The U.S. Customhouse and Post Office is a historic commercial building at 1 Front Street in downtown

Bath, Maine Bath is a city in Sagadahoc County, Maine, in the United States. The population was 8,766 at the 2020 census. It is the county seat of Sagadahoc County, which includes one city and 10 towns. The city is popular with tourists, many drawn by its ...

. Built by the federal government in 1858, it is a fine example of Italianate architecture designed by

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 ...

, housing the local post office and customs facilities until 1970. The building was 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 1970. It now houses businesses.

Description and history

The former United States Customhouse and Post Office stands at the southern end of Front Street, on a lot also bounded by Lambard and Commercial Streets, and by

United States Route 1 U.S. Route 1 or U.S. Highway 1 (US 1) is a major north–south United States Numbered Highway that serves the East Coast of the United States. It runs from Key West, Florida, north to Fort Kent, Maine, at the Canadian border, making ...

on the south. It is a two-story masonry structure, built out of

ashlar Ashlar () is finely dressed (cut, worked) stone, either an individual stone that has been worked until squared, or a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, generally rectangular cuboid, mentioned by Vitruv ...

granite and covered by a truncated metal hip roof. Its front facade (facing west) has a center projecting section topped by a fully pedimented low-pitch gable. The gable and the main roof line eaves are studded with modillions, and the building corners are quoined. Windows on the ground floor are set in rectangular openings with low gabled hoods, while those on the second floor have hoods with drip moulding. The entrance is an elaborate three-section arrangement topped by a bracketed cornice. The interior construction includes iron beams supported either by stone or iron posts, an advance in fire-resistant building materials of the period. with The customhouse was built in 1858 to serve the needs of Bath's burgeoning port, which was a major shipping and shipbuilding center on Maine's

Mid Coast The Midcoast is a region of Maine that includes the coastal counties of Lincoln, Knox, Waldo, Sagadahoc, and the northern coastal portion of Cumberland counties. Some of the towns are: *Alna * Arrowsic * Bath *Belfast *Boothbay * Boothbay ...

. It was designed by

, who had become head of the

Office of the Supervising Architect The Office of the Supervising Architect was an agency of the United States Treasury Department that designed federal government buildings from 1852 to 1939. The office handled some of the most important architectural commissions of the nineteenth ...

of the

United States Treasury Department The Department of the Treasury (USDT) is the Treasury, national treasury and finance department of the federal government of the United States, where it serves as an United States federal executive departments, executive department. The departme ...

in 1852. Young was responsible for the design of many government buildings, including notable works such as the Vermont State Capitol and the

Boston Custom House The Custom House in Boston, Massachusetts, was established in the 17th century and stood near the waterfront in several successive locations through the years. In 1849 the U.S. federal government constructed a neoclassical building on State Stre ...

. It served as the local post office and customhouse until 1970, when it was declared surplus by the

General Services Administration The General Services Administration (GSA) is an independent agency of the United States government established in 1949 to help manage and support the basic functioning of federal agencies. GSA supplies products and communications for U.S. gover ...

. The building now houses a variety of businesses.

References

{{National Register of Historic Places Commercial buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Maine Renaissance Revival architecture in Maine Government buildings completed in 1858 Post office buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Maine Custom houses in the United States Buildings and structures in Bath, Maine Ammi B. Young buildings National Register of Historic Places in Sagadahoc County, Maine Custom houses on the National Register of Historic Places

Description and history

See also

References