funds in 1855 for a new USA Custom House.</p><br>
<p>Supervising Architect of the Treasury Ammi Burnham Young produced the original design for the building in 1857. Public officials immediately rejected Youngs three-story design on the grounds that it lacked sufficient space. A new scheme by Charles B. Cluskey (1805–1871) and E.W. Moore (1810–1865) was accepted in 1859. Their design was based on Youngs concept, but provided additional space for the Custom Service and Post Office.</p><br>
<p>The building was begun in 1860 and completed in 1861. The Boston firm of Blaisdell and Emerson built it in 114 days, an unprecedented accomplishment at the time. The extensive use of fireproof cast iron was revolutionary then and likely accounted for the building&#39;s survival from the 1885 Galveston fire. During the Civil War, the Confederate Army occupied the building. In 1865 it was the site of the ceremony officially ending the war in Galveston. The USA Government resumed occupancy that year after making extensive repairs. It served as a courthouse for the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas from 1862 until 1891, and was then retired from court service for a time.</p><br>
<p>Significant alterations were made in 1917, when the General Services Administration added courtrooms and judicial offices to the second floor of the USA Custom House, which then became the Federal Courthouse, serving the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas. This location would later become the seat of the Galveston Division, after congress added a second judgeship in the 1930s. The building continued to serve as a courthouse until 1917, and housed offices for federal agencies throughout the twentieth century. It was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1970. In 1998 the Galveston Historical Foundation signed a cooperative agreement with the USA General Services Administration that permitted the Foundation to lease and rehabilitate the building for its headquarters.</p><br>
<h2>Architecture</h2><br>
<p>The USA Custom House in Galveston is a simply detailed Classical Revival, two-story, brick building located near the waterfront in Galveston. The most notable features are the projecting double gallery on the west facade and the inset double galleries on the longer, north and south facades. The exterior walls are hard-fired, red-brown bricks with tan bricks used as accents around the corners and doorjambs. The prominent location at the southeast corner of Twentieth and Post Office (Avenue E) Streets emphasizes its importance to Galveston&#39;s shipping-based economy.</p><br>
<p>Nearly all the original decorative elements on the exterior of the building are cast iron including columns, 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 City 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.</p><br>
<p>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 stair&#39;s 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.</p><br>
<p>In 1917 the USA Custom House was converted for use as a Federal courthouse and a courtroom was created on the second floor. The USA Custom House survived the Civil War and various disasters including the 1885 Galveston Fire, the Great Galveston Hurricane of 1900, Hurricane Carla in 1967, and a boiler explosion in 1978 that resulted in the closing of the second floor for almost two decades. Although these events required extensive repairs and renovations, the USA Custom House&#39;s fireproof construction ensured the survival of its most significant stylistic elements.</p><br>
<p>In 1998 a public-private partnership was established between the USA General Services Administration and the Galveston Historical Foundation to allow for the restoration of the building by the Galveston Historical Foundation for use as its headquarters and historic preservation resource center. Assisted by private donations, the careful and sensitive rehabilitation included the removal of 1960s dropped ceilings, the restoration of the second floor, and the removal of the non-original interior wood shutters. The Galveston Historical Foundation formally moved into the refurbished USA Custom House in June 1999.</p><br>
<h2>Significant events</h2><br>
<p>1857-1859: Supervising Architect of the Treasury Ammi B. Young produces the original design for the USA Custom House.</p><br>
<p>1860-1861: U.S Custom House is constructed based on the redesign by local superintendents Charles B. Cluskey and E.W. Moore.</p><br>
<p>1865: Occupied by the Confederate Army, the building is the site of the ceremony ending the Civil War in Galveston. The USA Customs Service resumes occupancy.</p><br>
<p>1900: The USA Custom House is damaged by the Galveston Hurricane.</p><br>
<p>1917-1918: A courtroom is created on the second floor for use by the Federal Courts.</p><br>
<p>1967: Following the repair of extensive damages caused by Hurricane Carla, the building is formally rededicated on June 17.</p><br>
<p>1970: The USA Custom House is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.</p><br>
<p>1978: A boiler explosion damages the building and the second floor is closed.</p><br>
<p>1998-1999: A public-private partnership results in the restoration and use of the building by the Galveston Historical Foundation.</p><br>
<h2>Building facts</h2><br>
<p>Architects: Original design by Ammi B. Young, Supervising Architect of the Treasury</p><br>
<p>Revised, executed design by Charles B. Cluskey and E.W. Moore</p><br>
<p>Construction Dates: 1860-1861</p><br>
<p>Landmark Status: Listed in the National Register of Historic Places</p><br>
<p>Location: 502 Twentieth Street</p><br>
<p>Architectural Style: Classical Revival</p><br>
<p>Primary Materials: Brick and cast iron</p><br>
<p>Prominent Features: Two-story galleries</p><br>
<p>The Hipolito F. Garcia Federal Building and United States Courthouse is a historic courthouse, federal office, and post office building located in Downtown San Antonio in Bexar County in the USA state of Texas. It was formerly the USA Post Office, Federal Office Building and Courthouse. It is the courthouse for the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas. It holds a prominent location on Alamo Plaza, across from the Alamo. The building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as San Antonio USA Post Office and Courthouse.</p><br>
<h2>Building history</h2><br>
<p>The building was a product of the Federal Public Works programs enacted to relieve widespread unemployment during the Great Depression of the 1930s. Its construction accomplished several goals—generating employment, housing all federal agencies in a single building, and streamlining San Antonio&#39;s quickly expanding postal needs.</p><br>
<p>Prominent local architect Ralph Haywood Cameron (1892–1970) designed the building in association with renowned Philadelphia architect Paul Philippe Cret under the direction of the Office of the Supervising Architect of the USA Treasury Department. Both Cameron and Cret studied at the prestigious École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Cameron, a native Texan who also designed the Dewitt County Courthouse, went on to become one of the leading Beaux-Arts architects of south Texas, and Cret was nationally recognized as one of the foremost practitioners of the style. A ceremonial cornerstone was laid for the new federal building in 1935. Construction was completed in 1936, and the building officially opened in 1937. At that time, the first floor and basement were air-conditioned, a new technology that had not been installed in the any other post office in the country.</p><br>
<p>Shortly after the buildings completion, noted artist Howard Cook painted an epic 16-panel fresco mural in the entry lobby; it is regarded as one of the showpieces of the federal mural program. Cook was selected from among 185 artists in a national competition conducted by the Treasury Departments Section of Fine Arts. In 1999, art conservators restored the mural to its original brilliance.</p><br>
<p>The USA Post Office and Courthouse is located in the Alamo Plaza Historic District. In 2000, the building was individually listed in the National Register of Historic Places. It was renamed the Hipolito F. Garcia Federal Building and United States Courthouse in 2004 to honor Judge Hipolito Frank Garcia (1925–2002).</p><br>
<h2>Architecture</h2><br>
<p>A skillful example of Beaux-Arts classicism, the USA Post Office and Courthouse is indicative of the federal government&#39;s goal of expressing democratic ideals through classically derived architecture featuring grand scale, symmetry, and refined details. The six-story building encompasses an entire city block and is constructed of steel and concrete clad in rich local materials—Texas Pink granite and Texas Cream limestone. The building is polygonal in plan, centered on a central light court. Its facade (south elevation) emphasizes a centrally recessed porch behind a screen of six monumental Ionic columns, rising to support an entablature that continues all around the building.</p><br>
<p>At the first story, the principal approach is created by broad steps of Texas Pink granite spanning the width of the building, leading to three arched entrances with keystones, alternating with four rectangular windows with decorative metal grilles. Limestone masonry walls are articulated by chamfered joints, rising to an overhanging stringcourse. The limestone walls of the upper stories are smooth in contrast, but are also divided into seven bays, featuring rectangular windows at the second story, and elongated fenestration formed by vertically stacked windows at the third and fourth stories. Above the entablature, the attic (sixth) story is similarly clad in smooth limestone veneer with rectangular fenestration flanked by flat pilasters. At the edge of the low-pitched mansard roof, six decorative stone acroteria (urn-like ornaments) are aligned with the pilasters and columns below.</p><br>
<p>On the interior, the Beaux-Arts tradition of grand entrances and circulation areas is boldly expressed by the entry and postal lobbies rich architectural detail and ornamentation. The entry lobby is distinguished by a series of bracketed entryways capped by blind arches with egg-and-dart moldings. Light-colored St. Genevieve marble covers the walls up to the springing course. The most vibrant feature is Howard Cooks outstanding 16-panel mural, "San Antonios Importance in Texas History." The mural is a fresco, a technique of paint applied directly over wet plaster, and spans 750 ft&sup2, making it one of the largest frescoes in the nation. Cooks mural evokes historical events in Texas, including the arrival of the first Conquistadors, the signing of the Texas Declaration of Independence, and the arrival of the railroad.</p><br>
<p>The postal lobby features its original bronze and glass-topped tables, with 41 bronze sales window-boxes capped by a continuous band of fretwork and divided by marble Doric pilasters that rise to a wide dentiled cornice. The floors are Tennessee Golden Veined Pink marble, with dark cedar-colored marble bases, and light-colored St. Genevieve marble for the wainscot. Original bronze light fixtures grace the lobby in a variety of decorative motifs depicting eagles and shields.</p><br>
<p>The ceremonial courtroom, located in the south wing of the third floor, is a light-filled two-story space, featuring six bronze pendant chandeliers and dark-stained wood for the wainscot and all of the built-in furniture, including the original judges bench, witness stand and clerks desk. Tall, painted pilasters extend from the wainscot to a wide ornamental plaster entablature. The judge&#39;s bench is framed by an arched niche enriched with wide, intricately decorated plaster ornament, moldings, and gilding, contributing to the impressive character of the room.</p><br>
<p>The USA Post Office and Courthouse retains its character-defining details and craftsmanship, and continues to convey its significance as an excellent example of a monumental Beaux-Arts-style public building in San Antonio.</p><br>
<h2>Artwork</h2><br>
<p>In 1937, New Mexican artist Howard Cook won a national mural competition sponsored by the Treasury Department&#39;s Fine Arts Section to paint a 750 square foot fresco in the lobby of the Federal Building.</p><br>
<p>"San Antonio&#39;s Importance in Texas History" was completed in May 1939 at a cost of $12,000. The 16 frieze panels depict the history of San Antonio.</p><br>
<p>The southern wall depicts the exploration and initial settlement of the area. On the left, Spanish conquistadors follow Native American guides. In the neighboring image, Franciscan friars oversee Native American slaves in the construction of the missions. The third image depicts trade in San Antonio Plaza with Canary Island settlers. To the right, townspeople celebrate Mexico&#39;s independence from Spain and the arrival of Mexican soldiers. Next to that image, pioneers led by Stephen F. Austin encounter indigenous communities. At the far right of the southern wall, Ben Milam dies in the arms of Samuel Maverick after capturing San Antonio.</p><br>
<p>The western wall includes scenes from the Battle of the Alamo. At left, William Travis—flanked by James Bowie on the left and David Crockett on the right—draws a line in the dirt in an appeal for volunteers to defend the fort. To the right, Mexican soldiers lay siege to the Alamo.</p><br>
<p>The northern wall begins at left with a scene from the Battle of San Jacinto. Mexican General Santa Anna stands with Sam Houston. A surgeon tends to Houstons leg with "Deaf" Smith at his side. To the right, the 1st Congress of the Republic of Texas convenes with Houston turning over his sword and assuming the role of President. Ministers of Houstons first cabinet are pictured, including Austin, David Burnett, Lorenzo de Zavala, Mirabeau Lamar, Thomas Rusk, Juan Seguin, Smith, and William Wharton. The neighboring panel depicts tensions between settlers and the Comanche. In a scene from the Council House Fight, tribal chiefs return a child hostage while concealing weapons beneath their blankets. Further to the right, the United States flag is raised in a depiction of annexation. This scene is accompanied by images of the land rush and colonization. At the right side of the north wall, the first locomotive arrives in San Antonio and is met by a torchlit procession. Near the corner, a Confederate flag alludes to Texas&#39; involvement in the Civil War.</p><br>
<p>The eastern wall depicts the development of the Texas economy. Cowboys, vaqueros, cattle, rice and cotton fields, as well as an oil gusher all illustrate the role of natural resources in the growth of the state.</p><br>
<h2>Significant events</h2><br>
<p>1932: Congress appropriates funds for the USA Post Office and Courthouse.</p><br>
<p>1935-36: The building is constructed.</p><br>
<p>1937: The building is ceremonially opened.</p><br>
<p>1937-39: Howard Cook designs and executes the fresco mural, "San Antonio&#39;s Importance in Texas History."</p><br>
<p>1999: Cook&#39;s mural is restored.</p><br>
<p>2000: The building is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.</p><br>
<p>2004: Renamed Hipolito F. Garcia Federal Building and United States Courthouse</p><br>
<h2>Building facts</h2><br>
<p>Architect: Ralph Haywood Cameron and Paul Philippe Cret</p><br>
<p>Construction Dates: 1935-36</p><br>
<p>Landmark Status: Located in the National Register of Historic Places; listed in the Alamo Plaza National Register Historic District</p><br>
<p>Location: 615 East Houston Street, San Antonio, TX 78205</p><br>
<p>Architectural Style: Beaux-Arts</p><br>
<p>Primary Material: Texas Cream limestone, Texas Pink granite, steel and concrete</p><br>
<p>Prominent Features: Howard Cook&#39;s 16-panel fresco mural; ceremonial courtroom</p><br>
<p>The USA Post Office and Courthouse, Laredo, Texas is a historic post office, courthouse, and Federal office building located at Laredo in Webb County, Texas. It is a courthouse for the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas.</p><br>
<h2>Building history</h2><br>
<p>Founded on the Rio Grande by a Spanish settler in 1755, the city of Laredo became part of Mexico in 1821. In 1840, Laredo was named capital of the Republic of the Rio Grande during a rebellion that Mexico soon quashed. Laredo&#39;s allegiance remained with Mexico until 1845, when the United States annexed Texas and the Mexican-American War subsequently began. In 1848, under the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, the two governments established the Rio Grande as the boundary between the United States and Mexico, making Laredo part of the United States. The following year, postal service in Laredo began.</p><br>
<p>During the late-19th century, Laredo entered a period of economic prosperity stimulated by the railroad, coal mining, and irrigated farming. The population tripled, and with this growth came a demand for government services. As Laredo became known as the gateway to Mexico, the federal government began preparations to construct a new post office, courthouse, and custom house. James Knox Taylor, Supervising Architect of the Treasury, designed the Neoclassical-style building. Early plans included an eight-foot-high wall that would have surrounded the building. After the public protested this restrictive component of the design, Taylor removed it. Groundbreaking commenced in 1905 and employees occupied the building, which cost $650,000 to construct, in 1907. In 1935, the Office of the Supervising Architect of the Treasury, then overseen by Louis A. Simon, designed an addition to the building to accommodate the growing space needs. The addition doubled the size of the building, which now occupies an entire city block. In 1962, the customs service vacated the building.</p><br>
<p>In 2004, a new federal courthouse was built to accommodate District and Magistrate court functions. The historic building continues to serve as a post office and federal courthouse, and contains office space for the USA Department of Justice.</p><br>
<p>The USA Post Office and Courthouse was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 2001 for its historical and architectural significance.</p><br>
<h2>Architecture</h2><br>
<p>The USA Post Office and Courthouse, a significant local landmark in Laredo, is an excellent example of the Neoclassical style of architecture. It is located at 1300 Matamoros in downtown Laredo, two blocks from City Hall and the Webb County Courthouse. The building displays many character-defining features of the Neoclassical style, which was commonly used in federal building design during the early-20th century because it conveyed a strong and dignified governmental presence. Constructed predominantly of limestone on the exterior, the building also employs high-quality materials such as terrazzo and marble on the interior. The street level of the south-facing, symmetrical facade is dominated by a series of round-arched openings that together form an arcade. Scrolled keystones top each arch. The rusticated limestone on the first story distinguishes the ground level from the smooth upper floors. On the second story, the area beneath a prominent central portico features three arched doorways separated by pilasters. The doorways are slightly recessed and are surrounded by decorative molding and surmounted with ornate carvings. Each carving includes an articulated keystone beneath an oval medallion crowned with a shell motif called a coquillage. Cornucopias of fruit and leaves flank the medallion. A dentil course tops each doorway. Large multi-pane tripartite windows occupy the third story. At the eastern and western ends of the facade, glazed, multi-pane doors on the second story have segmental arched openings with articulated surrounds and keystones. The doorways lead to small balconets that feature scrolled, cast iron railings. Windows on the third story are rectangular and feature surrounds similar to those on the second-story doors.</p><br>
<p>The projecting central portion of the upper stories contains a classical portico with a pediment supported by four, two-story Roman Doric order columns. The frieze contains triglyphs, incised patterns commonly paired with Doric columns, which alternate with paterae, circular medallions that occupy the spaces in the frieze called metopes. The tympanum, or triangular area of the pediment, contains a single, large, centrally placed patera that is flanked with a foliated pattern. Mutule blocks, another Doric detail, line the tympanum. Delicate cast-iron railings occupy the spaces between the columns. While the remaining elevations of the building are less ornate, they contain many classical features, including the incised first story and arched openings.</p><br>
<p>The dignified appearance of the exterior is carried through the interior. The postal lobby, which remains in use, has terrazzo floors. Plaster walls are decorated with marble baseboards and wainscoting and iron grilles featuring a square-and-x motif are located above postal boxes on some walls. The plaster ceiling is crowned by a molded cornice with dentils. The elevator lobby also features terrazzo flooring and decorative cast-iron elevator enclosures. A marble staircase that connects the second and third levels has a scrolled, cast-iron balustrade that terminates in a floral-motif pilaster.</p><br>
<p>The postal workroom remains in its original location at the center of the postal lobby corridors. The original walls, piers, and columns are clad in vertical wood wainscot with wood cap and base moldings on the lower portions with plaster above. However, the space has been altered to accommodate public service counters and additional postal boxes.</p><br>
<p>The courtrooms have been altered over time. The second-story courtroom was previously partitioned for office space, but converted back to a single room in 1972, although neither the furniture nor the finishes were restored. The third-floor courtroom retains its original plan. The cornice, doors, windows, radiator enclosures, and bench remain, although other original finishes have been removed or covered.</p><br>
<h2>Significant events</h2><br>
<p>1849 Postal service established in Laredo after it becomes part of USA</p><br>
<p>1905-1907 Building constructed</p><br>
<p>1935 Addition constructed</p><br>
<p>2001 Building listed in the National Register of Historic Places as Laredo US Post Office, Court House and Custom House</p><br>
<p>2004 District and Magistrate courts relocate</p><br>
<h2>Building facts</h2><br>
<p>Location: 1300 Matamoros</p><br>
<p>Architects: James Knox Taylor; Louis A. Simon</p><br>
<p>Construction Dates: 1905-1907; 1935</p><br>
<p>Architectural Style: Neoclassical</p><br>
<p>Landmark Status: Listed in the National Register of Historic Places</p><br>
<p>Primary Materials: Limestone</p><br>
<p>Prominent Features: First-floor Arcade; Portico with Roman Doric Columns</p><br>
<p>The United States Customhouse is a historic custom house located at Houston in Harris County, Texas.</p><br>
<h2>Building history</h2><br>
<p>The USA Custom House occupies an entire block in the central business district of Houston, Texas. It was built as a post office and courthouse between 1907 and 1911 and later converted to use as the custom house. During this period, urban post offices often shared a building with courts and other federal offices. Houston competed unsuccessfully with Galveston during the latter portion of the 19th century, until the 1900 hurricane, the deadliest natural disaster in United States history, devastated Galveston. The risk to businesses, particularly shipping, caused many companies to move their facilities to the safer, sheltered port of Houston. By 1910, seventeen railroads moved passengers and freight to and from Houston. As Houston grew, the demand for postal facilities and other federal services increased and a new building to house them was needed.</p><br>
<p>The Supervising Architect of the Treasury James Knox Taylor designed the building in the Second Renaissance Revival style. Federal buildings constructed during this era used classical revival styles almost exclusively. Taylor&#39;s philosophy was that public buildings should be pleasant to look at, convey dignity appropriate to the federal government, and that they should be designed to permit a utilitarian interior arrangement. Construction began in 1907, and on December 1, 1911, thousands of Houstonians came to tour the building during its grand opening celebration.</p><br>
<p>The building was originally constructed to house the federal district court, a post office, and other federal offices. The increasing number of federal offices in Houston necessitated the 1931 addition. The courthouse operated in the building until 1962, the same year that the post office vacated a portion of the space originally allocated to it. Renovation of those spaces prepared them for other uses. The building has been listed in the National Register of Historic Places since 1974.</p><br>
<p>When this building was constructed, it was the only monumental Second Renaissance Revival building in Houston and one of the larger downtown buildings. It replaced a three-story polychromatic Moorish post office built in 1889, which had been unlike any other building in Houston at the time. Today, especially to the south, this building is surrounded by modern skyscrapers.</p><br>
<h2>Architecture</h2><br>
<p>The USA Custom House in Houston occupies the city block bounded by San Jacinto, Carolina, Capital, and Rusk streets, with the facade facing northwest onto San Jacinto Street. It is a well-executed example of the Second Renaissance Revival architectural style, as evident in the arched first-story windows, rusticated stonework with deep joints, emphasis on the horizontal plane, and the stately appearance of the building. The classical origins of the style are manifested in the symmetry of the building and the shapes and motifs used to embellish both the exterior and interior. The main portion of the building has three stories with a full basement and the wings have four stories. The building has a copper Mansard roof, and interior light wells flank the area that began as the two-story courtroom.</p><br>
<p>Exterior cladding on the building is primarily granite, though a portion of the east elevation is clad in brick. The horizontal rustication of the first floor, entry bays, and quoins is characteristic of the architectural style. There are eleven bays in the main, or west, elevation. The T-shaped building has single-story wings on either side of the base of the T. These wings, and the wings that create the T shape, are all part of the 1931 addition. The addition omitted the first floor rustication, but is otherwise consistent with the architectural style of the original building. Each of the first floor windows and the doors are arched. There are belt courses between the first and second stories, and above the third-story windows. An elaborate entablature, including a dentil molding, cornice, medallions, and a simple frieze, encircles the building, topped by a decorative parapet that includes both a pedestal and balustrade.</p><br>
<p>The main entry doors are in the west elevation, in the second and tenth bays. Stone steps provide access to the entrances, each of which is flanked by freestanding ornamental metal lampposts. Each entrance projects outward from the vertical surface of the building. Above each door is a pair of ionic order columns joined by a decorative balustrade. Between each of the two pairs of columns are two windows separated by an oval cartouche. A triangular pediment with an eagle signifies that this is a federal building. Floral designs within the triangle top each of these entries.</p><br>
