United States Post Office and Courthouse (Los Angeles, California, 1892)

The first Los Angeles federal building, more formally the Los Angeles Federal Courthouse and Post Office or U.S. Post Office and Custom House was a Richardsonian Romanesque red brick, brownstone and terra cotta structure designed by Will A. Freret. The building, located at the corner of Main Street and Winston Street, between Fourth and Fifth Streets, was used for about nine years, from 1892 to 1901, to house the Southern District of California, a U.S. post office, and the customs office. The building was partially demolished in 1901; Court moved to the Tajo Building in the meantime. The post office was housed at a series of locations until the second Los Angeles federal building opened in 1910.

United States Post Office and Courthouse
Treasury Department photo c. 1892
Alternative names	Los Angeles Federal Building
General information
Coordinates	34°02′50″N 118°14′52″W / 34.0472°N 118.24772°W / 34.0472; -118.24772
Opened	1892
Demolished	1901
Height
Architectural	Richardsonian Romanesque

History

In 1887, Congress allocated funding for federal building number 198. The building was occupied in summer 1892 and the cost was said to be $150,000. The building, after a modest expansion, eventually contained three main floors, a basement and an attic, altogether offering approximately 460,000 cubic feet of workspace.

However, circa 1901, the building was deemed inadequate for the needs of the growing city, vacated, and partially but not wholly demolished. It was initially hoped that new construction on the same site could use some of the original framework. However, by 1905, as funding languished, the fenced-off ruin was generally described as a forlorn and hopeless wreck.

Meanwhile, the post office moved between a series of temporary quarters:

1. Armory building at Eighth and Spring
2. Grand and Seventh (before 1905)

The federal district court, the U.S. attorney and the U.S. marshal moved to fourth floor of the Tajo Building on the northwest corner of First and Broadway in 1901, and remained there until 1910.

The site of the first federal building was sold in October 1906 for $314,000. Construction on the replacement on the site of the former Downey Block began 1906 on donated land. Circa 1910, the various federal offices relocated to the second Los Angeles federal building.

Gallery

• Horse-drawn streetcar in front of the Los Angeles post office on Main Street, circa 1892
• Los Angeles Courthouse and Post Office in A History of Public Buildings (1901)
• Post office photo gallery in Los Angeles Herald (1905)

See also

• List of Los Angeles federal buildings
• List of United States federal courthouses in California

References

1. "PCAD - Will A. Freret". pcad.lib.washington.edu. Retrieved 2023-02-05.
2. United States Department of the Treasury (1901). A History of Public Buildings Under the Control of the Treasury Department: (Exclusive of Marine Hospitals and Quarantine Stations.). U.S. Government Printing Office.
3. Gebhard, David; Breton, Harriette Von (1968). Architecture in California, 1868-1968: An Exhibition. Standard Printing of Santa Barbara. p. 5.
4. Rotholtz, Benjamin (1901). Wilson's illustrated and descriptive souvenir and guide to Los Angeles and near-by towns. A new handbook for strangers and tourists, with a short historical sketch, birds-eve [!] views of business streets and the latest up-to-date map of the City of Los Angeles. Los Angeles: Wilson Pub. Co. p. 26.
5. "University of Southern California - Drawing of an exterior view of the United States Courthouse and Post Office that stood at Main Street and Winston Street in Los Angeles, 1888". digitallibrary.usc.edu. Retrieved 2023-02-04.
6. "Historical Decades Central District of California United States District Court". www.cacd.uscourts.gov. Retrieved 2022-12-15.
7. Grounds, United States Congress Senate Committee on Public Buildings and (1910). Sites and Plans for Public Buildings: Hearing Before Senate Committee on Public Buildings and Grounds on the Bill (S. 7731) to Amend Chapter 135 of the Laws of 1875, and to Repeal Section 3734 of the Revised Statutes, Relative to the Purchase of Sites, Preparation of Plans for Public Buildings, and for Other Purposes. U.S. Government Printing Office.
8. Humanities, National Endowment for the (1905-01-02). "Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911, January 02, 1905, Image 10". p. 10. Retrieved 2023-02-05.
9. "Los Angeles Herald 12 January 1901 — California Digital Newspaper Collection". cdnc.ucr.edu. Retrieved 2023-02-05.
10. "Los Angeles Herald 5 May 1908 — California Digital Newspaper Collection". cdnc.ucr.edu. Retrieved 2023-02-05.
11. "Los Angeles Herald 21 May 1901 — California Digital Newspaper Collection". cdnc.ucr.edu. Retrieved 2023-02-05.
12. "Los Angeles Herald 12 January 1901 — California Digital Newspaper Collection". cdnc.ucr.edu. Retrieved 2023-02-05.
13. Guinn, James Miller (1907). A History of California and an Extended History of Its Southern Coast Counties: Also Containing Biographies of Well-known Citizens of the Past and Present. Historic Record Company. p. 338.
14. Architect, United States Dept of the Treasury Office of Supervising (1919). Annual Report. U.S. Government Printing Office.