The Old U.S. Post Office and Courthouse is a historic

courthouse A courthouse or court house is a building that is home to a local court of law and often the regional county government as well, although this is not the case in some larger cities. The term is common in North America. In most other English-spe ...

Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

. It is located at 100-118 Northeast 1st Avenue. Constructed over three years (1912–14), it was designed by

Kiehnel and Elliott The architectural firm of Kiehnel and Elliot was established in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1906. The firm did substantial work in Florida, and moved to Miami in 1922. From 1926, it was known as Kiehnel, Elliot and Chalfant. Richard Kiehnel ( ...

and

Oscar Wenderoth Oscar Wenderoth (1871–1938) was an American architect who served as director of the Office of the Supervising Architect from 1912 to 1915. He is identified as the architect of many government buildings built during that period, including some li ...

. It was added to the

U.S. The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

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 ...

on January 4, 1989. The Miami-Dade County Tax Records say this building was built in 1917 . In August, 1914, the Miami Weather Bureau Office was relocated from the Bank of Bay Biscayne Building to the third floor of the old federal building. Weather instruments were installed on the roof of the building. Richard Gray (1874-1960) was the Official-in-Charge. It was from this location that the warnings from the Weather Bureau Central Office in Washington were disseminated for the Great Miami Hurricane of 1926 and the Okeechobee Hurricane of 1928. The Miami Weather Bureau Office remained on the third floor from 1914 to 1929, although the weather instruments were moved to the

Seybold Building Seybold Building is a historic jewelry building in Miami, Florida. It was designed by Kiehnel and Elliott. The building was erected in two stages. The first three levels of the building were completed in 1921. John Seybold had a bakery and confect ...

in 1927.

Old Miami Federal Bldg ca 1917 showing weather instruments

Dr. William Homer Walker created First Federal Savings and Loan Association of Miami in 1933, when he acquired the first federal savings and loan charter ever issued in the United States. The original name of the institution was the First Federal Savings and Loan Association of Miami. Because it had outgrown two former locations, Walker purchased the abandoned Miami Post Office and Federal Court Building in May 1937 to house his savings and loan. In 1973 the bank moved to the thirty-two story First Federal Building, later known as the AmeriFirst Building and now known as the

SunTrust International Center The SunTrust International Center is a building in Downtown Miami, Florida, United States. It is located in the heart of the Central Business District, on Southeast 1st Street near 3rd Avenue. It is one block west of Biscayne Boulevard. The tower ...

, at One Southeast 3rd Avenue in downtown Miami.HistoryMiami: Guide to AmeriFirst Bank Records
Retrieved on August 13, 2011

See also

References

External links