<p>Constructed as a post office and courthouse, the building originally included postal facilities on the first floor, offices around the perimeter of the upper floors, and a central two-story courtroom. The south and west corridors on the first floor both retain their original terrazzo and gray marble floors. The lobby features terrazzo floors, marble baseboards, tongue and groove wood paneling, and plasterwork above the windows and on the beams with raised gold-painted laurel wreaths and geometric patterns. The current post office occupies only a portion of the space originally designed for it. The wood floor and vaults are original, as are some doors and windows leading to internal corridors. The second and third floor hallways retain their terrazzo and marble flooring. When use of the building as a courthouse ceased, the courtroom was converted into offices. Offices and other internal spaces were modified as their uses changed.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>1907-1911: Building constructed</p><br>
<p>1931: Addition constructed</p><br>
<p>1962-1963: Renovation of building when USA Courts and post office relocate</p><br>
<p>1974: Building listed in National Register of Historic Places</p><br>
<h2>Building facts</h2><br>
<p>Location: 701 San Jacinto Street</p><br>
<p>Architects: James Knox Taylor; James A. Wetmore</p><br>
<p>Construction Dates: 1907-1911; 1931</p><br>
<p>Architectural Style: Second Renaissance Revival</p><br>
<p>Landmark Status: Listed in the National Register of Historic Places</p><br>
<p>Primary Materials: Limestone, brick, and granite</p><br>
<p>Prominent Features: Elaborate frieze; Classical pediments featuring granite eagles; Grey terrazzo marble floor, coffered ceiling</p><br>
<p>The USA Forest Service Building is a historic building in Ogden, Utah owned by the United States federal government. Located at 507 25th Street, it is listed as a Historic Federal Building , and was constructed during the years 1933&ndash;1934. Its primary task was to provide offices for the USA Forest Service Intermountain Region, the Experimental Station, and the Supply Depot. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2006.</p><br>
<h2>Significance</h2><br>
<p>The Ogden architectural firm of Hodgson & McClenahan began the project in 1932, while construction began in 1933. Murch Brothers Construction, of St. Louis, Missouri, finished construction in 1934.</p><br>
<p>The Forest Service Building was one of the first buildings built under the Works Projects Administration (WPA). Its construction was a result of the government&#39;s desire to stimulate growth during the Great Depression. As the earliest Federal building in Ogden, it paved a way for what has become the largest employer in Ogden.</p><br>
<p>The building is a fine example of the Art Deco building style. This style incorporates detailed decorative surfaces that include stepped silhouettes and geometric detailing. It is one of three buildings in Ogden that adhere to this style, all of which are included in a National Register Thematic Nomination "Ogden Art Deco Buildings." The State of Utah placed a historical marker in the main lobby to acknowledge this significance.</p><br>
<p>The offices of the USA Forest Service have remained operational to the present day. The Internal Revenue Service and the USDA Office of General Counsel also share offices in the building. Because of the unique nature of the building, it has become a well-known landmark. Few modifications have been made to the building and it has been well maintained over the years.</p><br>
<h2>Building history</h2><br>
<p>In 1908, the USA Forest Service selected the city of Ogden as the location for its district headquarters. Ogden was chosen over Salt Lake City because it had more favorable railroad rates, more local amenities, and a stronger business community. Design and construction work on the headquarters building did not begin until the 1930s. The building, located on the southeast corner of the inter-section of Twenty-fifth Street and Adams Avenue, was one of the first in the nation to be funded by the Works Progress Administration (WPA). The WPA was the largest agency of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt&#39;s New Deal program, which was designed to stimulate the economy during the Great Depression.</p><br>
<p>Federal officials awarded the design contract to the local architectural firm of Hodgson & McClenahan. Working under the supervision of federal construction engineer Clement J. Gerber and Acting Supervising Architect of the Treasury James A. Wetmore, Leslie Hodgson developed design concept sketches and partner Myrl McClenahan produced working drawings. Both men were noted for their perfectionism and concern with detail. The resulting building is an innovative example of the Art Deco style of architecture, which Hodgson & McClenahan popularized in Ogden. In late 1932, Murch Brothers Construction Company of St. Louis, Missouri, received the contract to construct the building and on-site work began in January 1933.</p><br>
<p>The building quickly became a local landmark, due in large part to its remarkable appearance in a largely residential area. In addition to its architectural merit, the building helped to establish Ogden as an important center of federal activity. Since its construction, only minimal alterations have been made to the building, resulting in a very high level of architectural integrity. Original storage areas were renovated into offices between 1939 and 1940, and roofing was replaced and skylights removed in 1963.</p><br>
<p>The USA Forest Service Building was first listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1983 as part of the Ogden Art Deco Buildings Thematic Resources Nomination, which recognizes the town&#39;s significant Art Deco architecture. In 2006, the building was individually listed in the National Register. The USA Forest Service continues to utilize the building to house its Ogden Ranger District, Office of General Counsel, and Intermountain Research Station staff.</p><br>
<h2>Architecture</h2><br>
<p>The building is a skillfully executed example of the Art Deco style of architecture, which features a Modern appeal, vertical emphasis, and stylized ornamentation. Distinctive stepped, linear forms and silhouettes recur in components of the building, as do Art-Deco motifs such as chevrons, sunbursts, and zigzags. The four-story building is clad in brick that is darker tan in color at the base and gradually transitions to lighter tones of beige at the upper stories. In order to achieve the desired color gradation, the architects employed eight shades of brick and were actively involved in the placement of the masonry. The mortar and terra-cotta detailing match the brickwork and enhance the progressive shading.</p><br>
<p>The building has a rectangular footprint at the basement and first story levels. The second through fourth stories are constructed within a U-shaped light court to allow natural illumination of the interior. The reinforced-concrete frame structure is enclosed in a brick and terra-cotta curtain wall and rests on a grey granite foundation made of blocks from the Raymond Granite quarry in California. A terra-cotta water table with a matching gray glaze tops the foundation. The first and second stories are visually separated by a terra-cotta stringcourse with geometric and floral patterns.</p><br>
<p>The symmetrical facade, which faces Twenty-fifth Street, has slightly recessed bays at either end. The facade is dominated by regularly spaced windows with aluminum mullions. Tall brick pilasters emphasize the building&#39;s verticality. The window openings are topped by terra-cotta spandrels with sharply molded projecting vertical apexes. The spandrels also feature zigzag motifs and stylized foliated decorations. The flat roof contains a centrally placed three-story penthouse tower with a glass-topped greenhouse used for agency studies and experiments. The penthouse is executed with the linear stepped pattern and features terra-cotta trim with chevrons. A tall brick chimney, which displays the same skillful color gradation, is located at the southeast corner of the building.</p><br>
<p>Access to the interior is gained through the main central entrance, which contains a recessed doorway articulated by a wide, incised surround. Above the doorway, a panel identifying the building as a USA Forest Service facility is flanked by two carved, stylized eagles. The service&#39;s insignia, which includes a tree superimposed on a shield, is located on each side of the panel. Two Art Deco street lamps with a stepped pattern flank the entrance and feature sunburst and chevron ornamentation. The main entry doors are glass with etched nickel-bronze frames and handles with a stepped, rectilinear arrangement.</p><br>
<p>The interior spaces are richly ornamented, a typical feature of the Art Deco style. The vestibule and main lobby are identically detailed. Utah Golden Travise marble covers the walls and Verde Antique marble forms the baseboard. The walls are topped with an elaborate cast-plaster crown molding that is an Art-Deco interpretation of the traditional egg-and-dart motif. A metallic silver glaze covers the molding. The cornices replicate the stepped pattern found throughout the building. Centrally placed silver foil appliques adorn the ceilings. The central staircase, which is accessed from the lobby through an arched opening with stepped, rectilinear forms, is clad in the same marble found in the lobby and has wood handrails with octagonal cross sections. Similar arched openings lead from the lobby to the east and west corridors. The walls of the corridors retain the original wood wainscot cap with the ubiquitous stepped profile. While sections of flooring have been replaced or covered, select areas retain original rubber tiles that were laid in a tri-color diamond pattern.</p><br>
<h2>Significant events</h2><br>
<p>1908 USA Forest Service establishes regional headquarters in Ogden</p><br>
<p>1932 Ogden architectural firm Hodgson & McClenahan designs building</p><br>
<p>1933-1934 Building constructed</p><br>
<p>1983 Building listed in the National Register of Historic Places as part of the Ogden Art Deco Buildings Thematic Resources Nomination</p><br>
<p>2006 Building individually listed in the National Register of Historic Places</p><br>
<h2>Building facts</h2><br>
<p>Location: 507 Twenty-fifth Street</p><br>
<p>Architects: Hodgson & McClenahan</p><br>
<p>Construction Dates: 1933-1934</p><br>
<p>Architectural Style: Art Deco</p><br>
<p>Landmark Status: Listed in the National Register of Historic Places</p><br>
<p>Primary Materials: Buff-colored Brick; Terra Cotta</p><br>
<p>Prominent Features: Striking, Stepped Art-Deco Profile; Stylized Art-Deco Motifs</p><br>
<p>The Owen B. Pickett USA Custom House is a historic custom house building located at Norfolk, Virginia</p><br>
<h2>Building history</h2><br>
<p>Located near the waterfront in downtown Norfolk, the Owen B. Pickett USA Custom House is a testimony to the importance of commerce and trade in the city. The activities of the Norfolk Customs Service, one of the inaugural Customs offices in the nation, were initially located in various rented quarters until an official USA Custom House was completed in 1819.</p><br>
<p>As early as 1850 plans were developed to replace the first USA Custom House with a larger building that could also be used to accommodate the main USA Post Office. The history of Norfolk&#39;s present USA Custom House began when the USA Congress authorized funds for the construction of the building in 1850. A prominent site in downtown Norfolk at Main and Granby Streets was purchased in 1852 for $13,500. Supervising Architect of the Treasury Ammi B. Young (1798–1874) produced a design based on precepts of classical Roman architecture. Historians of the period anticipated that when completed, the USA Custom House "was to be one of the most imposing and showy buildings in the city." Construction began in 1853 with John H. Sale serving as construction superintendent for the USA Treasury Department. The Post Office moved into its new quarters in 1857, though the building was only partially finished. The cost of the building upon completion in 1858 was reported to have reached $204,000, almost twice the original estimate.</p><br>
<p>With the exception of a brief period of Confederate occupation (April 1861 to May 1862), this building has housed the USA Customs Service for over 135 years. The impressive Roman Temple form and the continued presence of the Customs Service in this building are constant reminders of the city&#39;s long and vital history in the pursuit of world trade.</p><br>
<p>In 1970 the USA Custom House in Norfolk was listed in the National Register of Historic Places. In 2001, the building received a Norfolk Design Award and was renamed in honor of USA Representative Owen B. Pickett of Virginia.</p><br>
<h2>Architecture</h2><br>
<p>The Owen B. Pickett USA Custom House is one of the last examples of a federal building using the Roman temple form. Monumental in scale, the rectangular block stands three stories in height. It is constructed of granite from Blue Hill, Maine, rusticated at the ground floor with smooth ashlar on the upper two floors.</p><br>
<p>The primary facade of the building displays the high-style characteristics of Roman architecture with sweeping steps leading to the pedimented portico. The two-story portico, capped by an enclosed pediment with modillions, is composed of six full-height, fluted granite columns, each capped by cast-iron capitals designed in the Corinthian order. Centered under the projecting portico is a pair of entrance doors flanked by elongated windows embellished with granite surrounds. Single-leaf entry doors at the corners of the ground floor were originally designed as separate male and female entrances to the Post Office lobby. Window openings, placed between the strong vertical forms of the Corinthian pilasters, pierce the symmetrically fenestrated side elevations of the building. The openings are embellished with molded granite surrounds, pedimented lintels, flat arches, and bracketed sills. The building is richly adorned by a classically inspired cast-iron entablature with frieze, modillions, and molded cornice.</p><br>
<p>Cast-iron columns, girders, and beams form the interior structural system of the USA Custom House. Brick arches support the spaces between the girders. Square columns are integrated with wood stud partitions and finished with plaster. Cast-iron-detailed capitals are ornamented with a simplified leaf motif derived from the Corinthian order modified to incorporate the Virginia tobacco leaf as a prominent feature. A ten-foot-wide corridor with original ceramic tile flooring begins at the main entrance and runs the entire length of the building, terminating at the main stair at the south end. The cast-iron circular stair with ornamental open risers has a wrought-iron balustrade and mahogany handrail.</p><br>
<p>On October 22, 1858, The Southern Argus reported that the nearly completed USA Custom House was designed with "large, airy, admirably planned and furnished with a view to good taste and convenience; indeed the arrangements are all in accordance with a superior plan, and the workmanship is faithfully executed." Offices flank the main corridors of both the first and second floors. Original features extant throughout the Custom House include marble tile flooring in the corridors, plaster walls, vaulted ceilings, fireplaces, and wood flooring in the offices.</p><br>
<p>Since the completion of the USA Custom House in 1858, various alterations have been made. Between 1901 and 1912, the Office of the Supervising Architect under James Knox Taylor oversaw alterations including the installation of new double-hung wood sash windows. A single-story addition at the rear of the building, constructed in 1935 under the direction of the Office of the Supervising Architect under James A. Wetmore, continues the original design in style, scale, and finish. The rusticated limestone masonry of the addition continues the coursing and rhythm of the original building, although the interiors are more modest in detailing.</p><br>
<p>The custom house was closed between 1996 and 2000 for a renovation project costing $3 million.</p><br>
<h2>Significant events</h2><br>
<p>1850: The USA Congress authorizes funds for the construction of anew USA Custom House in Norfolk.</p><br>
<p>1852: The site is purchased and construction begins under the direction of Supervising Architect Ammi B. Young.</p><br>
<p>1858: Construction of the USA Custom House is completed.</p><br>
<p>1861-1862: The USA Custom House is occupied by the Confederate States of America.</p><br>
<p>1901-1912: Alterations are made under the direction of James Knox Taylor, Supervising Architect of the Treasury.</p><br>
<p>1935: An addition to the rear of the building is designed under the administration of Supervising Architect James A. Wetmore.</p><br>
<p>1970: The USA Custom House is listed in National Register of Historic Places.</p><br>
<p>1996-1999: The building undergoes rehabilitation and restoration.</p><br>
<p>2001: The building receives a Norfolk Design Award and is renamed in honor of USA Representative Owen B. Pickett of Virginia.</p><br>
<h2>Building facts</h2><br>
<p>Architect: Ammi B. Young, Supervising Architect of the Treasury</p><br>
<p>Construction Dates: 1852-1858</p><br>
<p>Landmark Status: Listed in the National Register of Historic Places</p><br>
<p>Location: 101 East Main Street</p><br>
<p>Architectural Style: Classical Revival</p><br>
<p>Primary Materials: Gray granite</p><br>
<p>Prominent Features: Portico interior columns with tobacco leaf motif capitals</p><br>
<p>The USA Courthouse & Federal Office Building, Milwaukee, Wisconsin is a post office, Federal office, and courthouse building located at Milwaukee in Milwaukee County, Wisconsin. It is a courthouse for the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin.</p><br>
<h2>Building history</h2><br>
<p>When Milwaukees Federal Building and USA Courthouse was constructed in 1892-99, it epitomized the revolutionized mail handling that had followed the introduction of postal stamps in 1847. By the end of the 19th century, added postal services included registered mail, street letter boxes, and free mail delivery. When an existing, 1859 post office became inadequate for the postal services growing needs, Congress was persuaded to fund a new, larger building in 1889. It included multiple federal agencies under one roof—housing the USA Postal Service, Courts and Customs Service. Today, the District Courts are the only original tenant remaining in the building.</p><br>
<p>The massive granite edifice is a city landmark within the historic district known as Juneautown and the first ward organized from land owned by Solomon Juneau, Milwaukees founder and first mayor. The building is surrounded by notable and contemporaneous historic buildings, including the Milwaukee Club (1883), The Pfister Hotel (1893), and the Northwestern National Insurance Building (1906). The Federal Building and USA Courthouses imposing Richardsonian Romanesque architecture presented a break from the classical style that dominated Government buildings for most of the 19th century. Designed by Willoughby J. Edbrooke, Supervising Architect of the USA Treasury Department, the style was popularized by renowned architect Henry Hobson Richardson, whose use of the Romanesque Revival began to penetrate the Midwest during the 1880s. Edbrookes predecessor, James G. Hill, supervising architect during the late nineteenth century, was the first federal architect to abandon classical forms. Under Hills influence, federal structures often featured lofty towers that were visible from long distances during the period when few buildings rose above ten stories.</p><br>
<p>From 1929-32, construction of a large addition extended the building southward. The addition was raised to seven stories eight years later. In 1989 -96, GSA completed a major renovation and restoration project, which restored the historic interiors to their original brilliance while incorporating modern office needs.</p><br>
<p>In 1972, the building was designated a Milwaukee City Landmark, and in 1973, it was listed in the National Register of Historic Places.</p><br>
<h2>Architecture</h2><br>
<p>Milwaukee&#39;s Federal Building and USA Courthouse is a five-story structure, sturdy and picturesque, handsomely detailed, and admirably maintained. Filling the entire city block bound by Michigan, Jackson, and Jefferson Streets, with its facade facing Wisconsin Avenue on the north, the building is an excellent example of Romanesque Revival architecture, featuring a robust display of stone massing and heavy Roman arches. Walls of dark- and light-gray Mount Waldo granite rise to a steeply pitched hipped roof pierced by a variety of gabled projections. A soaring tower framed by pinnacles rises from the center of the facade, terminating in an arcaded belfry and a high pyramidal roof.</p><br>
<p>The facade is broken into recesses and projections, creating a dynamic composition punctuated by an arcaded entrance on the first level and Roman arches over the second- and third-story fenestration. Massive stone forms are relieved with fine decoration. The first story provides the greatest display of Romanesque ornament, featuring highly carved moldings and decorative stonework surrounding the main entrance. The building&#39;s corners are rounded by tall pinnacles with alternating bands of smooth and textured stone and are capped by conical roofs with layered trim. The upper-story walls are smooth, accented with thin, textured stringcourses, rising to gabled dormers that incorporate Romanesque leaf ornament, gargoyles, and finials.</p><br>
<p>Like the facade, the east and west elevations are ornamented and symmetrically balanced, prominently featuring a projecting gable with a variety of arched fenestration. The 1929-32 addition to the south adds a massive eight-story block at the rear of the original structure. Although its walls are clad in granite and include arched fenestration to match the original building, the extension is distinguished by its flat roof, flattened elevations, and reduced ornamentation.</p><br>
<p>Interior spaces on the first through fifth floors are arranged about a vast central atrium capped by an iron-and-glass skylight. The illuminated space was originally an open light well and is now used for many public events. Within the atriums large volume, columns, marble wainscoting, oak crown molding, stenciled designs, and plaster ceiling moldings have been restored to their original finishes and colors. Although the first storys original ceiling was removed to open the room to the light well above, its steel structural members were retained to recall the rooms original configuration as the postal workspace. The buildings corridors, stair halls, and lobbies are adorned with multicolored marble mosaics, oak paneling, and decorative plaster ceilings. The interiors of the 1929-32 addition match the materials and colors used in 1899, harmonizing with the original interior design.</p><br>
<p>The two-story historic USA District Courtroom, located on the third floor, is richly detailed with carved oak paneling and trim on the walls and ceiling. Historic paint finishes have been carefully conserved to their original hue. Fine Romanesque detailing embellishes the arches over the doors, windows, and the judges bench. Centered between the two doorways is the rooms original ladies&#39; balcony, entirely finished in oak.</p><br>
<p>A massive seven-year restoration project begun in 1989 revived the building to its original condition. The work involved extensive materials research to determine original paint colors and decorative patterns for the walls and ceilings, including the original hand-painted-and-stenciled designs in a trompe-l&#39;œil effect (an artistic illusion of realism). Interior finishes and fixtures were restored, while the exterior stone and brickwork was conserved and repaired. Renovations created more comfortable work spaces and energy-efficient HVAC systems. Through the effort of many collaborators, the building remains one of the most venerable displays of architecture in the Milwaukee area.</p><br>
<h2>Significant events</h2><br>
<p>1892-99 The USA Post Office, Courthouse, and Custom House is constructed.</p><br>
<p>1929-32 An addition to the south substantially increases the building&#39;s size. 1940 Two floors are added above the south addition.</p><br>
<p>1972 The building is designated a Milwaukee City Landmark.</p><br>
<p>1973 The building is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.</p><br>
<p>1989-96 The building is extensively restored and renovated.</p><br>
<h2>Building facts</h2><br>
<p>Architect: Willoughby J. Edbrooke</p><br>
<p>Construction Dates: 1892-1899; 1932; 1940</p><br>
<p>Landmark Status: Milwaukee City Landmark; listed in the National Register of Historic Places</p><br>
<p>Location: 517 East Wisconsin Avenue</p><br>
<p>Architectural Style: Romanesque Revival</p><br>
<p>Primary Materials: Pale gray Mount Waldo granite</p><br>
<p>Prominent Features: Tower; atrium; Romanesque detailing; oak-paneled courtroom</p><br>
<p>The USA Post Office and Courthouse is a Beaux Arts style building located at 700 Grant Street, Pittsburgh in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. It is a courthouse of the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania.</p><br>
<h2>Building history</h2><br>
<p>As the steel industry boomed in Pittsburgh during the last quarter of the nineteenth century, the population of the city grew. New residents required federal services, so Pittsburgh native and Secretary of the Treasury Andrew W. Mellon helped to allocate funds for a new federal building in his hometown. Mellon supported the construction of a building that would represent the rise of Pittsburgh and western Pennsylvania to national political and economic prominence.</p><br>
<p>The New York architectural firm of Trowbridge & Livingston designed the building under the auspices of Supervising Architect of the Treasury James A. Wetmore. Construction commenced in 1931 but stopped shortly thereafter due to a labor dispute. The strike ended and construction resumed on June 8, 1932. The building was erected over the rail line in order to eliminate transporting mail to and from stations. It was completed and opened to the public on October 13, 1934 amid much fanfare, as was typical for federal building dedications during the Depression era, when federal buildings were symbols of hope for economic recovery and social stability. The Western District of Pennsylvania gaveled in its first court session in the building on November 7, 1934. Referred to as the New Federal Building until 1964, when another federal building was built across the street, it was the city&#39;s main postal distribution center until the majority of postal functions moved to a new facility in 1983. General Services Administration (GSA) acquired the building the following year.</p><br>
<p>During the 20th century, the building underwent several significant interior alterations, which included the addition of new courtrooms and the removal of the train tracks. Renovations that began in 2002 involved the modernization of existing courtrooms and the installation of six new courtrooms and judges chambers to accommodate the growing needs of the courts. Lobby spaces were restored, and the buildings exterior was cleaned and re-pointed.</p><br>
<p>The USA Post Office and Courthouse is a contributing building in the Pittsburgh Central Downtown Historic District, which was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1985. Ten years later, the building was individually listed in the National Register of Historic Places. The renovation design received a citation at the 2001 GSA Design Awards Ceremony.</p><br>
<p>The Grant Street Station Post Office, which had been in the Seventh Avenue section of the building since its opening, closed permanently at 2:00 p.m. EST on Saturday Afternoon, February 15, 2014. Glenn A. Walsh, who had leased a post office box in this Post Office for more than 25 years, was the last member of the general public in the Post Office at the time of closing. Postal operations are scheduled to resume at a down-sized post office on Tuesday Morning, February 18, 2014 (after Presidents&#39; Day when the post office is normally closed) at a storefront in an arcade between the Westin Convention Center Pittsburgh Hotel and the Federated Tower (1001 Liberty Avenue, Suite R20, Pittsburgh PA 15222).</p><br>
