The Lubbock Post Office and Federal Building, located at 800 Broadway in downtown

Lubbock, Texas Lubbock ( ) is the 10th-most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and the seat of government of Lubbock County. With a population of 260,993 in 2021, the city is also the 85th-most populous in the United States. The city is in the northw ...

, was a post office and federal courthouse from 1932 to 1968.

History

Federal funds were obtained through the

Public Buildings Act The Public Buildings Act of 1926, also known as the Elliot–Fernald Act, was a statute which governed the construction of federal buildings throughout the United States, and authorized funding for this construction. Its primary sponsor in the Ho ...

of 1926 to construct a new federal courthouse in Lubbock, Texas. Construction began in 1931 and the building was completed in 1932 at a cost of $4.7 million. The United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas met here until 1968, after which time it was used by

Lubbock County Lubbock County is a County (United States), county located in the U.S. state of Texas. The 2020 United States Census, 2020 census placed the population at 310,639. Its county seat and largest city is Lubbock, Texas, Lubbock. The county was cre ...

for offices and storage. A lack of proper building maintenance led to its abandonment in 1998. The building was nominated and listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 1995. In 2011, Preservation Texas, a nonprofit preservation group, listed it as one of the most endangered historic sites in Texas. In 2013, Lubbock's Commissioners Court put the building up for sale and Appaloosa Development of Lubbock offered $500,000 but then backed out of the deal. More recently John Thompson (Austin) and Jeff Sagansky (New York) of Elm Tree Partners and John Snyder (Oklahoma) have offered $425,000 for the building. The offer was accepted by Lubbock County Commissioners and plans are to convert the building to apartment or hotel rooms, dining, or office space.

Architectural description

The 3-story building was designed in the late Classical Revival style, which can be seen in its symmetrical plan and its ornamentation. While the first floor has a limestone exterior, the second and third floors have a buff brick exterior designed to resemble an

Italian Renaissance The Italian Renaissance ( it, Rinascimento ) was a period in Italian history covering the 15th and 16th centuries. The period is known for the initial development of the broader Renaissance culture that spread across Europe and marked the trans ...

palazzo A palace is a grand residence, especially a royal residence, or the home of a head of state or some other high-ranking dignitary, such as a bishop or archbishop. The word is derived from the Latin name palātium, for Palatine Hill in Rome which ...

References

External links

Handbook of Texas: Lubbock, TX
{{Lubbock County, Texas Federal buildings in the United States National Register of Historic Places in Lubbock, Texas Government buildings completed in 1932 Post office buildings in Texas Federal courthouses in the United States Post office buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Texas Courthouses on the National Register of Historic Places in Texas Former federal courthouses in the United States

History

Architectural description

See also

References

External links