James R. Browning United States Court of Appeals Building
- Year
- 1905
- Style
- Neoclassical
- City
- San Francisco, CA
Completed in 1905 as the U.S. Courthouse and Post Office, the building now known as the James R. Browning U.S. Court of Appeals Building was meant to project the growing wealth and power of the United States as it emerged as a world power. Congress's initial $350,000 budget for the site proved far too small and was raised first to $1,250,000 and eventually to a $2,500,000 construction appropriation in 1893.
the building
Earthquake survivor. The Neoclassical courthouse survived both the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, standing through the two disasters that reshaped much of the city around it.
the style
Its Neoclassical design, executed by U.S. Treasury architects, used the formal vocabulary of classical civic architecture to signal federal authority in a site chosen over objections that it sat more than a mile from downtown, amid a working-class immigrant neighborhood.
More on Neoclassicalsignificance
Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the building now serves as the courthouse for the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
nearby
- San Francisco Federal Building
- San Francisco Proper Hotel
- Old San Francisco Mint
- Federal Office Building
- Orpheum Building
- YMCA Hotel