<p>The new Liberty Center Station Post Office will include the post office boxes and all other postal services previously offered at the Grant Street Station Post Office. Window and Lobby service will remain the same as the Grant Street Station until Saturday, March 8, 2014 when Window service on Saturdays will be eliminated, and weekday Window service will begin one hour later (8:00 a.m. instead of the current 7:00 a.m.). Lobby service will also be reduced one hour on weekdays (from the current 6:00 a.m. opening to 7:00 a.m.) and Saturday Lobby service will only be available 8:00 a.m. to 12:00 Noon (from the current hours 6:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.).</p><br>
<h2>Architecture</h2><br>
<p>The USA Post Office and Courthouse occupies the entire block bounded by Seventh and Grant streets and the Pennsylvania Railroad. The most significant exterior elevation faces Grant Street and contains the primary entrance to the courtrooms and offices.</p><br>
<p>The building was designed in the Stripped Classical style of architecture, which was commonly used for government buildings during the late 1920s and early 1930s. It is a refined style that conveys the dignity and stability of the federal government, which was particularly important during the Great Depression. It does not, however, contain excessive or exuberant ornamentation that was deemed inappropriate for a somber period in American history. It was one of the last classically inspired buildings to be constructed in Pittsburgh before Moderne architecture became popular.</p><br>
<p>The building contains two distinct masses. The first mass is four stories in height and originally housed the postal facilities. The second mass is set back slightly and includes the fifth through eleventh floors, which contain courtrooms, jury rooms, judge&#39;s chambers, and other offices.</p><br>
<p>The Post Office and Courthouse has a steel frame clad in granite on the lower levels, while the upper stories are faced in limestone. The lower portion of the building is covered in rusticated blocks that provide an appropriate foundation for the tall arched window and door openings that dominate each elevation. Massive carved limestone eagles above the entrances convey the federal importance of the building. The upper stories feature pilasters (attached columns) topped with circular medallions.</p><br>
<p>High-quality metals such as bronze and aluminum, which were commonly incorporated in federal buildings constructed during this era, were used on doors, window frames, window sash, and grilles. These original features remain in place throughout the building.</p><br>
<p>The building has undergone several renovations and alterations to its interior. In the 1960s and 1970s, before the post office vacated the site, original finishes in some portions of the interior were covered or removed. Some office spaces were finished with modern materials and part of the main post office area was sheathed in drywall in 1975. However, many public spaces remain intact. The south lobby at Grant Street is two stories. Walls are covered with pink Alabama marble and a marble dentil course encircles the room. Floors are covered with gray marble, while decorative coffered plaster ceilings top the space. Mouldings surrounding the bronze and glass doors contain ornate rope and garland designs. Original custom glass light fixtures remain in the lobby.</p><br>
<p>Other important public spaces include stair and elevator lobbies and corridors. Walls are generally clad in marble wainscot, and floors are covered in terrazzo. The plaster ceilings are less ornate than those found in the ground-floor lobby. Staircases have original brass handrails. The first floor contains an elaborate groin vaulted, terra cotta ceiling with gold-leaf trim, now visible from the main lobby.</p><br>
<p>The original courtrooms are among the most notable interior spaces in any historic public building in Pittsburgh. Five ceremonial courtrooms are located on the sixth and eighth floors. Each courtroom is two stories in height with wood-panel walls, decorative plaster ceilings, and ornamental lighting. During the Depression, President Franklin D. Roosevelt stimulated the economy through public works and other government expenditures. Three murals were commissioned for the courtrooms under the Section of Planning & Sculpture and installed in 1936 and 1937: Steel Industry by Howard Norton Cook; Pittsburgh Panorama by Stuyvesant Van Veen; and Modern Justice by Kindred McLeary. A 1972 survey found that Modern Justice had been removed. It remains lost today.</p><br>
<p>The 2002 to 2006 modifications include glazed additions to house new courtrooms within the existing light courts. GSA commissioned Brian Shure and Lia Cook to create new works of art. Shures three murals depict contemporary Pittsburgh from a variety of vantage points. Cooks work, a textile painting depicting images of children, combines hand weaving techniques with computer technology.</p><br>
<h2>Significant events</h2><br>
<p>1931-1934: Building constructed and occupied</p><br>
<p>1960s-1990s: Various alterations to interior spaces</p><br>
<p>1984: GSA acquires the building from the USA Postal Service</p><br>
<p>1985: Listed in the National Register of Historic Places as part of the Pittsburgh Central Downtown Historic District</p><br>
<p>1995: Individually listed in the National Register of Historic Places</p><br>
<p>2002-2006: Renovations and repairs to interior and exterior spaces, including the addition of six new courtrooms</p><br>
<h2>Building facts</h2><br>
<p>Location: 700 Grant Street</p><br>
<p>Architects: Trowbridge & Livingston; Shalom Baranes Associates</p><br>
<p>Construction Dates: 1931-1934; 2002–2006</p><br>
<p>Floor Area: 805,397 sq. feet</p><br>
<p>Floors: 14</p><br>
<p>Landmark Status: Individually listed in the National Register of Historic Places and a contributing building within the Pittsburgh Central Downtown Historic District</p><br>
<p>Architectural Style: Stripped Classical</p><br>
<p>Primary Materials: Granite and Limestone</p><br>
<p>Prominent Features: Original lobby with decorative finishes; Elaborate courtrooms with murals</p><br>
<h2>In popular culture</h2><br>
<p>a/k/a Tommy Chong</p><br>
<p>American Greed "Cybercrime"</p><br>
<p>The David W. Dyer Federal Building and USA Courthouse, formerly known simply as the USA Post Office and Courthouse, is an historic United States Post Office and federal courthouse of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida located at 300 Northeast 1st Avenue in Miami, Florida. Built in 1931 of limestone, it is the largest such structure in South Florida.</p><br>
<p>The building was listed in the USA National Register of Historic Places in 1983. In 1997, it was renamed to honor David W. Dyer, a former Chief Judge of the Southern District who was appointed to the circuit court in 1966.</p><br>
<h2>Building history</h2><br>
<p>In 1887, railroad and real estate tycoon Henry Flagler hired the renowned New York architectural firm of Carrere & Hastings to design the Ponce de Leon Hotel in St. Augustine, Florida. The hotel&#39;s Mediterranean Revival design was so successful that it influenced numerous Florida architects and became the principal aesthetic in the Miami area from the mid-1910s into the 1930s.</p><br>
<p>In 1926, a devastating hurricane decimated southern Florida, prompting Congress to appropriate more than $2 million for a new courthouse in Miami in 1928. The Office of the Supervising Architect of the Treasury selected the highly regarded architectural partnership of Phineas Paist and Harold D. Steward. In the 1920s, Paist had been one of primary architects for developer George E. Merrick, for the Miami suburb of Coral Gables. Designing the building between 1930 and 1931, Paist and Steward blended classically inspired Renaissance Revival forms and design elements with Mediterranean ornamentation.</p><br>
<p>Paist and Steward developed two sets of plans, each to be built upon a poured concrete and steel structural frame, ensuring the new federal building would resist hurricane-force winds. The first envisioned using imported marble and bronze, while the second was to use aluminum and a local coralline limestone, a lithified coral quarried at Windley Key near Key Largo and called Keystone. The government opted to clad the building in Keystone, reasoning that local materials added to the regional appeal of the building. Construction commenced in 1931 and the opening ceremony was held on July 1, 1933. It remains the most monumental Keystone structure in South Florida.</p><br>
<p>When it opened, the building housed all Miami-area federal agencies with the exception of the Weather Service. The USA Postal Service vacated the building in 1976. It was occupied by federal courts and various federal agencies until 2008. It is contained within Federal Courthouse Square, a two-block area that includes two other courthouses. On May 12, 2016, neighboring Miami Dade College signed a $1 a year, 115 year lease of the building for use as class rooms and lecture halls.</p><br>
<h2>Architecture</h2><br>
<p>The building is an example of Mediterranean Revival architecture that combines Renaissance Revival elements with regional Florida architectural features. The building, which is faced in Keystone, is three stories in height, with the third story set above a widely projecting entablature on the north, east, and south elevations.</p><br>
<p>The facade, which has a slightly projecting central bay, faces east onto First Avenue and is dominated by a colonnade composed of regularly spaced engaged Corinthian columns supporting the classical entablature crowning the second story. Cast-aluminum casement window frames have embossed repeating chevron patterns. Spandrel panels depicting scenes from Floridas history are above the second storys arched windows.</p><br>
<p>The bays adjoining the colonnade feature paired Corinthian pilasters. Bas relief medallions containing classical figures in profile decorate lintels. The central parapet features a carved marble frieze incorporating a large eagle, flanked by a repeating motif of pelicans supporting heraldic shields. The entrances at the ends of the facade have surrounds of carved Floridene buff marble. The north and south elevations feature two-story Corinthian pilasters evoking the facades colonnade. Ornate mascarons (carved faces) are found on the buildings exterior.</p><br>
<p>The north and south elevations are dominated by central pavilions with bays separated by evenly spaced two-story engaged columns, placed singly and in pairs. An annex is attached to the west elevation. The building&#39;s shallow hipped roof is covered with terra-cotta tiles, typical of the Mediterranean Revival style.</p><br>
<p>Interior spaces are equally elaborate and incorporate eleven different types of marble. Entry vestibules with arched openings lead to the main lobby, where marble covers floors and forms wainscot. Marble pilasters have striking gilt capitals. An inset, multi-colored marble star pattern adorns the center of the floor. Original aluminum and glass chandeliers hang from the painted and gilt wood-and-plaster coffered ceiling. Marble postal tables retain original lamps and inset cast-brass grilles.</p><br>
<p>The double-height ceremonial District Courtroom is another significant space with well-preserved original details, including the carved wooden judges bench, jury box, witness stand, and clerks desk. Decorative details include fluted pilasters, rosettes, and carved plaques with floral rinceaux. At the walls, seven feet of paneled wood wainscot is located beneath scored plaster. Marble Ionic pilasters divide the window openings.</p><br>
<p>The mural Law Guides Florida Progress completed by artist Denman Fink in 1941 is located above the judges bench and is flanked by two pairs of Ionic marble pilasters. The mural depicts the positive impact of justice guiding Floridas economic development. Fink included a likeness of himself as a draftsman and a likeness of architect Phineas E. Paist, with whom he worked in Coral Gables, as a chemist. The coffered ceiling features rosettes, stars, and shells.</p><br>
<p>Other significant artwork in the courthouse includes two striking cast-stone lunettes by Yugoslav-born American artist Alexander Sambugnac. Executed in 1938, the low-relief panels portray two allegorical figures representing themes of the spirit of justice and are placed on the lintels above the leather-covered doors. Love and Hope shows a young woman playing the lyre, while Wisdom and Courage depicts a seated figure gazing at a tablet of the law.</p><br>
<p>The interior brick courtyard admits light into the building while also providing a beautiful outdoor space commonly found in Florida architecture. A two-story loggia with a vaulted ceiling and columns surrounds the courtyard on three sides. Keystone pilasters support arched lunette windows above the public lobbys paired French doors. Quoins (corner blocks) and Doric columns add decorative elements to the space. The courtyards interior walls are unplastered brick, as are the exterior walls that face toward the courtyard from the north, east and south wings. The loggia&#39;s plaster walls and ceiling are ornamented with the multi-colored Frescoes in Courtyard, added by artist David Novros in 1984. An original postal marble writing table with an elaborate pedestal occupies the west side of the courtyard.</p><br>
<h2>Significant events</h2><br>
<p>1928 Congress appropriates money for new federal courthouse in Miami</p><br>
<p>1930-1931 Architects Paist and Steward design building</p><br>
<p>1931-1933 Building constructed</p><br>
<p>1940 Denman Fink&#39;s Law Guides Florida Progress mural completed</p><br>
<p>1983 Building listed in the National Register of Historic Places</p><br>
<p>1997 Building renamed to honor Judge David W. Dyer</p><br>
<p>2016 Miami Dade College signs 115 year lease of the building.</p><br>
<h2>Building facts</h2><br>
<p>Location: 300 Northeast First Avenue</p><br>
<p>Architects: Phineas E. Paist and Harold D. Steward</p><br>
<p>Construction Dates: 1931-1933</p><br>
<p>Architectural Style: Mediterranean Revival</p><br>
<p>Landmark Status: Listed in the National Register of Historic Places</p><br>
<p>Primary Material: Keystone</p><br>
<p>Prominent Features: Elaborate Classical Facade; Interior Courtyard and Galleries; Ceremonial Courtroom</p><br>
<h2>Attribution</h2><br>
<p>The Lafayette Building, also known as Export-Import Bank Building, is a federal government office building at 811 Vermont Avenue NW in Washington, D.C. Completed in 1940, it was declared a National Historic Landmark in 2005.</p><br>
<h2>Building history</h2><br>
<p>In 1938, the Lafayette Building Corporation was established with the purpose of constructing a building at Lafayette and Fifteenth streets in Washington, D.C. The corporation intended to privately develop the building that would then be leased to the federal government, making this an unusual speculative venture. The group retained the Chicago architectural firm Holabird & Root to design the building, which included some of the first uses of underground parking and central air-conditioning in the city. Holabird & Root invited a former employee, Washington architect A.R. Clas, to participate in key components of the design. Clas, who also worked for the federal government before starting his own firm, was likely critical in securing the commission. The architects selected the Stripped Classical style for the design of the Lafayette Building. The cornerstone was laid in 1939 and construction was completed a year later. Architectural Forum praised the design as a good example of "an observance of the classic formula with the elimination of accompanying detail."</p><br>
<p>While commercial enterprises occupied the street-level retail spaces, finance-related agencies leased the remaining portions of the building. Original tenants included the Federal Loan Agency, Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC), RFC Mortgage Company, Disaster Loan Agency, Federal National Mortgage Authority, Export-Import Bank of Washington, and the Elective Home and Farm Authority, all established during the New Deal era. The building is significant for its historical association with both the Federal Loan Agency and the RFC, which were critical agencies involved in financing the mobilization of American industries during World War II. Jesse Holman Jones, who served as the chairman of the RFC until 1939 when he was appointed Federal Loan Administrator, maintained an office in the Lafayette Building, monitoring RFC activities even after he was appointed to the Cabinet as Secretary of Commerce in 1940, a position he retained until his retirement in 1945. Jones was called the second most important man in American government, after President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and the building is significant for its association with Jones&#39;s prominent career.</p><br>
<p>In 1947, the federal government assumed ownership of the Lafayette Building. The building was designated a National Historic Landmark by the Secretary of the Interior in 2005.</p><br>
<h2>Architecture</h2><br>
<p>Although developed by a private corporation, the restrained exterior appearance of the Lafayette Building is typical of federal buildings erected during the Great Depression and World War II years, when government officials and architects agreed that elaborate ornamentation on public buildings represented unnecessary costs. Stripped Classical buildings feature little ornamentation and blend classical forms and high-quality materials from earlier eras with Modern design tenets. The Lafayette Building retains a high level of architectural integrity on both the interior and exterior, appearing much as it did upon its completion in 1940.</p><br>
<p>The Lafayette Building is in a prominent location in Washington, D.C, facing both Lafayette Square and McPherson Square, one block from the White House. It occupies two-thirds of an irregularly shaped block bounded by Vermont Avenue and Fifteenth, I, and H streets and has an unusual footprint that is shaped like a lowercase E. The building is twelve stories in height, with the top two stories set back behind a terraced balcony. A granite retaining wall creates a narrow strip for plantings.</p><br>
<p>The Lafayette Buildings steel frame is encased with concrete and brick, collectively selected by the architects for their fireproof qualities. The first story of the building, which contains retail space, is clad in black granite, while the upper levels are faced with smooth light grey limestone on the street-front elevations. Less costly brick faces the alley and courtyard elevations. Regularly spaced square windows with one-over-one, double-hung configurations dominate all elevations and are slightly recessed to avoid interruption of the wall plane. Bronze is used liberally on the first two stories, forming spandrels that divide the first and second levels, window frames, entrance doors, shop fronts, and select railings. Simple recessed panels at select ends of the building run the full height of the main mass and suggest plain classically inspired pilasters. A parapet wall with a deeply recessed mortar joint tops the tenth story and forms the terrace edge that contains the buildings upper two stories.</p><br>
<p>The principal entrance consists of four pairs of deeply recessed bronze and glass doors centrally located on the Vermont Avenue elevation. Above the entry are tall bronze-framed windows with fixed lights, each surrounded by flush black granite panels and separated by three, two-story granite piers. Projecting limestone frames surround the third-story windows aligned above the entrance.</p><br>
<p>The architects designed the interior spaces to be reserved yet dramatic. The entrance lobby is both one and two stories in height and forms an irregular polygonal footprint with walls that splay outward. The space is defined by piers sheathed in black Alberene, a type of soapstone, and grey marble covers the walls. Recessed cove lighting illuminates the lobby. The first floor elevator lobbies are lit by a luminous rear wall. The elevator doors have a satin bronze finish with fluted horizontal bands.</p><br>
<p>Three important rooms directly associated with the Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC) are located on the eleventh and twelfth floors. These rooms convey a feeling of reserved richness, using high quality materials with spare decorative elements. The director&#39;s office suite, once occupied by Jesse Holman Jones, features knot pine paneling that is now painted. The modernization project of 2011 to 2016 stripped the paint off the Knotty Pine and restored the luster of highly polished and stained original knotty pine in Phase One of construction. The board room walls are covered in Appalachian oak paneling, while walnut paneling covers the conference room walls. Floors of all three rooms historically were covered in carpeting.</p><br>
<p>Other interior spaces employ high-quality materials. Simply elegant, they lack ornate decorative elements.Throughout the interior, walls are clad with polished white Alabama marble panels to a height of seven feet with plaster finishes above. Baseboards and door trim are black Alberene. Floors are covered with cream-colored terrazzo with inset panels and circles of black Alberene and grey terrazzo that mark important corridor junctions. Water fountains set in large, recessed, circular marble panels with Alberene frames are among the most prominent interior features.</p><br>
<h2>Significant events</h2><br>
<p>1938 Lafayette Building Corporation established</p><br>
<p>1940 Lafayette Building construction completed</p><br>
<p>1940-1945 Jesse Holman Jones, Chairman of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, occupies the director&#39;s suite</p><br>
<p>1947 Federal government assumes ownership of the building</p><br>
<p>2005 Building designated as a National Historic Landmark</p><br>
<p>2011 to 2016 Phase One and Phase Two of MAJOR renovation to entire building: All new power plant, new AC chiller system, rain harvest tank, green roof, solar panels, security upgrades, sidewalk scape - Achieving Leed Gold after completions 2017.</p><br>
<h2>Building facts</h2><br>
<p>Location: 811 Vermont Avenue, NW</p><br>
<p>Architects: Holabird & Root, A.R. Clas</p><br>
<p>Construction Dates: 1939-1940</p><br>
<p>Architectural Style: Stripped Classical</p><br>
<p>Landmark Status: National Historic Landmark</p><br>
<p>Primary Materials: Limestone, Granite, and Brick</p><br>
<p>Prominent Features: Restrained Facade; Early Use of Underground Parking and Central Air Conditioning</p><br>
<p>Berry Mound is an Iron Age hill fort located in the Bromsgrove district of Worcestershire, near Shirley, West Midlands, on the outskirts of Birmingham. It has been dated to the 1st or 2nd century BC.</p><br>
<p>The fort covers 11 acre, measuring 450 ft from north to south and 200 ft from east to west. It is surrounded by a 24 ft wide earth rampart. To the north was a V-shaped ditch that was 15 ft wide and 6 ft deep, to the south one 22 ft wide and 7 ft deep.</p><br>
<p>The entrance to the fort was on the east side, though it is possible that there was originally a second entrance located on an axis with the first, as at the similar Sutton Walls Hill Fort.</p><br>
<p>The site was excavated in 1959, with traces of timber revetments being found on the ramparts.</p><br>
<p>The site has previously been known as "Danes camp field" and "Danes bury field" the term Berry or Bury comes from the old English "Burgh" meaning defensive position so was presumably known to the early English. There are local stories concerning King Alfred doing battle with the Danes who had been trapped in Berry Mound, excavations at the site showed signs of refortification at a later date which would fit in with this story.</p><br>
<p>Nearby to the south west lies a Site of Special Scientific Interest, Berry Mound Pastures, comprising an area of 11.84 hectares (29.26 acres) of horse grazed pasture land and meadow. The site was first notified in 1994. The interest of the site lies in the diversity of the semi-natural grassland. In addition there is a stream and a small pond, and much rich flora and fauna can be found here.</p><br>
<h2>Images</h2><br>
<p>The Batavia Club building, built originally as the Bank of Genesee, is on the corner of East Main  and Bank streets in Batavia, New York, United States. It is a brick Federal style building from the 1830s, one of the few remaining examples in New York of a commercial building in that style from that period.</p><br>
<p>Of the two extant works in New York of Rochester architect-builder Hezekiah Eldredge, it is the less restrained, serving as a bank and a residence for the cashier. The Batavia Club purchased the building in 1886 and used it for many years. In 1973, it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. After the club moved out in 2000, it became the Seymour Place facility of GO ART!, the Genesee-Orleans Regional Arts Council.</p><br>
<h2>Building</h2><br>
<p>The building is on the intersections northeast corner. On the other corners are more modern commercial buildings, as on both sides of East Main. To the northwest is the Genesee Country Malls large parking area. Two blocks to the west is Batavias city hall and the Genesee County Courthouse Historic District, the collection of government buildings at downtowns western edge.</p><br>
<p>The former clubhouse is an L-shaped two-story three-by-five-bay brick building on a stone foundation with stepped gable roof. Two chimneys rise at the east and west ends. A one-story cement block kitchen addition is built on the north (rear) of the main section, replacing an earlier kitchen wing. The rear has two sections, the three-bay west elevation of the main block and a two-bay rear projection.</p><br>
<p>All windows have plain stone sills and lintels. On the south (front) facade, they are additionally flanked by paired wooden colonettes. The main entrance, with sidelights, is similarly decorated and topped with a heavy wooden bracketed flat-roofed hood. The small front yard has a wooden fence with wide square recessed-paneled columns.</p><br>
<p>At the front, and on the rear extension, the roofline is marked by overhanging eaves with a dentilled soffit. On the side elevations a parapet with the chimneys rises above the roofline. The six-over-six double-hung sash windows have just the sill and lintel. Above them, in the gable field, is a wide fanlight and "SEYMOUR PLACE" in metal lettering on the west side. The main block&#39;s northern window has been converted into an entrance with four-paned glass transom. Stairs and a wheelchair ramp lead to it from the north.</p><br>
<p>Inside, the central hallway divides a living room, formerly the banking room and now an art gallery, on the west from a dining room (also used as a gallery on occasion) with two fireplaces running the length of the building to the east. The woodwork, such as the stairs and mantels, is original and well-maintained.</p><br>
<p>In the rear are the kitchen facilities, with some past fire damage evident, a bar and storage space. The upstairs rooms are plainer. Largely unused during the club&#39;s ownership, they are today office space for the arts council.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>In the early 19th century, Batavia was the headquarters of the Holland Land Company, owners of the Holland Purchase that became Western New York. As the region&#39;s largest settlement at the time, it was an ideal place for a bank, and thus the Bank of Genesee was established in the city in 1829. For a year it operated from the local mansion of its first president.</p><br>
<p>The new bank bought the location of the current building in 1830. Hezekiah Eldredge and his partner, Joshua Driscoll of Lockport, were commissioned to design a building. They had designed banks in Driscolls hometown as well as Buffalo, where one of the banks directors was also on the board of the Genesee and may have helped them get the assignment. It was to be home to the bank&#39;s cashier as well.</p><br>
