Federal Building, United States Post Office and Courthouse (Hilo, Hawaii)
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U.S. Post Office and Office Building
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Hilo Federal Building
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| Location | Hilo, Hawaii |
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| Coordinates | 19°43′32″N 155°5′20″W / 19.72556°N 155.08889°W |
| Area | 1-acre (0.40 ha) |
| Built | 1915 |
| Architect |
Henry D. Whitfield Louis A. Simon |
| Architectural style | Classical Revival |
| NRHP reference # | 74000708 |
| Added to NRHP | October 1, 1974 |
The Federal Building, U.S. Post Office and Courthouse in Hilo, Hawaii is former a courthouse of the United States District Court for the District of Hawaii. Completed in 1917 and expanded in the 1930s, the building was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.
Prior to the annexation of the islands by the United States in 1898, Hilo was a thriving educational and commercial center on Hawaii, the largest of the Hawaiian Islands. Flourishing agricultural enterprises were served by railroads and harbors that facilitated trade with both the continental United States and East Asia. Postal services in Hilo commenced in 1858. When the Hawaiian Islands became a territory of the United States in 1900, officials wanted to expand postal and court facilities for the second-largest city in the territory. By 1913, the Hilo Board of Trade and the territory's governmental representative secured US$200,000 for a federal building.
New York architect Henry Whitfield designed the new building in 1915. Whitfield, who was the brother-in-law of Andrew Carnegie, had just completed the design for the Honolulu Carnegie Library. Whitfield designed the building in the Mediterranean Renaissance Revival style, which blends traditional classical architecture with features more suited to a tropical climate. The building was one of the first in Hawaii constructed using reinforced concrete, a technology that was common on the mainland. Construction was completed and the building occupied in 1917. It originally functioned as a courthouse, post office, and custom house. Other tenants included the Immigration Bureau, Agricultural Extension Service, Weather Bureau, and Internal Revenue Service.
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