Old Federal Customs House, Galveston, TX - Philatelic Photographs on Waymarking.com

The stamp describes this building as a federal court house and indeed it did contain a federal court (it also housed a post office and a U.S. Marshall). But initially, its primary function was that of a U.S. Customs house. In the middle of the nineteenth century, Galveston was the leading seaport in Texas and the port of entry for almost all of the imported goods for Texas, the Indian Territory and parts of New Mexico and Louisiana. At that time, it was also the most populous city in Texas.

In 1854, funds were appropriated by the U.S. Congress to construct a building for use by Customs, etc. in Galveston. Several bidding sessions and contract re-negotiations, three architectural re-designs and six years later, construction finally began. The building was finished in March of 1861 – just in time for Texas to secede from the Union and join the Confederacy.

The building has been through a lot in the past 150 years. When the Federal Navy bombarded Galveston during the Civil War, a shell allegedly burst through the second story wall but failed to explode causing only minor damage. (When bombing your own buildings, it pays to have shoddy ordnance suppliers!) It was also the site of the loathsome “Bread Riot” of 1864. The great Galveston Fire of 1885, which destroyed over 550 buildings, raged within half a block of this site.

Being located on the gulf coast, Galveston is no stranger to tropical storms. The building lost its roof during the hurricane of 1900 and sustained additional damage in another storm in 1915. But the worst storm damage occurred when a tornado spawned by hurricane Carla swept across Galveston Island in 1961. More recently, a boiler explosion in 1978 ripped a gaping hole in the east wall. This happened about a year after the postal card was issued.

In spite of all this, the building is in fine shape today as can be seen in the photograph (though I’ll bet they didn’t have vehicles like that in 1861 or parking meters for that matter). All federal agencies have relocated to larger facilities and the building is currently owned by the Galveston Historical Foundation.

The postal card was part of a series promoting historical preservation.

Stamp Issuing Country: United States Date of Issue: 20-Jul-1977 Denomination: 9 cents Color: multicolored Stamp Type: Single Stamp Relevant Web Site: Not listed

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Date Logged Log User Rating   06/05/2016 jhuoni visited it