<p>Six thousand dollars ($ in contemporary dollars) was budgeted for construction. After going well in excess of that budget, Driscoll and Eldredges building was finished the following year. The high cost may have been the result of paying some of the regions best craftsmen high hourly wages to produce a building far less restrained than the Lockport Bank building, the only other work of Eldredge&#39;s that remains in the region (now a contributing property to the Lowertown Historic District).</p><br>
<p>The bank sold the building to the club in 1886, four years after it was organized. It made such alterations as were necessary for the purposes of using the building as the headquarters of a fraternal organization. The most significant was moving the main entrance to the south facade, facing Main Street.</p><br>
<p>In 1966, a fire damaged the original kitchen wing, and the current cement-block wing was built as a replacement. Urban renewal in the 1970s demolished the surrounding buildings, leaving the club as the only remaining 19th century building in the neighborhood.</p><br>
<p>GO ART!, the Genesee-Orleans Regional Arts Council, moved in two years later. In 2008, the group received a grant from the State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation to renovate and restore the building. Upon the completion of work in 2010, it was renamed Seymour Place in memory of a local couple, longtime benefactors of the center, who had contributed much of the matching funds to make the $320,000 project possible. Work done at that time exposed the basement&#39;s original dirt floors, as well as a safe on rollers the center has not been able to open. GO ART! uses the building for art exhibits and performances, and makes the space available to community groups for meetings. It is also rented for events such as wedding receptions and showers.</p><br>
<p>Gilbert Heathcote&#39;s tunnel was an engineering project dating from the 1630s as one of the earliest modern attempts to drain The Fens in Lincolnshire. Rendered obsolete by the mechanical drainage improvements after World War II, it was finally removed in 1991.</p><br>
<p>It carried water, under gravity, from Bourne South Fen, Thurlby Fen and Northorpe Fen to the Counter Drain and thence to Deeping Fen. A tunnel was required under the River Glen which was (and still is) artificially banked with a level some 3 metres above the surrounding lands and above the Counter Drain. The Counter Drain was pumped further downstream by wind-driven machinery, erected later. At the time of construction Deeping Fen was still inundated.</p><br>
<p>In 1871 the Bourne South Fen Drainage District was formed to take over the drainage, which had been in the hands of adventurers, and from 1872 a succession of steam engines were used to assist the flow through the tunnel.</p><br>
<p>The location is around 500m upstream on the Glen of the confluence with the Bourne Eau. Tongue End is the nearest settlement. The modern by-road alongside the original drain to the tunnel is still called Tunnel Bank.</p><br>
<p>The Gilbert Heathcote for whom it is named appears to be the father of Sir Gilbert Heathcote, 1st Baronet, and an ancestor of the first Baron Aveland. That family later inherited nearby Grimsthorpe Castle, but must have had land and associations with this area to claim the title of Aveland.</p><br>
<p>The area drained falls within the area of the Welland and Deepings Internal Drainage Board.</p><br>
<p>The Mansion at Fort Chiswell, also known as the McGavock Mansion and Fort Chiswell Mansion, is a historic home located at Fort Chiswell near Max Meadows, Wythe County, Virginia. It was constructed in 1839-1840, by Stephen and Joseph Cloyd McGavock, and is a two-story, Greek Revival style brick dwelling. The front facade features two-story diastyle portico composed of two provincial Greek Doric order columns supporting a pediment. It has a steep gable ends with slightly projecting end chimneys and one-story Italianate bracketed porches. It has a two-story rear ell with a frame gallery and an attached a one-story brick kitchen. It is a private residence, available for tours and events.</p><br>
<p>It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972.</p><br>
<p>The Sulgrave Club is a private club located at 1801 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W., on Embassy Row in the Dupont Circle neighborhood of Washington D.C., United States.</p><br>
<h2>Wadsworth House</h2><br>
<p>Built in 1900 for Herbert and Martha Blow Wadsworth as a winter residence, the building was completed under the name of Wadsworth House. Herbert Wadsworth was the grandson of James Wadsworth (of Geneseo). Martha Blow Wadsworth was from St. Louis, Missouri and a descendant of Henry Taylor Blow. In 1918 the Wadsworths donated the mansion to the Red Cross, who sold it to Mabel Thorp Boardman and a group of women in 1932, for $125,000. The women renamed it the Sulgrave Club, a club intended for music, art and social gatherings. The new club&#39;s name came from Sulgrave, the civil parish in Northamptonshire, England that had been the ancestral family home of George Washington.</p><br>
<h2>Architecture</h2><br>
<p>The Sulgrave Club was designed by Frederick H. Brooke in a Beaux-Arts design from the 18th century. It is one of Washington’s first mansions to follow this style of architecture. The house was built of yellow Roman brick and cream terra cotta.</p><br>
<p>The Richmond Memorial Library is located on Ross Street in Batavia, New York, United States. It is an 1880s stone structure in the Richardsonian Romanesque style designed by Rochester architect James Goold Cutler.</p><br>
<p>His design was strongly inspired by several libraries in Massachusetts that Richardson himself had recently built. It was commissioned by local philanthropist Mary E. Richmond, wife of Dean Richmond, in 1889, as a memorial to her youngest son, Dean Richmond, Jr. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.</p><br>
<h2>Building</h2><br>
<p>The library is located on the west side of Ross Street approximately 200 ft north of East Main Street (New York state routes 5 and 33). The neighborhood, just east of the commercial core area of downtown Batavia, is predominantly residential, with some institutional structures. Resurrection Parish Catholic church is to the southwest and another large brick building is to the northwest. Further to the northeast is one of Batavias schools; St. James Episcopal Church, also on the Register, is a half-block to the east. The terrain is level and some mature trees grow in the front yards and along lot lines.</p><br>
<p>The building itself consists of the original building and a larger modern addition in its rear. The older section is a one-and-a-half-story L-shaped structure of sandstone in a random ashlar pattern, mostly grey with local red Albion stone as trim. Both sections have a steeply pitched gabled roof, with the projecting main entrance pavilion, off-center to the north, creating a cross-gable. At the northeast corner is an octagonal tower with conical top sheathed in copper and finial. A chimney rises from the south end.</p><br>
<p>Steps lead up to the wide round segmental arch on low imposts, a particularly Richardsonian detail, which shelters the recessed main entrance. Inscribed in the stone above are ornate letters reading "Richmond Memorial Library". Above that are three small, narrow round-arched windows with some decorative stonework and a narrower, smaller window in the gable apex. Five deeply recessed sash windows with leaded glass transoms fill out the facade to the south end. The north gable has a similar set of round-arched windows in its apex.</p><br>
<p>Inside, the reading room occupies most of the long wing. Behind an arch at the south end is a fireplace. Oak wainscoting extends halfway to the ceiling, from which an iron chandelier hangs.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>Dean Richmond, Jr., died in his youth. His mother chose a piece of property near the family mansion as the site of a library to be built in his memory and donated to the city. She commissioned a design from James Goold Cutler, a builder and businessman who had invented the mail chute and later mayor of Rochester.</p><br>
<p>Cutler consciously emulated several Romanesque libraries that had been built in recent years by Henry Hobson Richardson in the suburbs of Boston. Several of those had also been built in memory of a member of the family of a wealthy local philanthropist. Most prominent among those is the Thomas Crane Public Library in Quincy, the pattern for the Richmond Library.</p><br>
<p>Like the Crane Library, today designated a National Historic Landmark, the Richmond Library employs a similar face of two-toned sandstone in a random ashlar pattern with a battered foundation, with a steep gabled roof. The entrance pavilion of both buildings is very similar, with the large arch and tripartite narrow windows. Turrets of similar height are also nearby. Inside, the Richmond has the oblong reading room with fireplace that characterizes Richardsons libraries. The only notable difference is in the front facades remaining fenestration—the Crane Library has what Henry-Russell Hitchcock described as a "curiously modern" strip of windows, while Cutler&#39;s are more conventional for the time.</p><br>
<p>At the time of its construction, only the east (front) facade of the Richmond Library was done in stone. The north face&#39;s exposed brick was covered in matching sandstone when that wing was expanded in 1911, and the rear elevations remained brick until the modern wing was built. Inside, the only significant change was the addition of stacks to the reading room in 1900 as the library expanded.</p><br>
<h2>The library today</h2><br>
<p>The library is governed by a five-member board of trustees elected by residents of the Batavia City School District. All serve five-year terms; one is elected a year. The board meets the second Monday of each month.</p><br>
<p>The library&#39;s mission statement is "to continually assure access to resources and services that meet the educational, informational and recreational needs of its community in a safe and comfortable environment". It is open every day except Sundays and holidays, with earlier closing hours on Fridays and Saturdays. In addition to services for children and teens it offers classes for adults interested in genealogy.</p><br>
<p>Gilfillan Farm is located at the junction of Washington  and Orr roads in Upper St. Clair Township, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is a working farm whose current form dates to the mid-19th century.</p><br>
<p>The farms main house shows the transition from the Greek Revival style to the Victorian modes that became dominant later in the century. It remained a farm in the hands of the same family until 2001, even as the area around it has become a suburb of nearby Pittsburgh. In 1979 it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and is currently owned by the townships historical society.</p><br>
<h2>Property</h2><br>
<p>The farmstead consists of 12 buildings on a 15 acre parcel of land sloping gently to the west. Washington Road is to the east, Orr Road to the south, and a 60 acre township park is on the north. The South Hills Village shopping mall is a short distance north on the opposite side of Washington. There are sidewalks on the streets and the property itself is fenced off.</p><br>
<p>The main house is a two-story, three-bay structure of brick painted red. It is topped with a slate-shingled gabled roof. There is a large wing on the rear that has had an addition put on. A nearby stone springhouse is the oldest building on the farm.</p><br>
<p>Windows have decorative wooden lintels and white pine moldings. A porch supported by wooden columns stretches across the west (front) of the first story. The main entrance has a red glass transom and similar sidelights with a frosted grape pattern.</p><br>
<p>Inside many original finishings remain. The doors have white pine molded surrounds like their exterior counterparts, and one of the parlors has a fireplace mantel also of pine. Slate and marble are used for the other two fireplaces on the first story.</p><br>
<p>A breezeway connects the main house to a brick wash house to its rear. It is also three bays but only one story high. To its rear is a smokehouse.</p><br>
<p>Also nearby is a 40 by frame barn on a stone foundation. Its roof is pierced by two ventilators. Next to it is the stable, with stalls for seven horses. A wagon shed, shop, pig pen, chicken coop and granary round out the outbuildings.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>The farm was established by Alexander Gilfillan in the 1760s. His family was one of the first to settle in the future township, growing corn, hay, sheep and cattle. His grandson, John II, built the current farm complex from 1857 to 1868. The last building, the barn, was built in a community barn raising.</p><br>
<p>In 1976 the family sold the surrounding acreage to the township, which have since been developed as a park with a 1.25 mi walking trail. The Gilfillan descendants continued to live on and work the farm until the last one died in 2001. Margaret Gilfillan left the property to the Historical Society of Upper St. Clair along with a $1.8 million trust fund to maintain it. Currently it is open to the public by appointment or on Upper St. Clair Community Day, in May of every year and the grounds are selectively available for private parties.</p><br>
<p>The Genesee County Courthouse is located at the intersection of Main  and Ellicott  streets in Batavia, New York, United States. It is a three-story Greek Revival limestone structure built in the 1840s.</p><br>
<p>It replaced an older timber frame courthouse near the current site, which served what was at that time the entire Holland Purchase, the vast tract that is today Western New York. At the time the courthouse was built, the county had been reduced to its current size by the creation of 10 other counties from the purchase. Construction materials were all sourced locally.</p><br>
<p>Later it underwent some minor renovations. While Genesee County has subsequently built additional court facilities nearby where most judicial activity takes place, it is still used for some court purposes as well as offices for the county manager, attorney and the meeting place of the county legislature. In 1973 it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Nine years later, in 1982, when the Genesee County Courthouse Historic District was added to the Register, the courthouse was again included as a contributing property.</p><br>
<h2>Building</h2><br>
<p>The courthouse is located in the west corner of the triangular lot with Main on the north, Ellicott on the south and Court Street to the east. It is prominently visible to traffic approaching down West Main Street from the west. The block contains one other building, a large Colonial Revival brick structure also used by the county. Walkways connect the two, and surrounding sidewalks, amid a large lawn. West of the courthouse, at the fork of Main and Ellicott, is the large granite Soldier&#39;s Monument, with a statue of General Emory Upton.</p><br>
<p>Other public buildings dominate the neighboring streets. The post office, old county jail and Batavia&#39;s old city hall, all also contributing properties to the historic district, are to the north, across Main. On the northwest is city police headquarters. Northeast is the new city hall and Genesee Country Mall. Other public buildings are on the south, with Tonawanda Creek behind them. All these buildings are surrounded by parking lots.</p><br>
<p>Two blocks west along West Main is the Holland Land Office Museum, a National Historic Landmark. The commercial areas of downtown Batavia begin two blocks east along both streets. To the north, south and west are residential areas.</p><br>
<p>The building itself is a five-by-five-bay structure with load-bearing limestone walls. On the east (front) side it is two and a half stories high, reaching a full three on the west. The lower level is set off by a belt course that also serves as a water table. Atop the building is a hipped roof with slate shingles trimmed in copper at the roofline. A cupola with bell from the original courthouse is in the center, and a brick chimney rises from the southeast corner.</p><br>
<p>Across the first floor of the east facade are six large stone pilasters with Doric capitals. All the bays save for the centrally located main entrance have 12-over-12 double-hung sash windows. At the roofline is an architrave of three narrow bands topped by a plain wide frieze below the projecting cornice.</p><br>
<p>The lower tier of the cupola has clapboard siding with corner pilasters and a frieze and projecting molded cornice of its own. Atop that is a balustrade surrounding the top tier, where each face has two Doric pilasters flanking a louvered vent. Above its frieze and cornice is a copper dome.</p><br>
<p>Stone steps with center and side iron guardrails rise to the deeply recessed main entrance. The front door is framed by more Doric pilasters, sidelights and a transom above its own cornice. It opens into a central hallway with offices on either side.</p><br>
<p>At the far end is a double stair that merges into one before it reaches the second floor. The main courtroom, with coved ceiling covered in acoustical tiles, is on that level along with two judges&#39; chambers. Wainscoting and door and window trim are apparently original.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>Joseph Ellicott supervised the building of the first courthouse in 1802 on behalf of the Holland Land Company, for which he was agent. It was a two-story frame structure located to the east of the present building, near the site of the county building on the opposite side of the triangle. He had chosen what became Batavia for his headquarters due to its location at the convergence of major Iroquois trails through the region, two of which became Main and Ellicott streets and the state highways that follow them.</p><br>
<p>The original building had jail facilities in the basement, offices on the first floor and its courtroom upstairs. Like its successor, it was topped with a cupola. Local lore holds that David McCracken, a prosperous early resident with a reputation for playing practical jokes, was surprised that the land company had not bought a bell to go with it, and commissioned a bell on his own from a foundry in New Haven, Connecticut. After taking delivery, he hung it from a pole between two trees and proceeded to ring it in the early hours of one morning, awakening the entire village. Ellicott asked if the bell was for sale, and when McCracken said yes, the land agent bought it from him at that very moment. It has hung in the courthouse ever since.</p><br>
<p>As the Holland Purchase was settled more extensively, Genesee County, which had originally been coterminous with the lands, was subdivided into the other ten counties in the region. As the countys boundaries changed, this created pressure to relocate the county seat somewhere more central to the remaining county. This ended with the creation of the last county, Wyoming, to Genesees immediate south, in 1841, leaving Batavia once again centrally located within the county.</p><br>
<p>The county&#39;s Board of Supervisors had petitioned the state legislature for money to build a new courthouse, which was authorized that same year. Its Greek Revival design, typical for public buildings of the period, was an expanded version of the original courthouse, later to serve as town and village hall. The Onondaga limestone was quarried locally. The wall stones came from nearby Le Roy, already emerging as a center for that material, and the pillars and capitals from Lockport, the seat of Niagara County to the northwest.</p><br>
<p>Local craftsmen worked on the construction. The building was finished early in 1843 and the first court sessions were held later that year. At first the Board of Supervisors allowed all sorts of public meetings to be held in the building, but by 1851 they had ordered the sheriff to allow only county meetings. The two building commissioners who had overseen construction later served as judges, one not leaving the bench until the early 20th century.</p><br>
<p>The first renovations were made in 1862, when some aspects of the interior were altered and fireproofing was added to benefit the county clerk. In 1918 the original courthouse, since renamed Ellicott Hall, burned down. The bell was saved and moved to the cupola in the current courthouse.</p><br>
<p>Major renovations took place in 1932. The front, originally a recessed full-width porch with freestanding columns, was enclosed to create more office space. The columns became pilasters. Inside, the upstairs courtroom was reconfigured into a north-south access and the bench was moved accordingly. These renovations cost $58,000 ($ in contemporary dollars).</p><br>
<p>In 1957 the exterior walls were sandblasted. A more extensive 1975 project spent $155,000 ($ in contemporary dollars) to add a fire alarm and sprinkler system, lightning protection, gutter downspouts and cleaned the outside stone again. The windows and roofing were replaced, along with the wooden trim. The wooden supports for the bell were replaced, and its rope gave way to an electrical system. Air conditioning and an elevator were added in 1999.</p><br>
<p>There have been no other substantial changes to the building. Currently it serves as offices for the county manager and his or her assistant, as well as the county attorney. The nine-member county legislature still meets twice a month in the upstairs courtroom.</p><br>
<p>The Genesee County Courthouse Historic District is located at the junction of Main, West Main and Ellicott streets  in downtown Batavia, New York, United States. It is a small area with the county courthouse, a war memorial and other government buildings dating from the 1840s to the 1920s. Some were originally built for private purposes.</p><br>
<p>With the federal government represented as well as the city, it constitutes the civic core of Batavia, the city from whence the Holland Purchase, covering all of today&#39;s Western New York, was subdivided and settled in the early 19th century. In 1982 it was recognized as a historic district, one of two in the county, and listed on the National Register of Historic Places.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>The district is an irregularly shaped five-acre (5 acre) area on the north side of West Main and both sides of West Main, with its southern border at Ellicott. In the latter area, the triangular parcel between Main, Ellicott and Court Street, it includes the county courthouse and the county government building to its east. The Civil War memorial at the junction is also included. Across the street the buildings included, from west to east, are the original county jail, the post office, and city hall.</p><br>
<p>To the south are other, modern government buildings and Tonawanda Creek. The Holland Land Office building, a National Historic Landmark now used as a historical museum, is on the south side of West Main two blocks to the west, with commercial buildings on the north giving way to houses in the adjacent blocks to the north and west. East of the district is the commercial core of Batavia.</p><br>
<h2>Contributing properties</h2><br>
<p>The district encompasses five government buildings and a monument. There are no non-contributing properties.</p><br>
<p>Batavia City Hall, 10 West Main Street. George Brisbane, son of original settler James Brisbane, built this two-story brick Italianate-style mansion in 1853. After some alterations in 1876, the city acquired it from his descendants in 1917 and adapted it for its current use as city hall, without adversely affecting the original architecture.</p><br>
<p>Genesee County Courthouse, Main and Ellicott Streets. Built between 1841 and 1843, it is the oldest building in the district, the focal point of traffic reaching the city center from the west. It uses local limestone for its load-bearing walls. Modeled on the timber frame courthouse built nearby by Joseph Ellicott in the early 19th century, the original Greek Revival style, made more prominent by the colonnade on the east (front) facade, has been softened by the expansion of the interior into the porch to create more office space. Still used as the offices of the county manager, county attorney and the meeting place of the county legislature, it was listed on the Register in 1973.</p><br>
<p>Genesee County Building #1, Court Street. The most recent building in the district is located on the site of the original courthouse, which burned down in 1918. Eight years later, this two-and-a-half–story 13-bay Classical Revival brick building and decorative elements including a balustrade, quoins and pilasters was built at a cost of $150,000 ($ in contemporary dollars) to take its place as county offices. A 1955 addition made it T-shaped. Renovations at the end of the 20th century made it disabled-accessible.</p><br>
<p>Genesee County Sheriffs Office and Jail, West Main Street. Poughkeepsie architect William J. Beardsley designed this two-story Victorian Gothic structure, completed in 1903. The turrets, brick and locally quarried Medina sandstone produce a small-scale fortress effect, similar to the nearby Attica Correctional Facility. It has remained in use by the sheriffs office since its construction, although other jail facilities have been built.</p><br>
<p>Soldiers Monument, Main and Ellicott streets. A bronze eagle perches on a globe at the top of a 36 ft shaft on a 14-foot–square (14 ft) granite base surmounted by a globe above which a bronze eagle is perched with wings extended seven feet. Facing west is a statue of General Emory Upton. It was erected in 1919 to honor the areas Civil War veterans.</p><br>
<p>USA Post Office, 2 West Main Street. This five-bay Classical Revival brick building on a sandstone foundation was built in 1919, credited to Treasury Department Supervising Architect James Wetmore. Its unusual parallelogram shape was required by the lot shape, in which the property lines run north-south instead of perpendicular to the street.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>Batavia was founded in 1802 by Joseph Ellicott, surveyor and agent for the Holland Land Company, the group of Dutch investors who had bought the 3 million acres (1.2 million ha) west of the Genesee River from Continental Army financier Robert Morris. Ellicott chose what became Batavia, the name what is today The Netherlands had at the time, since it was at the fork of two major Iroquois trails, today the highways that follow the three streets, across the region. From the beginning of settlement the future district was used for governmental purposes, with a courthouse built at the fork to file the deeds once the owners had paid off the mortgage, previously kept at the land office down the street.</p><br>
<p>Genesee County, which initially covered the entire Holland Purchase, was repeatedly subdivided into the 10 counties of the current region as it became settled and developed. With the 1840 creation of Wyoming County from the southern half of what had been the rump of Genesee County, Batavia resumed its central location within the county and erased any doubt as to its feasibility as the county seat. The current courthouse was built, a stone structure closely modeled on the original building. In its cupola is the original courthouse&#39;s bell, the only remnant of that building, which burned down in 1918 after a long period of use as village (later city) and town hall.</p><br>
<p>The opening of the Erie Canal, which bypassed Batavia in favor of Orleans County, led to a decline from the citys earlier importance. But growth returned when the railroads were built and came through, following the old roads. William Brisbanes 1853 mansion was built at the height of this prosperity, before the Midwest displaced Western New York as the United States major wheat-growing area. Now city hall, Brisbanes mansion is the only building in the district not originally built for government use.</p><br>
