{"nrhp_refnum":"73000689","name":"Old Customhouse","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"Washington and 15th St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Cairo","county":"Alexander County","state":"IL","lat":37.003105909000055,"lon":-89.17091570499997,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1973-07-24","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture"],"significance_levels":["national"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A three-story stone federal building at Washington and Fifteenth Streets in Cairo, Alexander County, Illinois, built 1869-72 to house a post office, customs house and court. It was designed by Alfred B. Mullett.","why_significant":"The nomination calls it one of the very few remaining federal custom houses, designed by Alfred B. Mullett, one of the best-known government architects of the 19th century. Its Italianate style is rare among government buildings, and its design is praised for artistic effect and functional plan. An apparently original passenger elevator makes it a very early elevator building. It is also one of the largest monumental 19th-century government buildings in the mid-Mississippi Valley, linked to the era of river commerce.","narrative":"Built between 1869 and 1872 at a cost of $184,000, this stone federal building at Washington and Fifteenth Streets in Cairo, Illinois, once held a post office, customs offices and a courtroom, arranged on three floors in that order. Alfred B. Mullett, U.S. Supervising Architect from 1865 to 1880, designed it in a monumental Italianate manner, with round-headed windows and a bracketed cornice. A tall courtroom on the top floor, fitted with a marble fireplace, brass chandeliers, walnut woodwork and Corinthian pilasters, raises a half-story above the main cornice. A caged elevator in the stairwell appears to date from construction, making it an early elevator building. Local tradition had set the first floor at levee height, but Mullett ordered stone courses removed to bring it down to grade. After a new post office opened in 1942, the building passed to the city and now serves as police headquarters. It is valued as a rare surviving custom house and a reminder of Mississippi Valley river commerce.","period_of_significance":"1869-72 (19th Century)","architect_builder":"Alfred B. Mullett, U.S. Supervising Architect","architectural_style":"Monumental palazzo or commercial Italianate","criteria":[],"status_note":"Owned by the City of Cairo and serves as police headquarters; condition listed as fair and altered.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:55:35.947475-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/6/8917/28891706/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_IL/73000689.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/73000689/f0d8aeee9b-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/73000689/f0d8aeee9b-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"Nyttend","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Old_Customhouse,_Cairo.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Nyttend</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Old_Customhouse,_Cairo.jpg"},"district":{"nrhp_refnum":"79000815","name":"Cairo Historic District","url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/districts/illinois/cairo-historic-district-79000815/"},"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/28891706","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Custom_House_(Cairo,_Illinois)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q15263764"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/illinois/alexander-county/old-customhouse-73000689/"}