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Custom House
220 N.W. Eighth Avenue, Portland, OR 97209
Architect: Taylor, James Knox
Constructed: 1897 - 1901
Nat'l Register ID #: 74001714
GSA Building #: OR0025ZZ


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Statement of Significance


The historic United States Custom House, completed in 1901, is significant as an excellent and well preserved exemplar of Second Renaissance Revival architecture. It was designed in the office of James Knox Taylor, Supervising Architect, U.S. Treasury Department. Local Supervising Architect was Edgar Lazarus of Portland who performed construction supervision and related services. All design and construction drawings were prepared in the office of James Knox Taylor. The four story, full block structure is a unique Oregon example of a Revival Era interpretation of the English Renaissance, particularly the 18th century work of prominent London architect James Gibbs. While studying in Rome, Gibbs became enamored with the Mannerist and Early Baroque designs of mid-16th century Italian architects. Upon his return to England, Gibbs introduced many of these Mannerist elements into his buildings. He borrowed heavily from architects such as Vignola and Palladio and was particularly fond of a window frame treatment seen in the palazzos of both Italian designers. This frame detail came to be known in Britain, and later America, as the "Gibbs Surround" which is characterized by keystones and spaced blocks at the jambs that intersect the underlying casing. Prominent in the exterior design of the Custom House is the use of the Gibbs Surround in a variety of modes. In addition, the Custom House displays a rich blend of Mannerist and Baroque features, symmetrical organization; a first story of granite with round arch openings; upper stories of beige roman brick and terra cotta detail including a pair of ornate chimneys; ballustrades; bracketed cornices; two-story engaged Corinthian columns; and several window designs featuring the Gibbs Surround, broken pediments and classical cornice moldings supported by scroll consoles.

The Renaissance palazzo theme is also continued on the interior where each lobby in the three main stories is treated in ascending classsical order: Doric at the first floor, Ionic at the second, and Corinthian on the third floor.

The U.S. Custom House also achieves significance as the symbol of the U.S. Customs Service and the important role played by the Service in the economic development of the region. The first U.S. Custom House in the Oregon territory was established in Astoria in 1849 a year after the area had become a part of the United States. A year later the Custom Service came to Portland. Harvey W. Scott, editor of the Oregonian, was appointed Portland's first collector of Customs in 1870 with offices in the Flanders Building on Front Avenue. In 1875 the Customs Service moved into the new "U.S. Post Office, Court House and Custom House," Portland's first permanent Federal Building, now known as the Pioneer Courthouse. As the city grew the Customs Service needed more space, and in 1891 the present site was acquired for a new Custom House. At that time, the site would have been three blocks south of the proposed railroad terminal. However, for a variety of reasons, Union Station was relocated farther east but still close to the new Custom House site. In 1901, the Customs Service began operations in its new building where it continued until 1968 when it moved to the old Post Office Building (currently the 511 Federal Building). Since 1968 the North Pacific Division, U.S. Corps of Engineers has occupied nearly all of the space in the building.

The original 1897 plans called for two-story high courtrooms in the large spaces at each end of the central wing at the third floor. After construction had begun but prior to the summer of 1900 it was decided to delete the courtrooms and use the spaces for other purposes. (Interior Finish Drawing No.134, date 7/12/1900 clearly indicates that these spaces would not be used as courtrooms.) According to the contemporary accounts, Federal District Court Judge Charles B. Bellinger, was not pleased with the Custom House location in the "seamy part of town" and he pursuaded the government to consider adding courtrooms to the Pioneer Courthouse. Detailing of the two rooms in the 1900 plans was greatly simplified from the designs seen in the 1897 drawings, but some of the earlier elements remain, including the large central skylights in the paneled ceilings.


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