<p>Early in the new century, the county built another new building in the future district to house its sheriff and prisoners. William J. Beardsleys late Victorian Gothic structure was opened in 1903. The years at the end of World War I saw a flurry of activity that did much to shape the district into the citys civic core. The city of Batavia bought Brisbanes mansion from his heirs and adapted it, with minimal significant change, into its city hall in 1917. The next year, the original courthouse that had stood since Ellicotts time was lost to fire. Across the street, the federal government established its presence in the area with a Classical Revival post office built on part of the original Brisbane property. The unusual shape of the parcel required that the building be shaped like a parallelogram.</p><br>
<p>In 1919, with the war over, the city and county built the Soldiers&#39; Monument at the corner to the west of the courthouse, to memorialize not just its veterans from the recent war but those from the Civil War a half-century before as well. The statue of Emory Upton honors the memory of the most famous local soldier, whose innovative tactics led to a Union victory at the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House. It continues to honor and memorialize the veterans of later wars.</p><br>
<p>The last government building to be added to the district was the county government building. With county government growing in scope, more space was needed. The site of the original courthouse had remained vacant, and in the mid-1920s the Rochester firm of Bohacket and Brew was hired to build the current building. Their ornate brick Classical Revival structure was opened in 1927. Five years later, the county enclosed the courthouse porch to create more office space, turning its columns into pilasters.</p><br>
<p>Later renovations, in 1955, added a third wing to the county building. This is the most significant change to any of the buildings. The courthouse was modernized in the mid-1970s, and the county building made disabled-accessible in the late 20th century.</p><br>
<p>The Paulina Lake Guard Station is a Forest Service building located in the Newberry National Volcanic Monument in Central Oregon. The guard station was built by the Civilian Conservation Corps to house the seasonal assistant ranger responsible for patrolling the forest around Paulina Lake. Because of its rustic architecture, the guard station was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>In the 1920s and 1930s, Forest Service employees often traveled many miles from local ranger stations to forest work sites. Since the forest road networks were not well developed, getting to a job site meant a long trek, carrying all the equipment need to perform the field work. This made it impractical for employees to make daily round-trips. To facilitate work at remote sites, the Forest Service built guard stations at strategic locations throughout the forest to house fire patrols and project crews. After World War II, the Forest Service greatly expanded its road network, allowing employees to get to most National Forest areas within a few hours. As a result, many guard stations were no longer needed. The Forest Service found new uses for some stations, but most were demolished or abandon.</p><br>
<p>The Paulina Lake Guard Station was built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in 1938. It was originally constructed to house a seasonal assistant ranger working for the Fort Rock Ranger District. Today, it is located within the Newberry National Volcanic Monument area of the Deschutes National Forest. The guard station was named after nearby Paulina Lake, a large lake inside the caldera of Newberry Crater. Paulina Lake is, in turn, name for Chief Paulina, a Paiute leader of the Walpapi band during the Snake War in the 1860s.</p><br>
<p>The guard station was originally built as a residence for the forest guard responsible for patrolling the campgrounds and forest around the Paulina Lake during the summer wildfire season.</p><br>
<p>The Paulina Lake Guard Station exemplifies rustic architectural style developed by the Forest Service in the Pacific Northwest during the early 20th century. Because of its rustic architecture and the cabin’s unique historic value as an early Forest Service guard station, it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on 11 April 1986. In 1990, the United States Congress established the 50,000 acre Newberry National Volcanic Monument. Because of its location, the guard station became part of the National Monument. Today, the guard station building is the home of the Paulina Visitor Center.</p><br>
<h2>Structure</h2><br>
<p>The Civilian Conservation Corps built the guard station residence in 1938. It is rectangular one-story, wood-frame structures with gabled roof. The structure rests of a concrete foundation. There is an interior stone chimney off center from the roof ridge. The exterior walls are horizontal clapboard with vertical board and batten covering the gable ends. Windows are either a nine or twelve pane light sash type. The main front window is a group of three twelve pane windows set below a front gabled bay. A garage with hinged two-leaf doors is built into one end of the structure.</p><br>
<p>The main entrance is at the centered on the front façade. It has a recessed porch, enclosed on three sides. The porch has a flagstone platform floor. The entryway is framed by heavy timber beams. The outer posts are vertical and flush with the exterior wall while the two inner posts are angled inward. All four posts support a heavy, square lintel beam.</p><br>
<h2>Location</h2><br>
<p>The Paulina Lake Guard Station is located in the Newberry National Volcanic Monument area of the Deschutes National Forest. It is approximately 36 mi southeast of Bend, Oregon. The elevation at the site is 6,350 ft above sea level. The forest around the guard station is dominated by ponderosa pine with a few lodgepole pine in the area as well.</p><br>
<p>To get to the Paulina Lake Guard Station from Bend, travel south on Highway 97 twenty-three miles then turn right onto Forest Service Road 21. Follow Road 21 for 13 mi to Paulina Lake campground and the guard station. There is a vehicle fee charged within the Newberry National Volcanic Monument to help cover the cost of operating and maintaining the facilities in the area. There are additional fees for camping inside the monument.</p><br>
<p>The Brick Tavern House is a former inn on the National Road west of St. Clairsville, Ohio, United States. One of the oldest National Road taverns still in existence, it was built in the early nineteenth century. Although it fell into dilapidation during the late twentieth century, it was named a historic site in 1995, and extensive restoration was to be performed in the early 2010s but to date, has not been.</p><br>
<p>The tavern&#39;s construction date varies widely in different sources. A history of Belmont County published in 1903 proposed that it had been built in 1812; the USA Department of Transportation believes that it was constructed in 1828; a restoration firm, Centennial Preservation Group, states that it was erected in 1825; and the National Park Service gives its construction year as 1831. Built of brick on a foundation of sandstone, the tavern is covered with a tin roof and features elements of sandstone and slate. The two-and-a-half-story building features a gabled roof, while the overall design includes a rear ell faced by porches on both sides.</p><br>
<p>Numerous taverns were constructed along the National Road in its earliest years, as the road saw its golden years between 1825 and 1845. However, the coming of railroads later in the century relegated the road to a farm track by 1900, and its businesses and towns were reduced to serving only local needs. Although it survived the neglect of long-distance travelers, the Brick Tavern House gradually fell into dilapidation; by 2012, its windows were boarded up, and the entire structure was tending toward collapse, even though it was part of the campus of Ohio University East. To save the building, the university applied for historic preservation grants from the federal government, and in September 2006 the USA Department of Transportation announced that they had been awarded $128,000 for restoration. Restoration was forced to wait; early 2012 saw the tavern still deteriorating amid a protracted bidding process. Ultimately, the Belmont County Commissioners agreed to permit bidding for renovation, including roof repairs, in April 2012, and construction had been finished by June of the following year. Work was performed by Centennial Preservation Group, with assistance by Hays Landscape Architecture.</p><br>
<p>In 1995, amid its deterioration, the Brick Tavern House was listed on the National Register of Historic Places, qualifying because of its place in local history; a secondary building was included with the tavern in the designation. Part of its historical importance derives from its location next door to the Great Western Schoolhouse, another National Register-listed building; local school districts use the schoolhouse for field trips, and the restoration grant was awarded in hopes that the renovated tavern might become a museum in connection with the schoolhouse.</p><br>
<p>The Park Ranges, also known as the Main Ranges, are a group of mountain ranges in the Canadian Rockies of eastern British Columbia and western Alberta, Canada. It is one of the three main subranges and the most central of the Continental Ranges, extending from southeast of Mount McGregor to the Fernie Basin.</p><br>
<h2>Subranges</h2><br>
<p>Blackwater Range</p><br>
<p>Blue Range</p><br>
<p>Bow Range</p><br>
<p>Chaba Icefield</p><br>
<p>Clemenceau-Chaba</p><br>
<p>Columbia Icefield</p><br>
<p>Drummond Group</p><br>
<p>Freshfields</p><br>
<p>Harrison Group</p><br>
<p>Hooker Icefield</p><br>
<p>Kitchen Range</p><br>
<p>Le Grand Brazeau</p><br>
<p>McKale-Chalco Divide</p><br>
<p>Mitchell Range</p><br>
<p>Morkill Ranges</p><br>
<p>Ottertail Range</p><br>
<p>Rainbow Range</p><br>
<p>Royal Group</p><br>
<p>Selwyn Range</p><br>
<p>Spray Mountains</p><br>
<p>Sundance Range</p><br>
<p>The Ramparts</p><br>
<p>Trident Range</p><br>
<p>Van Horne Range</p><br>
<p>Vermilion Range</p><br>
<p>Wapta Icefield</p><br>
<p>Waputik Icefield</p><br>
<p>Waputik Mountains</p><br>
<p>President Range</p><br>
<p>Winston Churchill Range</p><br>
<p>The Keeney House is located on Main Street  in Le Roy, New York, United States. It is a two-story wood frame house dating to the mid-19th century. Inside it has elaborately detailed interiors. It is surrounded by a landscaped front and back yard.</p><br>
<p>Originally it was in the Greek Revival architectural style, with more elaborate decoration on its main facade. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, it was home to horticulturist Calvin N. Kenney (1849–1930), breeder of the stringless bean. In 1927, the home was renovated in the Federal Revival style by Bryant Fleming, leaving it with a more restrained main facade. The house and its carriage house were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.</p><br>
<h2>Buildings and grounds</h2><br>
<p>The house is located on a three-quarter–acre (3,000 m²) lot, more than twice as deep as it is wide, on the south side of Main Street, just east of its intersection with Lake and Clay streets (New York State Route 19) in the center of the village. Most of the neighboring properties are large non-residential structures: a supermarket to the west, the village hall to the east with Le Roy&#39;s commercial district on the other side of Route 19, and another large commercial structure to the north across the street. A block of residences begins to the northwest. The terrain begins to slope slightly downward to the east and Oatka Creek at that point.</p><br>
<p>Mature trees and shrubs are planted throughout the landscaped lot. The house sits on a slight rise, with slight terraces climbing up to it from the street. A line of trees screens the property from the village hall property on the east, next to a driveway to the carriage house, and a decorative wooden fence runs from the carriage house along the rear boundary.</p><br>
<p>The building itself has a two-and-a-half-story five-by-two-bay wood frame main block on a stone foundation with two rear wings and a kitchen extension. It is topped with a shallow pitched gabled roof covered in composition tiles and pierced by a brick chimney. The western of the two rear wings is two stories high, the eastern, with the living room, one. Between them a long extension ends in a recessed porch. There is another porch on the east side, from the living room wing to beyond the middle of the extension.</p><br>
<p>Siding consists of clapboard on all facades save the north (front), which uses flushboard. All windows have low-relief molded surrounds and flat cornices. That faces central bay, with the main entrance, is framed by full-height square recessed Doric pilasters, which repeat at the corners. They support a wide molded frieze, above which are small windows with decorative grillwork. Above them is the roofs wide overhanging cornice.</p><br>
<p>Similar Doric pilasters trim the corners of the rear and wings. At the rear of the kitchen extension, the porch has arches on the sides and square Doric piers on the south. Above them a Palladian window is in the gable field.</p><br>
<p>The recessed main entrance is flanked by narrow sidelights and topped with a fanlight. It leads into a long central hall, flanked by a parlor and sitting room at the front. Both have fireplaces with wooden Greek Revival mantels. Arched alcoves flank the parlor fireplaces. Greek Revival woodwork also frames the doors and entryways, and both ceilings have crown molding and a blank frieze.</p><br>
<p>An ornate staircase leads up to the second floor. There the wide central hall divides similarly appointed bedrooms and a study. A suite is located at the end of the south extension.</p><br>
<p>The carriage house is also a frame structure. Its roof is double-gabled on the east side, with two brick chimneys and a latticework cupola. It and the gables are topped with finials. The main entrance on the north is a pedimented portico, supported by two narrow columns rising from stone walls that extend from either side of the main entrance. They are flanked by two sash windows. A circular window fills the gable field above.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>The house was built in 1851 by local contractor Philo Pierson for claim agent John Bixby. The two-story rear wing was probably built first, to serve as a temporary residence while the rest of the house went up. The main block combines a late Federal-style form with Greek Revival detailing.</p><br>
<p>Calvin Keeney, a Le Roy native, bought the house from Bixby in 1881. He had left school to join his fathers produce business after the Civil War, and ultimately became his fathers partner. In 1868 he had hired a Rochester seedman to help develop the stringless bean. Keeney would later be credited with developing 17 varieties of the vegetable, which helped make canning cheaper. He himself started a local cannery and salt works before his death.</p><br>
<p>In 1927 Buffalo architect Bryant Fleming was commissioned to do renovations on the house. He removed a veranda that had been installed around 1900 along with much of the front facade&#39;s three-dimensional decoration, making it more of a pure Federal building. To make up for the veranda he had the front lawn terraced and accentuated the front entrance with the fanlight and flanking pilasters, reinforcing those already found on the corners. The fenestration was further enhanced with square plaques at either side of the window heads and the grillwork windows in the attic.</p><br>
<p>In the rear he had the servants&#39; quarters converted into the porch and added the Palladian window. Inside, he had the two front rooms on the east side combined into a large parlor. He also landscaped the backyard.</p><br>
<p>There have been no other significant changes to the house since. After Keeney&#39;s death, his daughter Ruth inherited the house. She helped establish the YWCA and Girl Scouts at the national level, and organized the Le Roy Historical Society in her hometown. From her the property passed to her niece Elinor Townsend. Currently, the property is owned by William and Susan Schmidt.</p><br>
<p>The Le Roy House and Union Free School are located on East Main Street  in Le Roy, New York, United States. The house is a stucco-faced stone building in the Greek Revival architectural style. It was originally a land office, expanded in two stages during the 19th century by its builder, Jacob Le Roy, an early settler for whom the village is named. In the rear of the property is the village&#39;s first schoolhouse, a stone building from the end of the 19th century.</p><br>
<p>Le Roy expanded the small land office into a large house, with finely decorated interior. After its completion, he hosted the reception following Daniel Websters second marriage, to one of Le Roys sisters. Later it served as a residence for educational administrators of both Ingham University and the local public schools. During the late 19th century it was subdivided into a boardinghouse for faculty and students at Ingham and the Le Roy Academic Institute, an early secular private school. Upon the establishment of the Le Roy Historical Society in 1941 it became the local historical museum.</p><br>
<p>The school was originally an addition built on a frame building, first for the Le Roy Academic Institute and then the local public school district, which it served as a high school. Its educational use ended in the early 20th century. For several decades afterward it was used as a factory for the manufacture of patent medicines. Since the 1940s it has been a property of the historical society.</p><br>
<h2>Museums</h2><br>
<p>The Le Roy House is today owned by the Le Roy Historical Society and operated as historic house museum, with 19th century period rooms, a room with Morganville Pottery items, and exhibits of local history.</p><br>
<p>The school has also been converted into the Jell-O Gallery, devoted to the history and marketing of Jell-O, which was invented and first manufactured in Le Roy.</p><br>
<h2>Buildings and grounds</h2><br>
<p>Both buildings are located on a 3 acre lot along the north side of East Main Street, 500 feet (150 m) east of Oatka Creek. Across the street is a small park and Le Roy&#39;s current high school, built in the early 20th century. The surrounding neighborhood is otherwise mostly residential, with other large houses from the 19th century and the First Baptist Church at the creek. The deep lot has the house on the street, followed by a small parking lot, the school and a Little League baseball field in the very rear. A line of trees delineates the property boundaries.</p><br>
<p>In 1997 both buildings were listed on the National Register of Historic Places.</p><br>
<h3>House</h3><br>
<p>The house is a two-and-a-half-story stucco-faced limestone structure with a raised foundation and side-gabled roof shingled in asphalt. Two brown brick chimneys with concrete caps pierce it at either end. The roofline has broad overhanging eaves on the north and south and a dentilled pedimented cornice on the east and west. On the north (rear) elevation is a full-width one-story porch on a concrete foundation with limestone steps. Its hipped roof is supported by round Tuscan columns and louvered panels at the sides.</p><br>
<h4>Exterior</h4><br>
<p>Its south (front) facade frames the centrally located main entrance in a hip roofed portico with classical entablature supported by paired fluted Doric columns with indented capitals. All windows on the facade are tripartite, with 12-over-12 double-hung sash flanked by three-over-three sidelights on the first story complemented by eight-over-eight and two-over-two on the second. All have plain lintels and wooden shutters for the sidelights. At the basement level a window on the west side provides light; the corresponding opening on the east has been bricked in.</p><br>
<p>The side elevations are asymmetrically fenestrated, reflecting the houses phased expansion. Both have a six-over-six window flanked by quarter-round windows in the pediments. On the east are three six-over-six windows in the northern bays, and two on the first in the two northernmost bays. The west faces second story is fully fenestrated, but with an eight-over-eight in the second bay from north dropped a half-story. Below it, the first story has, from the south, a six-over-six, eight-over-eight, six-over-six and four-over-four, all with stone sills. The north elevation has tripartite windows like those on the opposite face surrounding the rear entrance, a six-panel door with narrow six-light sidelights and four-light transom. The second story has three six-over-six windows aligned with the first-story windows.</p><br>
<h4>Interior</h4><br>
<p>Paired paneled pilasters flank the six-light sidelights aside the main entrance, topped by another four-light transom. The six-panel wooden door opens into a 53 ft central hall running the depth of the house. In the middle an elliptical arch with molded soffit panels and reeded wood trim and keystones. A similar arch on the adjacent wall leads into the stair hall. Flooring throughout the first story is four-inch (10 cm) wooden board with the plaster walls covered by reproduction wallpaper.</p><br>
<p>On either side of the center hall are two large rooms. The southwest room is decorated to approximate the buildings original function as a land office. Wooden shutters for the 12-over-12 at the center of the tripartite window are on the adjacent interior walls. The doors and windows have reed surrounds with molded corner blocks. The west walls fireplace mantel has a classical entablature, Doric columns and a glazed brick hearth. Next to the chimney breast are French doors leading into the northwest room. A closed portion in the northeast corner houses the original circular stairway.</p><br>
<p>The northwest room is currently the Le Roy Historical Society&#39;s office. Another six-panel wooden door with molded surround opens into it from the center hall. Its west wall fireplace has a wood mantel with reeded pilasters and molded square corner blocks. To its north a built-in bookcase spans the wall. The east wall has a kitchen unit, and the room is floored in linoleum.</p><br>
<p>East of the center hall, the two parlors have the greatest degree of decoration. The smaller southeast one has ornate wooden surrounds and plaster cornice moldings at the ceiling. The tripartite window is recessed and flanked by fluted pilasters. On the east the fireplace mantel has a classical entablature and engaged Ionic columns.</p><br>
<p>A ten-foot-wide (3 m) cased opening separates the two eastern parlors. It has some of the same decorative motifs seen elsewhere on the first floor, such as reed molding and molded corner blocks, along with a molded inset panel at the center. From the front, a classical entablature and Tuscan columns frame the view to the tripartite window in the rear. Along its sides, lined with shallow molded wood paneling, are shallow closets.</p><br>
<p>In the northeast parlor, the tripartite window is similarly recessed and flanked by pilasters. The fireplace mantel has an inset molded panel, classical entablature and engaged Tuscan columns. On either side are the six-over-six windows with reeded pilaster finish and molded corner blocks. Another six-panel wooden door opens into the center hall.</p><br>
<p>On the second floor, an identical arch spans the center hall south of the top of the stair. The decoration is more restrained, with simpler door and window surrounds and a ceiling medallion in the north section of the hall made of concentric circles. The same wide flooring planks are used everywhere on the floor except for the bathroom. All rooms are accessed by six-paneled wooden doors with half-glazing consisting of hand-painted frosted glass depicting landscapes, ruins, birds or animals.</p><br>
<p>A storage space has been created from part of the southeast bedroom, which has a fireplace with plain wood mantel. It is currently used to exhibit a collection of period children&#39;s toys. The similar bedroom across the hall is now used as a research library. Its northeast corner has also been partitioned to create a bathroom with wooden wainscoting along its walls.</p><br>
<p>The largest of the second floor bathrooms, the northeast one, has a fireplace with a Federal style mantel featuring classical entablature, inset molded panel and flanking pilasters. The molding on the door surround is the most detailed of any on the floor. It is currently used for storage. The bedroom across the hall has period furnishings and is used as an exhibit. Its mantel is similar.</p><br>
<p>Upstairs, the third floor is closed to the public and used for storage of collection material not currently on exhibit. It has a center hall dividing three small rooms on the west side from a large ballroom on the east. A small alcove projects from the west side of that room. There is extra storage space beneath the eaves on the north and south. The walls and ceilings are done in plaster.</p><br>
<p>From the rear of the stair hall on the first floor, another set of stairs leads down to the basement. It, too, has a center hall with six rooms. Three are open to the public and used for exhibits. In the southeast is a kitchen exhibit, in accordance with the bake oven in the open fireplace and open shelving along the east and north walls. It has a stone floor, plaster walls, and wooden shiplap ceiling.</p><br>
<p>In the southwest corner of the basement is the oldest room in the house, used for cold storage. It has a stone floor and vaulted brick ceiling, with walls of mortared limestone. To its north is a smaller vaulted room with a brick vault on the main floor, formerly the site of the cistern that collected rainwater from the roof.</p><br>
<p>The northwest room houses a ceramics exhibit, and has exposed blue shale in its west wall. Opposite, in the northeast, is the boiler room. The remaining room, in the center of the west side below the stairwell, is a small bathroom.</p><br>
<h3>School</h3><br>
<p>The school building is a three-story five-by-eight-bay limestone building with wooden interior framing. It is topped by an asphalt hipped roof with flared eaves and exposed rafter tails. Its raised basement has larger blocks and is separated by a water table.</p><br>
<p>At the south end of the west elevation is the current main entrance. It has a porch with a concrete deck, metal staircase and guiderails. Its roof is done in beaded wood paneling similar to that once used inside the school. The surrounding masonry work is different since the door was added later. Fenestration on that side consists of three aligned pairs of double-hung sash windows, one-over-one at the basement and first story, and two six-over-ones flanking a wooden door on the second.</p><br>
<p>On the east (rear) are aligned windows, likewise six one-over-one on the first story and seven six-over-one on the second. The basement windows have been bricked in, as has the first-story window at the north end. The same pattern of six-over-one above one-over-one obtains on the north side, with the three windows to the west being narrower. At the first story&#39;s northeast corner is a secondary entrance with a vinyl siding enclosure. It leads to the basement. The south, the side facing the street, is similar to the other faces except for having two narrow windows in the westernmost bay. All its windows have rock-faced lintels and smooth sills.</p><br>
<h4>Interior</h4><br>
<p>The paneled main entrance door, with single-light sidelights and transom, opens into a hall running along the west side. It is currently used as a gift shop and admission area for the museum. In the wider central portion of the hall is the freestanding chimney, its breast faced in plaster, with turned wooden cornerbeads and beaded fir wainscoting. A small administrative office is in the southwest corner.</p><br>
