United States Customhouse (San Francisco)
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U.S. Customhouse
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U.S. Customhouse, April 2008
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| Location | 555 Battery St., San Francisco, California |
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| Coordinates | 37°47′40″N 122°23′52″W / 37.79444°N 122.39778°WCoordinates: 37°47′40″N 122°23′52″W / 37.79444°N 122.39778°W |
| Area | 1.7 acres (0.69 ha) |
| Built | 1911 |
| Architect | Eames, William S.; Young, Thomas C. |
| Architectural style | Late 19th And 20th Century Revivals |
| NRHP reference # | 75000476 |
| Added to NRHP | January 29, 1975 |
The U.S. Customhouse is a historic custom house located in San Francisco, California. It was built to house offices of the United States Customs Service.
Possessing an extraordinary natural harbor and one of the country's finest ports, San Francisco rapidly expanded during the nineteenth century. By the turn of the twentieth century, construction of the Panama Canal, which would dramatically shorten trade routes between the Atlantic and Pacific, had begun. City officials likely anticipated increased commerce and determined that a larger custom house was needed.
In 1905, Eames and Young, a St. Louis architectural firm, won a national design competition for a new custom house. The firm was chosen under the auspices of the Tarsney Act (1890–1912), which allowed the Treasury Department to hire private architects rather than use only government designers. William S. Eames and Thomas Crane Young were the principals of the prominent firm. They designed the building in the Beaux Arts Classicism style, which was popular as part of the City Beautiful movement that sought to create more appealing urban centers.
An earlier, more modest custom house, located on Battery Street between Jackson and Montgomery Streets, was demolished to make way for the present building. Ground was broken for the new custom house on January 28, 1906. Three months later, a devastating earthquake and subsequent fire decimated San Francisco. Because much of the city was being rebuilt simultaneously, there were severe labor and material shortages. As a result, construction of the custom house was not completed until 1911.
The U.S. Custom House was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1975. After the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, seismic and other upgrades were made from 1993 to 1997. While the building continues to serve many of its original purposes, the U.S. Customs Service is now the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, part of the Department of Homeland Security.
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