{"nrhp_refnum":"01000516","name":"Laredo US Post Office, Court House and Custom House","other_names":["Laredo Federal Building","Laredo Custom House"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"1300 Matamoros","address_restricted":false,"city":"Laredo","county":"Webb County","state":"TX","lat":27.506529083000032,"lon":-99.50715570899996,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2001-05-18","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Politics/Government","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A three-story limestone Classical Revival federal building at 1300 Matamoros Street in downtown Laredo, Webb County, Texas, designed by the Treasury Department's Office of the Supervising Architect and completed in 1907, with a matching rear addition in 1935.","why_significant":"The building is significant locally under Criterion A for its association with early twentieth-century federal construction programs and the federal governmental presence in the Laredo area. It is also significant under Criterion C as an example of Classical Revival architecture, a style used for many federal buildings in the early 1900s. It housed the post office, customs service and federal court.","narrative":"Dominating the 1300 block of Matamoros Street across from Jarvis Plaza Park, this three-story limestone building was designed by James Knox Taylor, Supervising Architect of the Treasury, and completed in 1907 at a cost of about $650,000. It brought the post office, customs officials and the federal district court together under one roof for a Rio Grande border town that had boomed after the railroads arrived in 1881. The Classical Revival design features a four-column Doric portico, a rusticated ground floor with a seven-arch arcade, and buff ashlar limestone above. A 1935 rear addition matched the original design and doubled the floor area. Inside, terrazzo floors, marble wainscoting, paneled doors and the postal lobby survive, though courtrooms and offices have been modernized. The building is recognized for its link to federal construction programs and government presence in Laredo, and as a representative example of early twentieth-century federal architecture.","period_of_significance":"1907-1951","architect_builder":"James Knox Taylor, Supervising Architect, U.S. Treasury Dept.; Clarence Jeffries, contractor (1907). Louis A. Simon, Supervising Architect, and R. F. Farnsworth & Company, Inc., contractor (1935 alterations).","architectural_style":"Classical Revival","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Has served continuously as a federal building since construction; still used as a post office, courthouse and offices. Alterations are mainly interior, and the form states the building retains a high degree of integrity.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:54:23.429497-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/57/9739/40973957/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_TX/01000516.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/01000516/2d9f40e639-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/01000516/2d9f40e639-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"Carol M. Highsmith","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Laredo_Post_Office_and_Courthouse,_Laredo,_Texas.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Carol M. Highsmith</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Laredo_Post_Office_and_Courthouse,_Laredo,_Texas.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/40973957","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laredo_United_States_Post_Office,_Court_House_and_Custom_House","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q6488902"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/texas/webb-county/laredo-us-post-office-court-house-and-custom-house-01000516/"}