United States Custom House
- Year
- 1856
- Style
- Egyptian Revival
- City
- New Orleans, LA
- Collection
- the french quarter
The U.S. Custom House at 423 Canal Street took decades to build, from 1848 to 1881, delayed by redesigns and the Civil War, and emerged as one of the most important federal buildings in the 19th-century South. Its monumental granite mass combines Egyptian Revival columns with Greek Revival massing, an unusual pairing that earned it National Historic Landmark status in 1974.
the building
Egyptian Revival columns. The building's landmark designation specifically cites its Egyptian Revival columns, a comparatively rare choice for a mid-19th-century federal building and one that gives the entrance its distinctive, monumental character.
A granite federal depot. Built of granite, the Custom House was designed to house multiple federal offices and store goods under one roof, a scale of ambition that helps explain why construction stretched from 1848 to 1881.
Home to the Insectarium. From 2008 to 2023 the building housed the Audubon Insectarium, the largest freestanding museum in the country dedicated to insects, before the museum relocated to the Audubon Aquarium.
the style
The combination of Egyptian Revival and Greek Revival elements is unusual for a federal building of this scale; the Egyptian Revival columns in particular were singled out when the building was named a National Historic Landmark in 1974.
More on Egyptian Revivalsignificance
Designated a National Historic Landmark in 1974, the Custom House replaced an earlier customs building on the site that had itself succeeded an 1809 design by Benjamin Latrobe. It ranks among the oldest and most important federal buildings in the southern United States.
nearby
- Louisiana State Bank Building
- Napoleon House
- Hancock Whitney Center
- Latter & Blum Building
- Immaculate Conception Church
- The Cabildo