Customs House

The building did not always look as it does today. It was originally designed by architect James Hill in 1876 and included two towers. Parts of its original Italian Villa design can still be seen inside the current building. In 1903 architect James Knox Taylor added an addition to the building which can still be seen in the center of the west facade. It was in 1929 that a more radical change took place when the building was enlarged to become a post office. Then Supervising Architect of the Treasury James Alexander Wetmore oversaw the tearing down the tops of the two towers and the enfolding of the old building in a great wall of granite on the north, south and east. This is how the building came to look as it does today.

The Post Office has relocated and today the Customs House is the home of the University of Memphis Law School.

Image - 1906