<p>Next to it, on the southeast, is the 832 ft&sup2; main exhibit room. The natural light from the windows is supplemented by modern track lighting on the beaded fir ceiling. The beaded fir wainscoting, ceiling and floor are original but have been refinished; the door to the west hall has been removed. A sliding track door opens into the northeast room, currently used for storage. It has similar finishes, and a non-functional freight lift on the east wall.</p><br>
<p>Also on the east wall, a five-panel door opens into the closed stair along the east wall. A small storage room in the northwest corner is accessed from this space, divided from the main hall by a partially glazed wall on the south. The stair itself, located behind another paneled door at the north end of the entrance hall, is lit by the windows on that elevation. The dogleg stair itself has simple square balusters, a molded top round rail and square newel.</p><br>
<p>Upstairs, another west hallway with a small room in the southwest corner gives access to three rooms of nearly equal size. All have paneled doors leading to the hallway, and each other. The finishes on this level are all original; none have been renovated.</p><br>
<p>The northeast room is slightly larger than the other two. It has the upper level of the freight lift, and a beaded-front cabinet below the window on the east wall. On the north wall is a steam radiator. The plaster has been removed on the south and east walls near the chimney, exposing the lath beneath. The chimney itself is in the northwest corner. In the south room the original blackboards remain on either side of the door on the north wall. Plaster has been stripped from that wall as well. Another steam radiator is along the south wall.</p><br>
<p>The basement has brick walls and a wood floor over concrete. Due to accumulated moisture over the years some of the wood has rotted, and the brick facing has been damaged. It is used for the storage of vehicles and other large items.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>The house originated with a land office from the earliest days of Le Roys settlement, a building still structurally part of the house. After Jacob Le Roy expanded it considerably, its use as a single-family house lasted until the Civil War, when it was subdivided to become a boarding house. Since 1941 it has been the historical societys property.</p><br>
<p>The school was original the west wing of an earlier frame structure, demolished in the 20th century. After being closed down, it was used as a factory for several decades.</p><br>
<h3>1793–1817:Settlement of Le Roy</h3><br>
<p>After the Revolutionary War, Robert Morris bought the land west of the Genesee River which now makes up Western New York from the state of Massachusetts. Most of this he later sold to the Holland Land Company, but in 1793 the New York firm of LeRoy & Bayard acquired 87,000 acre from him. Because of its shape, stretching from the current village of Le Roy to the shores of Lake Ontario and widening to the north, it was called the Triangle Tract.</p><br>
<p>The intersection of Oatka Creek with a popular Iroquois trail was an obvious place to establish a settlement, and four years after the Triangle Tract was purchased a man named Charles Arthur built a log cabin on the north side of what is now Main Street, just east of the future village&#39;s municipal boundary. He sold it a year later to a Capt. John Ganson, who expanded it into a tavern. Other settlers came, attracted by the fertile soils of the Oatka valley, and three years later, in 1802, the first bridge was built over the creek.</p><br>
<p>In 1813 the community was named after Herman Le Roy, senior partner in the landowning firm and former director of the Bank of the United States. He bought more land south of the Triangle Tracts tip, a purchase known as the Five Hundred Acre Tract, to attract more settlers. When the land was fully surveyed in 1817, he sent his nephew Egbert Benson Jr. to Le Roy to serve as the companys agent.</p><br>
<h3>1818–47: Initial construction and residence</h3><br>
<p>The two-story brick building Benson had constructed on the site of the current house is its earliest section. At that time it had an entrance on the west (now a window) and a narrow circular stair to the garret. An adjoining room to the north had a vaulted ceiling. The basement had the extant cistern and cold storage.</p><br>
<p>Four years later, in 1821, the community had been subdivided into lots and was thriving, with mills and other industries being established. Jacob Le Roy, a son of Herman&#39;s who had traveled abroad learning the family business after studies at Yale, replaced his cousin as company agent. Two years later he bought the land office building and began expanding it into a house for himself and his family.</p><br>
<p>By 1823 it had reached its current size. Le Roy had added a two-story addition to the rear, doubling the interior, and the attic story. The new section was reportedly modeled after New York City townhouses of the era. Fruit trees and flowering shrubs were planted around the house at this time. Six years later, in 1829, Le Roy hosted the reception after Daniel Webster&#39;s wedding to one of his sisters.</p><br>
<p>The last of the Triangle Tract lots was sold by 1837, and the land office was formally closed. In the 1840s the front portico was added, giving the house its strong Greek Revival character. The stucco facing, added some time after the rear was built, further unified the houses appearance. After the companys decision to raise prices on some former Holland properties it had acquired met with widespread local resistance in some areas and violence against one of the company&#39;s other offices, Jacob sold the house to Alfred Bartow and returned to New York City. He died there in 1847.</p><br>
<h3>1848–91: Ingham Seminary</h3><br>
<p>Bartow built the rear veranda. He replaced the original interior doors with the decorative glass-paneled ones currently in use sometime during the 1840s and &#39;50s. He also oversaw extensive additions to the grounds, such as large barns, expanded gardens, and the replacement of a stone wall with iron filigreed gate posts. Two drives on either side made a circle around the veranda. In 1856 he moved out.</p><br>
<p>In 1837 Mariette and Emily Ingham had established the LeRoy Female Seminary in a nearby house. Its first chancellor, Dr. Samuel Hanson Cox, lived in the Le Roy House during his tenure. His development of the school&#39;s curriculum led it to become Ingham Collegiate Institute and then Ingham University in 1857. During the 1860s pipelines were laid to the house to provide gas for heating and lighting.</p><br>
<p>Citizens of the village, including Bartow, established the non-sectarian LeRoy Academic Institute in 1864 in a small building on Main Street. Within a year it had outgrown that space, and the institute&#39;s trustees bought the Le Roy House from Cox. They built a two-story wood frame school on the site of the present school, with enough space for 250 students.</p><br>
<p>The house itself was used to board faculty and some students. The interior was altered extensively during this period. Signs of former partitions remain on the floors of the large bedrooms upstairs, and the irregular fenestration of the side elevations also reflects this subdivision of the interior space. During the 1880s the basement kitchen was remodeled, with the shiplap ceiling added and the original fireplace and bake oven bricked shut.</p><br>
<h3>1890–1941: School and factory</h3><br>
<p>In 1890, four small rural school districts in the area were consolidated into the Le Roy Union Free School District, the precursor of todays Le Roy Central School District. The following year the new districts trustees voted to acquire the house and school from the institute for $10,000 ($ in contemporary dollars). The institute&#39;s trustees in turn voted to dissolve it. Seven years later, in 1898, the school district built a stone addition, the extant building, onto the frame building.</p><br>
<p>By 1904 it had been renamed Le Roy Union High School. Its student population soon outgrew this space, and seven years later the current Le Roy Junior/Senior High School was built across Main Street and Trigon Park. The old school&#39;s last year was 1911; it has not been used for educational purposes since.</p><br>
<p>The house and school were bought by Allen Olmsted, owner of a local company that manufactured patent medicines, primarily Allen&#39;s Foot-Ease powder. He allowed the school district to use the house as a residence for its administrator until a local historical society was organized. The school building he converted into a factory and offices. The basement was used for grinding and mixing; the first story as offices. A freight lift was installed, and a second-story passage built between the stone and wood buildings.</p><br>
<h3>1941–present: Museum</h3><br>
<p>In 1941 the local historical society was finally established and took title to the house, restoring the bake oven and brick hearth in the basement kitchen soon afterwards. Olmsted&#39;s company was bought by Buffalo-based Foster-Milburn two years later. It continued manufacturing operations in Le Roy for another two years, then moved them to Buffalo. When it did, it transferred the remainder of the property to the historical society.</p><br>
<p>The last change to the house was made in 1958. The rear porch was reconstructed since the original stone wall had deteriorated. It was replaced with a concrete wall. The windows were removed and the space beneath the porch entirely enclosed.</p><br>
<p>The wooden west wing that had served as the original school in the 1860s was demolished in 1962. A new roof and gutter were installed in 1985, and Lexan and wire cloth were added to the basement windows to protect against damage from stray balls on the nearby softball field, also used for Little League. Further renovations were made in 1996 in anticipation of an exhibit on the centenary of Jell-O. This included the installation of electricity, a security system and refinishings of the exhibit rooms on the first floor, including the installation of modern track lighting.</p><br>
<p>The Marion Steam Shovel, also known as the Le Roy Steam Shovel, is a historic Model 91 steam shovel manufactured by the Marion Steam Shovel and Dredge Company of Marion, Ohio. It is located on Gulf Road in the Town of Le Roy, New York, United States.</p><br>
<p>Representative of the type of technology developed in the late 19th century and early 20th century to provide large, inexpensive supplies of crushed stone for the vast American railroad network and later for the road construction, it is believed to be the largest intact steam shovel remaining in the world, and may have been used in the excavation of the Panama Canal. No longer operational, it was moved to its current site in the mid-20th century. It is currently owned by the town. In 2008 it became the first steam shovel listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the only listing in the Town of Le Roy and the easternmost in Genesee County.</p><br>
<h2>Description</h2><br>
<p>The shovel is located on the north side of Gulf Road, 2 mi east-northeast of the village of Le Roy, just opposite the driveway into the Hanson Company&#39;s limestone quarry. It is in a field behind a fence with locked gate. On the road there is space to pull vehicles over and look at it. The Register listing includes an area of about 0.1 acre, delineated by a perimeter 10 ft around the shovel.</p><br>
<p>While the original decorations have largely faded off the side, in several places on the shovel the Marion name is cast and legible. The model number plates have been removed, but the patent plate is still in place. The shovel weighs 105 ST.</p><br>
<p>Its main section is the size of a railroad boxcar, 18 ft wide by 42 ft long, with an arched roof and siding of riveted sheet metal, now rusted. The operators cab is on the east-facing front end, with most of the rest of the section housing the shovels three steam engines and a 5 by boiler, no longer in working condition, with horizontal flues. A plate on its door bears the number 5304. An 8 ft coal bin was added to the rear after it was built. The section rests on two caterpillar tracks, one pair out in front on a 20 ft outrigger, the other in the middle.</p><br>
<p>The largest of the three engines is the hoisting engine. It is a double-cylinder horizontal type with a 12 in bore and 16 in stroke. In addition to powering the hoist, it provided locomotive power and could move the shovel at speeds of a 1/4 mph. About 50 ft of the hoist chain has been removed.</p><br>
<p>Both of the other engines have an 8 in bore. The swing engine, attached to a chain around the swing circle, moves the boom from side to side. The other engine, the boom or crowd engine, raises and lowers the dipper. Due to its exposure to the weather, it is no longer in working condition. The other two, wholly inside the main section, were more protected from the elements and could be operated with compressed air.</p><br>
<p>On the east end is the outrigger. It consists of two joined arms connected by gears and chains to the appropriate engines. At the end is the bucket, with a capacity of 2+1/2 cubic yards. Beneath it is a small pile of rocks.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>The Marion Power Shovel Company came into being in the 1880s as a collaboration between a frustrated shovel operator turned inventor and an industrialist. The former, Henry Barnhart, designed a new shovel that he hoped would break down less frequently than existing models. He went into business with financial backing from Edward Huber and patented the idea in 1883. The following year they partnered with another industrialist, George King, and started the company in Marion, Ohio. Over the next decades it grew into a major manufacturer of construction equipment.</p><br>
<p>Steam shovels were in particular demand due to the need for crushed stone as ballast in the nation&#39;s railroad network, a demand that expanded in the early 20th century as roads began to be graveled and paved for use by motor vehicles. Le Roy, near the Onondaga Escarpment, was a prime location for limestone quarrying, atop a 150 ft layer of the stone. Since shortly after its settlement in the early 19th century, Le Roy had supported several such operations. Most of the limestone had been produced for architectural use, and a number of extant buildings in the Le Roy area, including the Lathrop Chapel at Machpelah Cemetery, are made of locally quarried limestone.</p><br>
<p>What eventually became the General Crushed Stone Company was founded in 1899 when the Duerr Contracting Company took over the Le Roy operations of a Tyrone, Pennsylvania, man who had been unable to meet the demands of the Lehigh Valley Railroad, a major customer. After two reorganizations, it became General Crushed Stone in 1902. Headquarters were in South Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.</p><br>
<p>The companys president, James Madison Porter, equipped the quarries it operated with new equipment, particularly what was at the time the worlds largest rock crusher. It began to pioneer the new field of manufacturing aggregate, particularly a patented blend called Amiesite, for road surfaces. By 1906 it had contracts for 500,000 ST of stone annually, two-thirds of which were purchased by the railroad. The Le Roy quarry produced 2,000 ST a day, most of which was shipped to the rail yards at Sayre, Pennsylvania.</p><br>
<p>On March 14, 1906 the local newspaper at the time, the Le Roy Gazette, reported on the new equipment that began operation that day. In addition to the rock crusher, it mentioned a "100-ton steam shovel that was manufactured specifically for General Crushed Stone by the Barnard Steam Shovel Company of Marion, Ohio." It cannot be determined if the shovel described is the one currently on the site since a 1932 photograph of the quarry shows two such shovels in action. The Gazette describes the bucket as holding 5 cubic yards, twice the capacity of the extant shovel&#39;s bucket, but the shovel was modified considerably after purchase and it is possible a smaller replacement bucket could have been installed as part of those changes.</p><br>
<p>Company lore always claimed that the shovel was one of two purchased by General Crushed Stone in 1911 from the Isthmian Canal Commission, which had just finished building the Panama Canal; no documentation has yet been found to support this. It is possible since the shovel is one of 131 Model 91s that Marion manufactured during the first decade of the 20th century. Sixteen were purchased by the commission and used to dig the canal; one of them set what was then a world record in 1912 when it dug 5,554 cubic yards of earth from a pit at the site of Gatun Dam. The model plates have been removed from the Le Roy shovel, but it has been conclusively identified as a Model 91 since its dimensions match those in Marion&#39;s archived corporate records for the line. No other 91s are known to survive.</p><br>
<p>The Model 91 required eight workers to operate. Four worked in the main section. The operator sat in the front booth and used levers to move the hoist and lift and lower the bucket. When it was time to move the shovel he took care of that as well. A cranesman, who sat on the left-hand side of the boom, controlled the crowd engine, which allowed him to set the depth of the cut and release the bucket&#39;s contents when it was full by tugging on a wire rope attached to it. In the rear was an engineer who tended the boiler and a fireman who shoveled the coal.</p><br>
<p>Outside the shovel a crew of four took up and laid the track along which its flanged wheels moved. They also set up the jackscrews necessary to stabilize the shovel in front of the rock face it was digging and dismantled them when it was time to move. This aspect of the excavation process proved to be time-consuming and labor-intensive, as well as dangerous, for such a large piece of machinery. In 1916 Marion began selling conversion kits to allow the shovel to be placed on caterpillar treads; seven years later the General Crushed Stone shovels were so modified.</p><br>
<p>The Model 91 continued in use at the Le Roy quarry through the 1930s, gradually being displaced by newer diesel-powered equipment. At some point before World War II its original wood siding was replaced with the current metal. It continued to be used during the war and managed to avoid the scrap metal drives. In 1949 it was taken out of service and moved to its present location.</p><br>
<p>In the early 1960s the Town of Le Roy acquired the land on which the steam shovel sits. The quarry across the road has remained in operation, now under the ownership of Hanson plc after several mergers and acquisitions.</p><br>
<p>Research continues on whether the shovel actually was used on the Panama Canal.</p><br>
<p>Iwa Island is an island located in the Solomon Sea approximately 130 miles  from mainland New Guinea and 310 miles  from Port Moresby. It is part of the Marshall Bennett Islands group and considered part of Papua New Guinea.</p><br>
<p>The island is featured briefly in the 1963 documentary "La Donna Nel Mondo (Women of the World)." As of that time, it was home to a retired Scottish colonel, Roger Hopkins, his 84 wives, and their 52 children. It is stated that his wives are 13–18 years of age. Hopkins, much older than his wives, was said to be unintelligible as he was both deaf and mute — although he is wearing a hearing aid in his right ear during filming. He is seen smoking tobacco from a pipe and wearing worn-out Western clothing, but otherwise there appear to be no objects of Western origin on the island.</p><br>
<p>At the census of population of 2000, Iwa Island had a population of 766, making it the second most populous island of the Marshall Bennett Islands, after Gawa Island. Obomatu Village is located on Iwa Island.</p><br>
<p>The Thomas Durham School is a historic school building in Philadelphia which was built in 1909. It was listed on the USA National Register of Historic Places in 1988.</p><br>
<p>The building was built as part of a major construction program after the School District of Philadelphia was reorganized and consolidated in 1905. Between 1906 and World War I, the district built 44 elementary schools, one junior high school, and five senior high schools. The architect of this program, Henry deCourcy Richards, used a number of plans in different architectural styles, such as Regency architecture, Colonial Revival, Georgian Revival, Classical Revival, Jacobethan, Mediterranean Revival, and Academic Gothic. In some cases, he built multiple schools from each pattern, but varying the ornamentation between individual buildings.</p><br>
<p>The Thomas Durham School is one of his Regency designs. It was one of his plainest designs for the district, and also one of the cheapest to build. This may have resulted from its location in a predominantly African-American neighborhood.</p><br>
<p>The Thomas Durham School building is now occupied by Independence Charter School.</p><br>
<p>Andros , also called Chora , is a town and a former municipality on the island of Andros, in the Cyclades, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Andros, of which it is a municipal unit, and shares the island of Andros with the municipal units of Korthio and Ydrousa.</p><br>
<p>The municipal unit has an area of 102.756 km. Its population was 3,901 inhabitants at the 2011 census.</p><br>
<p>It has a mix of post-World War I neoclassical mansions with vernacular Cycladic houses. The town squares are paved with marble. At the end of the headland are two islands. The first, linked to the mainland by a brick bridge, with a ruined Venetian castle and the second with a lighthouse. There are four museums: the extensive Archaeological Museum, Museum of Modern Art, a Nautical Museum and a Folklore Museum.</p><br>
<p>Dammon Round Barn is a round barn just southeast of Red Wing, Minnesota, United States, adjacent to USA Route 61. The barn is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It was built in 1914, with a foundation of Mississippi River limestone, and is 60 ft in diameter and 60 ft high. It was built during a time of agricultural growth in Goodhue County, when dairy cow herds were averaging 25 cows per farm and farmers were starting to build specialized barns. The round barn design was built around a silo and provided insulation for the silage, as well as making feeding and cleaning easier. Despite the efficiency, however, round barns were difficult to construct, and they were not widely adopted. Later in its history the barn was used for honey production of the bee keeping owners of the farm. In 2000 the Farm was purchased by Robin and Elaine Kleffman and the Dammon Barn underwent some significant restoration. A straightening of the walls and replacement of the original pillars for the upper floor support and a leveling and new installation of a floor in the top level of the barn makes this one of the most premiere remaining round barns in Minnesota.</p><br>
<p>The barn is now part of a bed and breakfast and event center. The 8,000 ft&sup2; facility is available as a venue for weddings.</p><br>
<p>Wychbury Ring is an Iron Age hill fort located on Wychbury Hill, near Hagley, Stourbridge, on the border of West Midlands and Worcestershire in the English Midlands.</p><br>
<p>The fort measures 250 m from east to west and 150 m from north to south, covering an area of 7.25 acres. It has two sets of ramparts and ditches. The inner rampart is between 16 m and 20 m wide, rising up to 2.6 m in height, with the surrounding inner ditch 10 m wide and up to 1.7 m deep. The outer rampart is 10 m wide and up to 3 m in height, with the outer ditch being 10 m wide and up to 1.2 m deep. There are fortified entrances at the east and south west.</p><br>
<p>Small bronze rings, including an Iron Age terret, were found in the fort in 1884, and Roman coins and masonry have been found nearby, suggesting a possible site of a later Roman Villa. Investigations in 1924 reported a 5.5 acre annexe to the south and a nearby Iron Age field system, but no trace of either remain.</p><br>
<h2>Images</h2><br>
<p>Castle Old Fort is a small Iron Age hill fort in Stonnall, in the Metropolitan borough of Walsall, West Midlands, England. Its interior is now occupied by a house.</p><br>
<p>The structure is a promontory fort in that it is situated on the southern side of Castle Hill, presumably enabling its occupiers to overlook the southern approach of the ancient highway, Chester Road.</p><br>
<p>The fort covers 3.5 acre acres in an ovoid shape, measuring 170 m from north to south and 130 m from east to west. It has an earth rampart surrounded by a ditch, with an entrance in the south east. There is some evidence that there may originally have been a second line of defences comprising a bank and a ditch.</p><br>
<p>The seventeenth century archaeologist Robert Plot reported findings of flint arrowheads, Roman pottery and Roman coins of Otho, Domitian and Nero, and the existence of a second entrance in the north west of the fort, in an area that has since been destroyed by quarrying.</p><br>
<p>The Bay of Plenty  is a large bight in the northern coast of New Zealand&#39;s North Island. It stretches from the Coromandel Peninsula in the west to Cape Runaway in the east, a wide stretch of some 259 km of open coastline. The Bay of Plenty Region is situated around this body of water, also incorporating several large islands in the bay. The bay was named by James Cook after he noticed the abundant food supplies at several Māori villages there, in stark contrast to the earlier observations he had made in Poverty Bay.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>According to local Māori traditions, the Bay of Plenty was the landing point of several migration canoes that brought Māori settlers to New Zealand. These include the Mataatua, Nukutere, Tākitimu, Arawa and Tainui canoes. Many of the descendent iwi maintain their traditional homelands (rohe) in the region, including Te Whānau-ā-Apanui, Te Whakatōhea, Ngāi Tai, Ngāi Tūhoe, Ngāti Awa, Ngāti Tūwharetoa ki Kawerau, Te Arawa, Ngāi Te Rangi, Ngāti Ranginui and Ngāti Pūkenga. Early Māori settlement gave rise to many of the town and city names used today.</p><br>
<p>The first recorded European contact came when James Cook sailed through the Bay of Plenty in 1769. Cook noted the abundance of food supplies, in comparison to Poverty Bay further back along the eastern coast of the North Island. Further reports of European contact are scarce prior to the arrival of missionary Samuel Marsden to the Tauranga area in 1820. During the 1820s and 1830s, northern iwi including Ngā Puhi invaded the Bay of Plenty during their campaign throughout the North Island, fighting local Māori tribes in what became known as the Musket Wars. However, the 1830s and 1840s saw increased contact between Bay of Plenty Māori and Europeans through trade, although few Europeans settled in the region. Missionary activity in the region also increased during this time. In 1853, New Zealand was subdivided into provinces, with the Bay of Plenty incorporated into Auckland Province.</p><br>
<p>Conflict returned to the Bay of Plenty during the 1860s with the New Zealand Land Wars. Initial conflicts in the region stemmed from Tauranga iwi supporting the Waikato iwi in their conflict with the government. In retaliation, British Crown and government-allied Māori forces attacked the Tauranga iwi, including at the famous Battle of Gate Pā in 1864. Further conflict with the government arose in 1865 when German missionary Carl Völkner and interpreter James Fulloon were killed by local Māori at Opotiki and Whakatane, respectively. The ensuing conflict resulted in the confiscation of considerable land from several Bay of Plenty iwi by the government.</p><br>
