Customs House

President Hayes promised Nashville a new Federal Building in his 1876 campaign, and he was present to lay the cornerstone in 1877. His visit to a former Confederate state was the first for a U.S. president since the end of the Civil War and fulfilled a campaign promise to end Reconstruction—even though Tennessee was the first state to be readmitted to the Union in 1866. Built of Kentucky limestone with Missouri granite columns, the Customs House features Gothic Revival lancet windows and a triple-arch entrance, with a soaring central clock tower. Treasury architect William A. Potter designed the building, which was so well received that it was displayed at the 1876 Centennial Celebration in Philadelphia. Potter, a New York- trained architect, was responsible for a number of custom houses and post offices during his tenure at the Treasury. His work also included a number of churches and college buildings—seven at Princeton University alone!

When it opened, the Customs House featured a post office on the first floor, customs processing on the second, and federal courtrooms on the third. Additions made to the Customs House to meet the demands of Nashville’s commercial growth included a 1903 rear addition and 1916 flanking side-corner wings designed by Treasury architect James Knox Taylor and James A. Wetmore respectively. Postal activities moved to the new post office, now the Frist Art Museum, in 1935, and the last federal courtroom moved to the Estes Kefauver Building by 1974. No longer used by the federal government, the building was surplused in the mid-1970s and was turned over to Metro Nashville government. The city leased the building to a private firm who used the space for offices. Ironically, some of the space was leased back to the U.S. government for use as federal courts.

Continue down Broadway east towards the Cumberland River. When you get to the intersection of Seventh Avenue and Broadway, you will see the First Baptist Church, just a block from the Customs House, on your right.