The Old Customshouse is a historic government building at 516 North King Street in

Wilmington, Delaware Wilmington ( Lenape: ''Paxahakink /'' ''Pakehakink)'' is the largest city in the U.S. state of Delaware. The city was built on the site of Fort Christina, the first Swedish settlement in North America. It lies at the confluence of the Christina ...

. It was built in 1855 and added to 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 1974.

History

Originally, Delaware's

custom house A custom house or customs house was traditionally a building housing the offices for a jurisdictional government whose officials oversaw the functions associated with importing and exporting goods into and out of a country, such as collecting c ...

existed in New Castle, but it was moved to a small rented building on Water Street in Wilmington around 1800. In 1837, the First Board of Trade came into existence to promote trade through the port of Wilmington. As one of their first actions, the organization sent a petition to Congress asking for a permanent custom house. Representative

George R. Riddle George Read Riddle (1817 – March 28, 1867) was an American engineer, lawyer and politician from Wilmington, Delaware. He was a member of the Democratic Party who served as U.S. Representative and as U.S. Senator from Delaware. Early life a ...

secured appropriations for what was intended to be a dedicated customs house in 1852 which was completed in 1855. Despite the intent for a single-use facility, the Federal Court and the Post Office also shared the building until 1897. During the Korean and Vietnam war periods, the Old Customshouse served as the Delaware initial reporting and induction site for drafted soldiers. The Wilmington Parking Authority built the Customs House Garage, a 1,335 car facility adjacent to the building.

Wilmington University Wilmington University (WilmU) is a private university with its main campus in Wilmington Manor, Delaware, with a New Castle street address. - It was founded in 1968 as Wilmington College by educator Dr. Donald E. Ross. As of 2016, the unive ...

purchased the building from the federal government in 1983 and used it for both business meetings and downtown classes. In 2008, Wilmington University sold the building to a group of investors who then created Old Customs House LLC. In 2018, the building was then sold to the State of Delaware, who plans to turn the space into offices for the judicial branch and community court facilities.

Architecture

Ammi B. Young Ammi Burnham Young (June 19, 1798 – March 14, 1874) was a 19th-century American architect whose commissions transitioned from the Greek Revival to the Neo-Renaissance styles. His design of the second Vermont State House brought him fame and su ...

designed the

Greek revival The Greek Revival was an architectural movement which began in the middle of the 18th century but which particularly flourished in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in northern Europe and the United States and Canada, but ...

building. The two-story structure consist of a cut stone base with stucco exterior walls and four smokestacks. It used to have a portico with a triangular pediment but that was removed in 1929. The

hip roof A hip roof, hip-roof or hipped roof, is a type of roof where all sides slope downwards to the walls, usually with a fairly gentle slope (although a tented roof by definition is a hipped roof with steeply pitched slopes rising to a peak). Thus, ...

is made of iron using innovative foundry technology for the period.

References

External links

* * {{National Register of Historic Places in Delaware Historic American Buildings Survey in Delaware Custom houses in the United States Courthouses in Delaware Buildings and structures in Wilmington, Delaware Government buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Delaware Post office buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Delaware Government buildings completed in 1855 Greek Revival architecture in Delaware Wilmington University Ammi B. Young buildings National Register of Historic Places in Wilmington, Delaware Custom houses on the National Register of Historic Places

History

Architecture

See also

References

External links