<p>Confiscation of Māori land deprived local iwi of economic resources (among other things), and also provided land for expanding European settlement. The government established fortified positions, including at Tauranga, Whakatane and Opotiki. European settlers arrived throughout the latter half of the 19th century, establishing settlements in Katikati, Te Puke and the Rangitaiki area. In 1876, settlements were incorporated into counties following the nationwide dissolution of the provincial system. Initial settlements in the region struggled: the climate was ill-suited to sheep farming and the geography was inaccessible, further hindered by a lack of infrastructure. By the end of the century the population had started to dwindle. But after experimenting with different crops, settlers found success with dairy production. Dairy factories sprang up across the Bay of Plenty in the 1900s, with butter and cheese feeding economic prosperity throughout the early 20th century; local Māori continued to live on the fringe of this prosperity. Timber also became a major export in the 1950s, as kiwifruit did later.</p><br>
<p>The present Bay of Plenty region was formed in 1989 after a nationwide review and shakeup of top-level local government in New Zealand. The new region incorporated the former counties of Tauranga, Rotorua, Whakatane and Opotiki.</p><br>
<p>On 5 October 2011, the MV Rena ran aground on the Astrolabe Reef in the bay causing a large oil spill, described as New Zealand&#39;s worst ever environmental disaster.</p><br>
<h2>Governance</h2><br>
<p>The region is subdivided into territorial authorities, which include the Western Bay of Plenty District, Tauranga City, Whakatane District, Kawerau District and Opotiki District, as well as parts of Rotorua District and the town of Rangitaiki in Taupo District.</p><br>
<p>The Bay of Plenty Regional Council, which used the brand name Environment Bay of Plenty for a number of years, is the administrative body responsible for overseeing regional land use, environmental management and civil defence in the region. It also oversees local-tier governing councils for each of the territorial authorities. In 1989, Whakatane was selected as the seat for the regional council, as a compromise between the two dominant cities of Tauranga and Rotorua.</p><br>
<p>Public health in New Zealand is broken into regions. The Bay of Plenty and Lakes district health boards have public health provided by Toi Te Ora - Public Health.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>The Bay of Plenty region covers 12,200 km² of land and 9,500 km² of coastal marine area. It extends along the eastern coast of the North Island, from the base of the Coromandel Peninsula in the west to Cape Runaway in the east. The region extends 12 nautical miles from the mainland coastline, and also extends from the coastlines of several islands in the bay, notably Mayor Island/Tuhua, Motiti Island, Whale Island and the active volcano of Whakaari/White Island. It extends inland to the sparsely populated forest lands around Rotorua and Murupara.</p><br>
<p>The geographical bay is defined by 259 km of open coastline used for economic, recreational and cultural purposes. The coastline from Waihi Beach in the west to Opape is defined as sandy coast, while the coast from Opape to Cape Runaway is rocky shore. Sizeable harbours are located at Tauranga, Whakatane and Ohiwa. Major estuaries include Maketu, Little Waihi, Whakatane, Waiotahe and Waioeka/Otara. Eight major rivers empty into the bay from inland catchments, including the Wairoa, Kaituna, Tarawera, Rangitaiki, Whakatane, Waioeka, Motu and Raukokore rivers.</p><br>
<p>The region has more than 200 km² of lakes, known as the Lakes of Rotorua.</p><br>
<p>Much of the central part of the region lies within the Taupo Volcanic Zone, which extends from the centre of the North Island northwards to Whakaari/White Island. Volcanic mountains and lakes, geothermal areas and geological fault lines all dot the landscape. The geothermal region around Rotorua is a major tourist site, while many hot springs in the region are used as swimming areas. The geothermal field near Kawerau is the site of a geothermal power plant that will reportedly meet up to one third of residential and industrial electricity demand in the Eastern Bay of Plenty. Whakaari/White Island, the site of a former sulfur-mining operation, is an active volcanic island popular with tourists. The eruption of Mount Tarawera in 1886 and the 1987 Edgecumbe earthquake were two disasters related to geological activity in the volcanic plateau.</p><br>
<p>Prominent mountains in the region include Mount Maunganui, Mount Tarawera and Mount Edgecumbe/Putauaki, which also have cultural significance to local Māori. The Kaimai and Mamaku mountain ranges lie at the western border of the region. Swamp land was formerly concentrated around a number of rivers, but much of this was dredged in the early part of the 20th century to increase land for settlement and other uses. Large native and foreign (planted) forest areas are found in the inland parts of the region. The Kaingaroa Forest is the world&#39;s largest planted forest, comprising radiata pine mainly used for timber.</p><br>
<p>The bay contains numerous islands, notably the active volcano Whakaari / White Island, which lies 50 kilometres from the coast in the eastern bay. Other large islands include (from west to east) Matakana Island, Mayor Island / Tuhua, Motiti Island, and Moutohora Island.</p><br>
<h2>Population</h2><br>
<p>In the 2006 Census, the total resident population of the Bay of Plenty region was 257,379, an increase of 7.5% from 2001. The Bay of Plenty is the fifth-most populous region in New Zealand, accounting for 6.4% of the national population. The regional population is projected to increase to 277,900 by the year 2011. The median age in the Bay of Plenty was 37.2 years; 23.0% of the population were under 15 years of age, while 14.8% of people were aged 65 years or over. The male-to-female ratio was 0.94.</p><br>
<p>The coast is dotted with several sizable settlements, the largest of which is the conurbation of the city of Tauranga and its neighbour Mount Maunganui in the west. The town of Whakatane is located in the centre of the coast. Other towns of note include Waihi Beach, Katikati, Maketu, Pukehina Beach and Opotiki.</p><br>
<p>Most of the population along the coast is concentrated in the western and central parts of the shore; the eastern part is sparsely populated hill country. In the 2006 Census, the Bay of Plenty had an estimated resident population of 257,379, making it the fifth-most populous region in New Zealand. It also has the third-highest regional population density in New Zealand, with only the 11th-largest land area. The major population centres are Tauranga, Rotorua and Whakatane. The Bay of Plenty is one of the fastest growing regions in New Zealand: the regional population increased by 7.5% between 2001 and 2006, with significant growth along the coastal and western parts, and is projected to increase to 277,900 by the year 2011.</p><br>
<p>Significant horticultural, forestry and tourism industries are well established in the region. However, the Bay of Plenty is the third-most economically deprived region in New Zealand, with the eastern districts being among the least economically developed in the country. However, in 2011 Business & Economic Research Limited (BERL) identified the Bay of Plenty as one of the top performing regions in economic development, ranking second behind Auckland. It had the highest employment and GDP growth for 2011 and had the fastest growing medium term GDP. Tauranga, the regions largest commercial centre, was named New Zealands top city for economic performance for the 2011 year.</p><br>
<h3>Urban areas</h3><br>
<h3>Culture and identity</h3><br>
<p>67.1% of the resident population in the Bay of Plenty identified with the European ethnic group, while 27.5% of people identified themselves as Māori. This compared with 67.6% of the national population identifying themselves as ethnic European and 14.6% identifying themselves as Māori. Other ethnic groups were under-represented in the region: 14.9% of the regional population was born overseas, compared with 22.9% nationally. English is the most widely spoken language. Te Reo Māori is the most common minority language, spoken by 9.6% of the population, compared with 4.1% nationally.</p><br>
<h2>Climate</h2><br>
<p>The Bay of Plenty has a temperate, maritime climate, with warm, humid summers and mild winters. It is one of the warmest regions in New Zealand, particularly along the coastline, and most areas experience at least 2,200 hours of sunshine per annum. Average daily maximum temperatures range from 9–16 °C in winter to 22–26 °C in summer. Rainfall occurs more frequently in winter than in summer, but tropical storms in summer and autumn can produce heavy rain with high winds. Central parts of the region can receive up to 2000 mm of rainfall annually, while the eastern and western areas can receive up to 4000 mm.</p><br>
<h2>Economy</h2><br>
<p>The sub-national GDP of the Bay of Plenty region was estimated at US$6.689 billion in 2003, 5% of New Zealand&#39;s national GDP.</p><br>
<p>Agriculture, natural resources and tourism are the major industries. Most (96 per cent) of the region is defined as rural, with 22% of land usage representing farm land and 38% representing nature reserve land.</p><br>
<p>Overall economic growth in the Bay of Plenty averaged 2.1% between March 2000 and 2004, compared with the national rate of 3.5%, although per capita real GDP growth in the five years to March 2003 matched the national growth rate at an averaged 2.3%. In the 2006 Census, the median annual income was $22,600, below the national median of $24,400. Further, 45.4% of people aged 15 years or older earned an annual income of less than $20,000, compared with 43.2% of people nationally. Unemployment was at 6.1% of people 15 years or older, compared with 5.1% nationally.</p><br>
<h2>Tourism</h2><br>
<p>The Bay of Plenty is a popular holiday destination due to the warm and sunny summer climate and public beaches. The Bay of Plenty received over 645,000 tourists in 2003, equivalent to one in three visitors to New Zealand coming to the region. Rotorua is a popular destination for international visitors, in particular the surrounding geothermal areas and Māori cultural centres. Tauranga is a popular domestic tourism destination, and also becoming popular internationally. Whale watching has become a popular attraction as the number of whales such as blue whales and humpback whales migrating into bay waters began to recover.</p><br>
<h2>Transport</h2><br>
<p>The Bay of Plenty has 227 km of rail network and 4,460 km of roads. The main rail line in the region is the East Coast Main Trunk Railway, which extends from Hamilton in the Waikato region to Kawerau via Tauranga, with the Murupara Branch Railway extending the Kawerau terminus to Murupara, and the Mount Maunganui Branch connecting the Mount Maunganui terminus with the East Coast Main Trunk. Rail networks in the region are used exclusively for freight. The hub of regional economic activity is the Port of Tauranga, with well-established rail and road connections to other parts of the region. Three commercial airports also operate in the Bay of Plenty: Tauranga Airport, Rotorua Airport and Whakatane Airport.</p><br>
<p>Car travel remains the dominant form of transport in the region. In 2002, the number of vehicles owned in the region was 189,000, with an average of 1.51 vehicles per household. Public transport bus services exist only in Tauranga and Rotorua. Significant growth in the Western Bay of Plenty District has seen increased strain on road infrastructure, particularly with increasing traffic congestion in Tauranga. Due to this growth, a new highway network is being planned and constructed in Tauranga to join with its current network spanning on the western side of the city. The New Zealand Transport Agency, in conjunction with Environment Bay of Plenty, Tauranga City and the Western Bay of Plenty District Councils, is planning to build an Eastern Motorway bypassing Te Puke, a Western Motorway bypassing Omokoroa and a smaller Southern Motorway.</p><br>
<h2>Sport</h2><br>
<p>The Bay of Plenty is represented in several domestic sporting competitions. The Bay of Plenty Rugby Union oversees the Bay of Plenty Steamers, who play in the Mitre10 Cup. The Steamers are also a feeder club for the Chiefs who play in the Super Rugby competition. The Waikato/Bay of Plenty Magic compete in the ANZ Championship in netball, having previously played in the National Bank Cup. Bay of Plenty also makes up a part of the Northern Districts cricket region and the Midlands hockey region.</p><br>
<h2>Media</h2><br>
<h3>Magazines</h3><br>
<p>UNO. Magazine</p><br>
<h3>Newspapers</h3><br>
<p>Weekend Sun/SunLive</p><br>
<p>Bay of Plenty Times</p><br>
<p>Rotorua Daily Post</p><br>
<p>Te Puke Times</p><br>
<p>Opotiki News</p><br>
<p>Whakatane Beacon</p><br>
<h3>Radio stations</h3><br>
<p>The Hits Rotorua</p><br>
<p>The Hits Bay of Plenty</p><br>
<p>89.4 ZM Hits</p><br>
<p>90.2 Newstalk ZB Talk</p><br>
<p>90.5 1XX Adult Contemporary</p><br>
<p>91.0 Radio Hauraki Classic Rock</p><br>
<p>91.4 Radio New Zealand Concert Classical</p><br>
<p>92.6 The Sound Classic Rock</p><br>
<p>92.9 1XX Adult Contemporary</p><br>
<p>93.4 More FM Hits</p><br>
<p>94.2 The Rock FM Rock</p><br>
<p>95.0 Classic Hits 80s / 90s</p><br>
<p>97.4 Coast Easy Listening</p><br>
<p>93.7 Bayrock Rock</p><br>
<p>99.0 Radio Sport Sports</p><br>
<p>100.1 Bayrock Rock</p><br>
<p>99.8 The Edge Hits</p><br>
<p>101.0 Radio New Zealand National Talk</p><br>
<p>105.4 BollyBOP FM Hits</p><br>
<p>93.7 and 99.3 Q97 HITS</p><br>
<h3>Television</h3><br>
<p>TV Central (Freeview Channel 30) - Bay of Plenty & Waikato (shut down in April 2015)</p><br>
<p>TV Rotorua-Rotorua (shut down in December 2013)</p><br>
<p>Geyser Television-Rotorua (shut down in December 2013)</p><br>
<p>Boyce Station is located at the junction of Boyce Road and the tracks of the Chartiers Branch in Upper St. Clair, Pennsylvania, United States. It was built in 1900, and housed not only the rail operations but a post office and general store for the small community it served.</p><br>
<p>After falling vacant when traffic on the line declined and the rise of the automobile made the surrounding less dependent on the commercial operations and passenger rail service, it was restored in 1980. It is the only intact example of a rail station in the Pittsburgh area that served as a local commercial center. In 1982 it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.</p><br>
<h2>Building</h2><br>
<p>The T-shaped frame building on a concrete block foundation is two stories high and three bays wide, with a one-story addition on the southwest. It has a cross-gabled roof of seamed tin with a plain cornice.</p><br>
<p>A 32 ft porch runs the length of the front (east) facade. Its flat tin roof is supported by four square chamfered wood posts. Its deck is on brick piers. There is another, smaller porch of similar material in the northwest corner of the building. The windows and doors (in the middle of both stories) are all trimmed with flat boards and incised board with shallow pedimented top. The windows all have shutters.</p><br>
<p>Inside, both stories have three rooms apiece, all of which retain many of their original features. The southwest addition contains an entrance foyer, bathroom and office.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>It took several decades to build a rail line down the Chartiers Creek valley and connect Pittsburgh and Washington. Service between the two cities began in 1871 with mixed freight and passenger trains. During the next decade, coal, oil and gas extraction began in earnest in Washington County, driving up traffic on the line and forcing the railroad to start running separate freight and passenger service. The Pittsburgh, St. Louis and Cincinnati Railway, then the owners of the line, began to improve its facilities.</p><br>
<p>By 1900, it was necessary to add a second track. The Boyce Station was built around this time. The rail business remained profitable until the mid-20th century, when trucking began to draw away freight traffic and automobiles travel became the preferred choice for travelers in Western Pennsylvania. The last passenger train stopped at Boyce in 1952.</p><br>
<p>The line ultimately became property of the Penn Central, which neglected it as it fell into bankruptcy. The second track was eventually removed. Conrail took it over, and when that concern was dismantled by the federal government it eventually passed to its current owner, the Pittsburgh and Ohio Central Railroad, a short line operator.</p><br>
<p>The station declined along with the railroad until 1980, when it was purchased by Roland Ramsay, a corporate psychologist who found it an ideal location for a new consulting business he had started. He began to learn about the building&#39;s historic status, and eventually had it renovated to reflect its historical appearance and successfully nominated it to the National Register. His company is still located there.</p><br>
<p>The Gifford–Walker Farm, also known as the Alice Walker Farm, is located on North Bergen Road  in North Bergen, New York, United States. Its farmhouse is a two-story Carpenter Gothic style structure built in 1870.</p><br>
<p>It has remained largely intact since it was construction, and has only been owned by three families. In 1980 it and an accompanying barn and shed were listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the northernmost property in the county listed.</p><br>
<h2>Buildings and grounds</h2><br>
<p>The farm is located along the north side of North Bergen Road in the small rural hamlet of North Bergen, part of the Town of Bergen. It is just west of Wood Road, a quarter-mile (400 m) south of the Orleans County line, southwest of the tripoint the two counties share with Monroe County. There is a church across the street and some other houses on either side, all with large lots, some of them also cultivated. North of the house the fields stretch 69 acre, with the northern 22 acre across the county line in the town of Clarendon. The three buildings are all located near North Bergen, at the south end of the property.</p><br>
<p>The house is a T-shaped frame two-story structure seven bays wide with board-and-batten siding rising to a steeply pitched cross-gabled roof covered in asphalt shingles. On the north (rear) elevation the central section telescopes into three progressively smaller sections. The two smaller units are sided in shingle; an enclosed porch is on the northeast corner of a clapboard-sided wing on the east of the smallest extension.</p><br>
<p>In the center of the front (south) facade is a recessed porch that serves as the main entrance. On its west side is a bay window with 36 separate panes of glass. The porch is screened by four fluted Corinthian columns. Above them the second story has a Gothic railing with four square latticework piers supporting the three ogee arches that shelter a small recessed balcony. Ogee trim also tops all windows save those in the inside of the porch and balcony, both sided in flushboard. The roofline&#39;s overhanging eaves are trimmed with decorative hand-sawn vergeboard.</p><br>
<p>Inside, the house is laid out with a living room, dining room and kitchen in line from front to back on the first floor of the stem of the T. The east wing has a parlor; the west a family room. Many rooms, particularly the living room, retain their original "grained" Gothic-style woodwork.</p><br>
<p>There are two outbuildings. A barn behind the house is painted in red with white trim and has the name "G H Walker" on it. A frame shed to the northwest is similar to the barn but is not in as good condition. The frame shed collapsed and was taken down in 2009.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>Aaron Gifford, postmaster of North Bergen, built the house around 1870 as the homestead for what was then a hundred-acre (40 ha) farm. The Carpenter Gothic style had been popularized several decades earlier in the pattern books of Andrew Jackson Downing, and these were often used by builders without any architectural training. The house shows many features of the style, such as the decorative vergeboards, steep cross-gabled roofs and vertical siding, the latter of which Downing recommended as more economical and better in tune with natural surroundings.</p><br>
<p>The bay window west of the main entrance, not a feature found on every Carpenter Gothic home, was also a feature praised by Downing. In The Architecture of Country Houses, he wrote that they gave "an air of dignity even to the smallest dwellings. The linear quality of the home suggests the Federal and Greek Revival styles used for many rural homes earlier in the 19th century, and the unknown builder, familiar with those modes, may have unconsciously been recalling them.</p><br>
<p>Gifford sold the farm to a Walker family in 1891. They seem to have added the two smaller rear wings and the east wing adjoining them to the house. At the time of the property&#39;s listing on the Register, when the Walkers still owned the house, the front porch was blocked by shrubs and the rear porch was instead used as the main entrance. The house was sold by auction in 1986 and purchased by William and Bonnie Perkins of Byron, NY for the purpose of renovation and resale. For four years the entire house was worked on: gutted and modernized without damage to any of the woodwork and character. The front porch steps were restored to the front porch. Their daughter, Jennifer Weaver, began renting the house in 1991 and eventually purchased the house in 2000. She currently lives there with her family. There have been no other changes to the house.</p><br>
<p>Mount Pleasant is a farm complex located in the Town of Pembroke, New York, United States, east of the hamlet of Indian Falls. It was established in the mid-19th century.</p><br>
<p>The main dwelling is a sophisticated Italianate style wood frame house. It and the other buildings have remained mostly intact since their construction. The farm was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984.</p><br>
<h2>Buildings and grounds</h2><br>
<p>The farm is located on the south side of Indian Falls Road (Genesee County Route 4), a half-mile (1 km) west of where the road bends to the south and crosses the New York State Thruway and 3.5 mi east of New York State Route 77 just south of Tonawanda Creek and the hamlet of Indian Falls. The terrain is generally level and the area rural, with most land used for fields and houses clustered along the road. The Mt. Pleasant property is a 31 acre parcel bordered by the Thruway on the south. A southern portion on the opposite side of the Thruway is no longer visually and physically connected with the farm and is not included with the listing.</p><br>
<p>An original circular driveway leads into a triangular, uncleared northern portion of the property where the buildings are located. Hedgerows of mature trees separate this grassy area from the farmland. A three-foot (1 m) retaining wall of Medina sandstone sets off the main house from the road. The farm has a total of eight contributing resources, five buildings and three structures.</p><br>
<h3>Main house</h3><br>
<p>The house itself is a clapboard-sided stricture with five sections. Its main block is a two-story rectangular structure with a gently pitched hipped roof pierced by a square central cupola. Both it and the house itself have wide overhanging eaves supported by paired brackets. The four-over-four double-hung sash windows are flanked by louvered wooden shutters and topped by wooden lintels with miniature brackets.</p><br>
<p>Its main entrance is on the west elevation, sheltered by a porch with clustered columns supporting a roof with decorative scrollwork balustrade. From this side projects a one-and-a-half-story wing with a shallow hip roof. It has a porch on its north facade with a similar treatment to the one on the main block. A brick flue pierces its roof at the west.</p><br>
<p>Three segmental gable-roofed additions project to the south of the west wing. The westernmost is one and a half stories, with wide projecting eaves supported by paired brackets with pendants. A brick chimney pierces the roof at the center. The wing&#39;s west side has a small porch similar to the other two, and a shed-roofed projection on its east. On its rear is the carriage house, with a belfry on top, and on its south the privy, with its original planked door.</p><br>
<p>The main house&#39;s floor plan has remained relatively unchanged, save for some changes to the bedrooms on the first floor. Many of its finishes are original as well, such as the door and window surrounds, moldings, wainscoting, high ceilings and pine flooring. The front hall and parlor (now a bedroom) have their original plaster ceiling medallions. The cold pantry has slate walls and the kitchen pantry its original marble shelves. The stairway to the cupola has been enclosed, the only change on the second floor.</p><br>
<h3>Outbuildings</h3><br>
<p>Due south of the main house is a garage, believed to be the original house on the property. It is a one-story gabled wood frame structure with its original vertical board siding, paneled door and shed-roofed addition on the west. To its east is the original smokehouse, a one-story brick building on a stone foundation with a shallow hip roof.</p><br>
<p>The barn is to the west. It is a two-and-a-half-story structure with vertical siding, gambrel roof and assorted window configurations, with large sliding doors on the east elevation. On the east side of the barnyard formed between it and a second barn formerly to its east is one of the original wells, the three contributing structures. The other two wells are to the east and west of the main house.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>The farm was established around 1847 by Abram Mook, a German American from Pennsylvania who bought several tracts in the area from the Holland Land Company. In addition to clearing and farming them, he built what is now Indian Falls Road from North Pembroke Road to the old Indian trail that is now NY 77. The 1850 census lists his net worth at $3,500 ($ in contemporary dollars).</p><br>
<p>In 1854 he bought the two parcels that make up the current farm and moved onto it. Records from that year show that the current garage was in existence at the time; it may have been the family residence. Mook and his brothers built a suspension bridge across the Tonawanda to connect their farms; the 1860 census shows that his family had grown by two and his wealth considerably increased.</p><br>
<p>The following year he hired seven carpenters to build the current house, replacing one on another nearby piece of land he owned that had burned down. The yellow pine and decorative features were shipped to Lockport on the Erie Canal and then delivered to the construction site. The building contrasts the ornamentation of a sophisticated Italianate villa of the time with the form of a more vernacular farmhouse of the time, particularly the projecting wings.</p><br>
<p>Mook died in 1908. His son lost the house to foreclosure the next year, and it and the farm became the property of the Stang brothers for $5,210 ($ in contemporary dollars). In 1945 they sold it to LaVerne Lamkin, who owned it until the early 21st century. It is currently vacant.</p><br>
<p>The Lake Street Historic District is located along the west side of that street, state highway NY 19, in downtown Bergen, New York, United States. It contains several of Romanesque Revival style buildings from the last decades of the 19th century and the first two of the early 20th. Most were built after the village banned wooden buildings following two devastating fires in the area. One is currently used as Bergen&#39;s municipal building.</p><br>
<p>Several of the buildings have intact cast iron storefronts. It was designated a historic district and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985.</p><br>
<h2>Geography and buildings</h2><br>
<p>The district consists of 11 buildings along the west side of the street. Two, 10 and 12 South Lake Street, are south of Buffalo Street. The remainder, 11–27 North Lake, are to the north. The CSX railroad tracks bound the district on the north. All fill most of their lots, for a total area of 2.3 acre and are contributing properties to the district&#39;s historic character.</p><br>
<p>All but one, 23 North Lake Street, are two-story structures with flat roofs. Many have decorative details such as cornices with corbels, brackets and dentils. Another common feature is the cast iron storefronts, most of which have similar decorative details and remain intact from their original construction. The upper stories are used for offices and residences.</p><br>
<p>The 11 buildings are:</p><br>
<p>10 South Lake Street, a two-story, four-bay flat-roofed brick Romanesque Revival structure with a cast iron storefront. It was built in 1888, with the original cast-iron cornice replaced in 1930.</p><br>
<p>Masonic Temple, 12 South Lake Street. The organization built this to replace its original building, destroyed in the 1906 fire. It is also a two-story brick building with a flat roof, but is only two bays wide, with large tripartite windows and segmental arch treatments.</p><br>
<p>Tulley Block, 11 North Lake Street. The same size, shape and material as 10 South Lake, its front facade is topped with a pedimented parapet with "1886", the year of its construction, in the entablature and a finial rising from the crest. A similar feature on the 10-bay south facade, along Buffalo Street, has "Tulley Block" in the entablature, and a mural of scenes from local history. The second story has a projecting bay window with a small cast iron balustrade. It is currently used as the village hall.</p><br>
<p>13 North Lake Street. One of the first new buildings erected after the 1880 fire, it is like the others to the south save for its three-bay width. It, too, has a parapet and pediment with date in the entablature. The cast iron storefront retains its original metal coping, corbel, finials and brackets.</p><br>
<p>15 North Lake Street. A copy of its neighbor to the south, built a year later with no parapet. The cornice was altered in 1906 and a brick veneer was added around 1950.</p><br>
<p>17 North Lake Street. A four-bay structure otherwise similar to its southern neighbor.</p><br>
<p>19 North Lake Street. Similar in size, shape and material to 17 North Lake. Storefront is unaltered, and window lintels are stone segmental arches.</p><br>
<p>Sackett-Merrill-White American Legion Home, 21 North Lake Street. Another two-story four-bay building dating to 1881. Its distinctive features are a detailed corbeled cornice and segmental arched windows with radiating voussoirs.</p><br>
<p>23 North Lake Street. The youngest contributing property in the district, and the only one to be one story. This small grocery store was built in 1921, with stone coping and decorative brickwork. Its storefront is still the original cast iron.</p><br>
<p>25 North Lake Street. A single-bay building otherwise similar to its other neighbors. Built in 1913, it has similar decorative brickwork to its neighbor at 21 and a detailed corbelled cornice. The second story bay window was resided in shingle in 1971, the storefront has also been altered.</p><br>
<p>Housel Bank, 27 North Lake Street. Three bays wide and otherwise similar, this dates to 1906. It has a corbeled cornice and the only quoins in the district. The second story has tripartite windows with flat brick arches. Its storefront was also altered in 1971.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>Bergen, first settled in 1801, began growing as a small hamlet that served the farms around it. This accelerated after 1836 when the Buffalo and Rochester Railroad was built just north of it. The New York Centrals absorption of the railroad in 1853 further fueled development. Around the Civil War, Bergens downtown had four blocks of frame commercial buildings.</p><br>
<p>In early 1866, a fire destroyed the buildings on three blocks of the west side of Lake Street in the present historic district. The community&#39;s economy was strong enough to absorb the loss and rebuild. Growth continued and Bergen incorporated as a village in 1877.</p><br>
<p>Three years later, another fire in the same area destroyed 45 buildings and structures, 31 of which were businesses. Frame buildings were prohibited as a result, and the replacement buildings were brick. Within two years of the fire the buildings at 13 through 27 North Lake were built, with cast iron storefronts and Romanesque Revival detailing representing the trends of the time. The Tulley Block at the corner with Buffalo Street came along in 1886.</p><br>
<p>Bergen was at its most prosperous during the next decades. New businesses, such as a cigar factory, creamery and gas and coal works, were built in the area. Another fire, in 1906, destroyed older buildings at the north end of the row. They were replaced more slowly, with only 25 North Lake going up immediately afterwards. Seven years later, in 1913, it was joined by 27 North Lake next door. The two show touches, like patterned brickwork, more typical of early 20th century vernacular commercial buildings. The Masonic Temple, also destroyed in the fire, built a new home at 12 South Lake Street.</p><br>
<p>The empty space left by the 1906 fire was finally filled in 1921 with 23 Lake Street, a grocery store that is today the only one-story building in the district. That would be the last significant building in it. Bergen and its industries went into decline in the Great Depression. The Housel Bank at 27 North Lake closed. Later the railroads were displaced by the construction of interstates such as the nearby Interstate 490 and New York State Thruway. In an attempt under urban renewal in the late 1960s and early 1970s to revive Bergen&#39;s downtown, the east side of Lake Street was largely demolished in favor of newer buildings.</p><br>
<p>The village has subsequently recovered somewhat as a bedroom community midway between the larger communities of Rochester and Batavia. The village has made Tulley Block its offices, and some of the storefronts are home to businesses again. A few have been altered, but the district retains its historical appearance.</p><br>
<p>St. Johns is an Episcopal church located in Hampton, Virginia, United States, within the Episcopal Diocese of Southern Virginia. Established in 1610, St. Johns is the oldest English-speaking parish in continuous existence in the United States of America.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>English settlers from Jamestown established a community and church on the tip of the Virginia Peninsula on July 9, 1610, one month after Lord De La Warr arrived at Jamestown with supplies that effectively ended the Starving Time in that settlement. This new settlement was named after the Algonquian-speaking Kecoughtan who lived in the area.</p><br>
<h3>First parish site 1610-1623</h3><br>
<p>Excavations in the Church Creek area of Hampton indicate that the earliest English settlements were near present-day LaSalle and Chesapeake Avenues. The first minister of the new parish was the Reverend William Mease who was appointed by the Bishop of London to lead the church at Kecoughtan.</p><br>
<h3>Second parish site 1623-1667</h3><br>
<p>In 1619 the settlement was renamed Elizabeth Cittie. By 1623 the town had re-established itself east of Hampton River, where the second church of Elizabeth City parish was built. The site is included within the grounds of what is now Hampton University. Abandoned in 1667 after a third church was built, the foundations of the second church were discovered in 1910. It was a small wooded structure to which a vestibule was added later. Today, the original foundations and some of the brick floor have been excavated and can be seen at the second site, along with information, conjectural paintings, and a historical marker. Artifacts found during the excavation are on display in the St. John&#39;s Parish House museum.</p><br>
<h3>Third parish site 1667-1728</h3><br>
<p>The third building of the parish was constructed more than a mile to the west of the second church at "Westwoods Town Quarter", indicating that there was growth of the town on the west side of Hampton River. Like the previous structure, it was made of wood and was of similar size. This building continued in use for about 60 years. The site is located off West Pembroke Avenue east of LaSalle Avenue and features a historical marker, building foundations outlined by bricks, several 17th and 18th-century gravestones, and a protective brick wall.</p><br>
<h3>Fourth parish site 1728-present</h3><br>
<p>In the early 18th century, activity centered about the busy port which has become downtown Hampton. The parishioners petitioned the Governor for permission to relocate their place of worship closer to the population center. It was granted, and construction of the fourth church on one and one half acres on the outskirts of Hampton began. Henry Cary, Jr. of Williamsburg completed the present cruciform building in 1728. A belfry was added to the west front in 1762. The building was damaged in the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, and (most extensively) the Civil War. It took the parish several decades to complete repair the church after the War of 1812.</p><br>
<p>After full restoration, on Saturday, 6 March 1830, Bishop Richard Channing Moore, Bishop of Virginia, consecrated the church with its new name St. Johns. The building was damaged again during the Civil War on 7 August 1861. In an attempt to keep the town from Union occupation, Confederate soldiers set fire to homes, businesses and the church. The great bell was destroyed, and only the blackened walls remained by the time Union soldiers occupied the town and camped in the churchyard. As a result of the fire, St. Johns is the only surviving colonial structure in downtown Hampton. At wars end, contributions due to a widespread appeal to rebuild the church were used. Restoration was finished around 1869/1870. Although the exteriors colonial appearance was restored (except for the belfry), the interior reflects the late 19th-century Victorian influence. Early in the 20th century, the rear tower was added, the west gallery was built in 1957, the chapel completed in 1985, and the current manual tracker organ installed in 1993.</p><br>
<h2>Points of interest</h2><br>
<p>The 1618 Communion silver used today have the longest history of continuous use in America of any English church silver. The pieces were brought from England in 1619 and used in a church founded in 1618 located in Smiths Hundred in Virginia, which lay in the point between the Chickahominy and the James Rivers, eight miles northwest of Jamestown. The church was nearly destroyed in the Indian Massacre of 22 March 1622(NS). The silver was carried by Governor George Yeardley to Jamestown and afterward, approximately 1628, given to the second Elizabeth City Church, which had just been built. St. Johns continues to use communion silver on special occasions.</p><br>
<p>In 1887 the Native American students from the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute (now Hampton University) contributed to a stained glass window depicting the baptism of Pocahontas.</p><br>
<p>On the chapel wall to the left of the main altar is an aumbry. The door panel consists of pieces of the 13th-century stained glass from St. Helena Church, Willoughby Parish, Lincolnshire County, United Kingdom - the parish in which Captain John Smith was baptized. The panel was presented to the St. Johns Parish by the rector of Willoughby St. Helena on Sunday, 14 July 1985, as part of St. Johns 375th anniversary celebration.</p><br>
<h2>Mission Churches of St. John's</h2><br>
<h3>St. Paul's Episcopal Church (Newport News, VA)</h3><br>
<h3>Emmanuel Episcopal Church (Hampton, VA)</h3><br>
<h3>St. Cyprian's Episcopal Church (Hampton, VA)</h3><br>
<h3>Grace Episcopal Church, (Newport News, VA)</h3><br>
<h3>St. Mark's Episcopal Church (Hampton, VA)</h3><br>
<h2>Note</h2><br>
<p>The Bowles House in Westminster, Colorado is a brick Italianate house built in 1871.</p><br>
<p>It was home of Edward Bruce Bowles, who is largely credited for bringing the Colorado & Southern Railroad in the area, and his wife nee Mahalia Elizabeth Longan. Bowles came from Missouri to the Colorado Territory at age 17. In 1871, at about 24 years of age he married Mahalia, and they homesteaded the land on which the house stands. Bowles was the second pioneer settler in the area, after Pleasant DeSpain who arrived in 1870 and whose farm was to the north.</p><br>
<p>They built a frame homestead cabin (no longer extant) and then began building the brick house, completing it in 1876. The house was unusual for a rural ranch setting, as it included stylish and costly features: rounded windows, decorative brackets under the eaves, rooftop cresting, bargeboards on the gables, and an elaborate front porch.</p><br>
<p>It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1988. It was deemed architecturally significant as one of the earliest examples of Italianate style in Westminster and for its Italianate detailing, as well as being historically significant for its association with settlement of the area.</p><br>
<p>The house is owned and operated as a historic house museum by the Westminster Historical Society.</p><br>
<p>The Bethlehem Green Historic District is a historic district in the town of Bethlehem, Connecticut, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982 for the architectural significance of the houses around the town green. The historic district includes the green and 63 contributing properties over an area of 55 acres.</p><br>
<p>The Bethlehem Green is a triangular park bounded on the east by Route 61 (Main Street), on the north by Route 132 (West Road), and on the west by the street called "The Green". Within the green are five tablet monuments and a large green boulder monument listing names of Bethlehem residents who served in various wars from the American Revolution to World War II. A flagpole lies opposite the monuments. Maple trees have been planted around the perimeter of the green and a large evergreen tree (decorated as a Christmas tree in winter) is also located in the center of the green.</p><br>
<p>Historic buildings around the green include the Congregational church (1790), the townhouse (1839), the first Episcopal Church, two 18th-century taverns now used as residences, a general store built on the site of a former store built in the 19th century, and a former school building now used by the Episcopal Church.</p><br>
<p>The district is also the site of the Bellamy-Ferriday House and Garden (Joseph Bellamy House), which is listed separately on the National Register of Historic Places, and of the original meetinghouse of Bethlehem built in 1767. The original meetinghouse no longer stands but its site is marked by a granite obelisk.</p><br>
<p>Cleveland Pools located in Hampton Row, Bath, Somerset, England is a semi-circular lido built to designs by John Pinch the elder in 1815. It is believed to be the oldest public outdoor swimming pool in England. It is a Grade II* listed building.</p><br>
<p>In the Georgian period Bath had grown in popularity as a spa town. The opening of Pulteney Bridge enabled the development of Bathwick and land to the east of the River Avon. The pools were built next to the river on the site of old marl pits. The developers went bankrupt ten years after opening the pools but they were sold had operated privately until they were taken over by the local corporation in the 1890s. They then operated as a public swimming baths until the 1970s. The pool closed in 1984 and was used for a short time as a trout farm before closure and falling into disrepair. In 2005 a trust was formed to raise funds for renovation and reopening of the pools. Public support and grants from bodies such as the Heritage Lottery Fund have aided regeneration of the site, which is expected to reopen in 2018.</p><br>
<p>The original buildings survive, these include a caretakers cottage and changing rooms arranged as a Georgian Crescent. The larger P shaped pool is 41 m long, while the smaller ladies pool is 15 m long.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>The baths were originally built in approximately 1815, by a local builder called Newton, from John Pinch the elders design, on the Duke of Clevelands land, giving the site its name. They were intended as public pleasure baths, and are believed to be the oldest surviving outdoor swimming baths in England. The area of Bath to the north and east of the River Avon was undergoing development at the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th, after the opening of Pulteney Bridge on land around Bathwick which had been owned by William Pulteney, 1st Earl of Bath. William Johnstone had inherited the land and planned to create a new town. It was foreseen that, along with the access provided by Pulteney Bridge and Great Pulteney Street, the eastern side of the Avon would become popular with speculators and developers, as Bath had become perhaps the most fashionable of the rapidly developing British spa towns, attracting many notable visitors. In the 18th century, Bath acquired its first purpose-built theatre, the Old Orchard Street Theatre. It was rebuilt as the Theatre Royal, along with the Grand Pump Room attached to the Roman Baths and assembly rooms. Master of ceremonies Beau Nash, who presided over the city&#39;s social life from 1705 until his death in 1761, drew up a code of behaviour for public entertainments. After 1789, the financial climate did not encourage further building, as the Panic of 1797, related to a period of deflation between 1793 and 1800, was followed by the Napoleonic Wars, which saw the Depression of 1807. These limited the proposed development of new housing in the area for some years. The Bathwick Water Act of 1801 had prohibited nude bathing in the river and meant that many local subscribers were willing to put money into the construction of the baths.</p><br>
<p>The pool was constructed on the site of old marl pits, between the river, the railway and Kennet and Avon Canal which had previously been used for bathing. It was originally known as "Cleveland Pleasure Pools", and was originally filled with water from the river. This was changed to the mains water supply in 1861, using cast iron pipes to bring the water under the canal.</p><br>
<p>The position of the pools away from Sydney Gardens and the other attractions in the city centre, added to the downturn in Baths popularity as a spa town, led to bankruptcy for the developers. The nearby Cleveland Bridge opened in 1826 making the crossing of the river closer to the baths. The site was acquired by Reverend Race Godfrey in 1827. He ran the baths until the 1860s, improving the facilities and providing a ladies pool in 1827 and another small pool for children the 1850s. In the 1867 the baths were run by a Mr W. Evans who taught swimming, but refused a request from Bath Corporation to make it into a public swimming bath as this would "destroy its prestige". In the 1890s the baths were brought from the owners, The Bath College Company, by Bath Corporation&#39;s Waterworks Committee. They were then refurbished and opened to the public. The pool was extended in the early 20th century and shelters were added at the eastern end. In 1967 management transferred to the Bath Spa Committee who concreted the floor of the pool and added a cascade. Competition from the indoor pool at the Bath Sports and Leisure centre which opened in the 1970s reduced the public funding available.</p><br>
<p>The site was closed in 1978 and leased to a private company; however, the venture failed, and it closed to bathers in 1984. It was for a short time used as a trout farm, but was threatened with demolition, as an alternative to repair. In 2003 Bath and North East Somerset council put the site up for sale or long lease, and it was added to the English Heritage Buildings at Risk Register. A trust was formed in 2005 to rescue the pool from dilapidation. In 2006 its listed building status was raised from II to II* as it is considered particularly important buildings of more than special interest.</p><br>
<h3>Restoration</h3><br>
<p>In 2013 an appeal to raise £3 million was launched to restore the pools. The fundraising has been supported by The Prince&#39;s Trust. The project aims not just to preserve the existing architecture, but also to reopen it as an outdoor lido. This is hampered by poor access to the site and the possibility of flooding. It is intended to make the work sustainable and environmentally friendly, with renewable sources of energy including water source heat pumps using latent heat from the River Avon. A small landing stage is being proposed to enable access to the pools from river craft.</p><br>
<p>In August 2014 the Heritage Lottery Fund awarded £4.5 million to cover 85% of the costs. The plans for the renovation of the pool were put on show in April 2016, including a heated children&#39;s pool and a pontoon onto the River Avon. In April 2016 an anymous donor contributed £100,000 towards the target of £600,000 target for public donations. The renovations are expected to be finished for a reopening in early 2018.</p><br>
<h2>Architecture</h2><br>
<p>The swimming baths are in a walled garden, which used to include seating, and includes mature trees. The cottage and changing rooms are laid out as a Georgian crescent.</p><br>
<h3>Pools</h3><br>
<p>The P-shaped pool is flanked by a caretaker&#39;s cottage and six changing rooms each side in a mock-Georgian Crescent. It is 41 m long and 9.17 m wide with an average depth of 1.8 m. The rectangular upper pool is 15 m by 6 m and has an average depth of 1 m. Both pools have rendered brick walls with terracotta blocks used for the edging.</p><br>
<h3>Cottage and crescent of buildings</h3><br>
<p>The caretakers cottage is two storeys high, built of limestone ashlar with a slate roof. It has sash windows to the south and north, with false windows on the east and west ends. Access to the pool is through the ground floor lobby of the cottage. Inside, the original panelled ceiling remains intact as well as a hob and fireplace in the bedroom and another early 19th-century fireplace on the ground floor. On either side of the cottage are six changing cubicles with sloping roofs covered with asbestos sheets. At the western end are two further dressing rooms and the perpetual shower which was linked to the ladies pool.</p><br>
<p>The Stafford Village Four Corners Historic District is located at the junction of New York state routes 5 and 237 in Stafford, New York, United States. It is a collection of six buildings of various types from the 19th century, one of which is the oldest house in Genesee County.</p><br>
<p>Stafford was the first European settlement on the Holland Purchase, continuously occupied since 1798. Together the buildings constitute a well-preserved 19th century Western New York downtown. All the buildings are still used for their original purpose, save a store which was later converted to town hall. It was recognized as a historic district and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>The district is located at the intersection of the two highways, roughly midway between the larger communities of Batavia and Le Roy along Route 5. It is the southern terminus of Route 237, which leads to Morganville a short distance to the north. The area is a small hamlet of houses and commercial buildings amid a rural landscape of farm complexes and large worked fields, with a golf course to the north.</p><br>
<p>All four corners are within the boundaries of these 5.7 acre. On the lots are six buildings. All are contributing wood frame structures built in the 19th century. They include two houses, two stores, a church and a seminary. A small park at the northeastern corner was the site of a hotel which burned down in the 1920s.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>Joseph Ellicott began his survey of the Holland Purchase, most of present-day Western New York, in 1798. He established a storehouse at the intersection of an old Iroquois trail and his eastern transit. The settlement quickly earned the name Transit, and a post office was established.</p><br>
<p>The next year a survey crew working for Ellicott was boarded there. While waiting for work to start, its leader, James Dewey, cleared land for a small vegetable garden. This was the first agricultural use of the Holland lands.</p><br>
<p>Frederick Walther, who had established an inn at the junction, wrote to Ellicott that the garden&#39;s yield was good, reflecting the quality of soil in the region. An 1800 map of that portion of the Holland lands denotes intersection as "Walther", likely since he was the only resident. By 1804 he had built a Federal style inn just north of the Indian trail.</p><br>
<p>Five years later, in 1809, the Marvin-Radley-Diefendorf House was built in the same style on the southwest corner of the junction. Unlike the inn, it is extant, making it the oldest house in Genesee County. In 1822, settlement had advanced enough that the Town of Stafford was established. The Greek Revival Radley-Worthington House went up on the southeast corner in 1831.</p><br>
<p>St. Paul&#39;s Episcopal Church was built next door in the Carpenter Gothic style in 1841. That year, the junction dropped its original name of Transit and began being known as Stafford Four Corners, since it was the center of the town. Seven years later, in 1848, the Greek Revival seminary, now used as a parish house, was erected next to the church. Sanders Store came along two years afterward.</p><br>
<p>In 1890 the Odd Fellows Hall at the northwest corner, the newest contributing property, was built. Walther&#39;s hotel burned down in 1922. The site remained undeveloped, and is today a park with military memorials. No modern infill has been built within the district.</p><br>
<h2>Buildings</h2><br>
<p>Independent Order of Odd Fellows Lodge #222, on the northwest corner. This two-story 1890 building with a hipped roof, front gabled pediment and twin pyramidal towers was enlarged in the late 1910s. The south (front) facade has a metal canopy running the length of the first story and an unusual assortment of single and paired windows on the second. It still serves as a lodge, with stores on the lower level.</p><br>
<p>Marvin-Radley-Diefendorf House, southwest of the Sanders Store on the southwest corner. The oldest portion of this two-story five-bay hip-roofed brick house dates to 1809. A central Palladian window tops a full-length porch on the north (front) elevation.</p><br>
<p>Radley-Worthington House, southeast corner. An imposing front portico provides the entrance to this clapboard-sided one-story Greek Revival house built in 1831. Fluted Ionic columns support a dentilled architrave and large pediment, and a dentilled cornice with blank frieze runs the length of the house. Inside, the hallways have fluted engaged pilasters supporting an entablature and heavy flat cornice. One archway has a molded architrave with keystone. No architect is known, and it is likely that the owner, the Rev. Richard Radley, ordered these pieces from a catalog.</p><br>
<p>St. Paul&#39;s Episcopal Church, east of the Radley House. This 1841 clapboard-sided house of worship combines a Greek Revival architrave and pediment with pointed Gothic windows. The three-stage square front tower is topped by a balustrade with small turrets at the corners.</p><br>
<p>St. Paul&#39;s Seminary, next to the church. Now the parish house, this small Greek Revival building was originally a schoolhouse for the church. It became a seminary in 1852.</p><br>
<p>Sanders Store, southwest corner. Originally it was built in 1850 for a general store. In 1907 it began several years of renovations to convert it to its later use as Stafford&#39;s town hall (it has been vacant since the town moved to a newer building a short distance to the north on Route 237). Its combination of hip and gabled roof is one feature that reflects a combination of Greek Revival and vernacular influences. Other decorative touches include a cornice with pilasters supporting a large architrave, fan window with leaded glass in the north (front) gable field, and hip-roofed dormer window with diagonally muntined windows on the east elevation. An open-belfry tower with pyramidal roof on the northeast corner supports a modern fire siren.</p><br>
