Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House: The Collector's Palace

Why is it significant?

Gaze up at the monumental granite facade and Corinthian colonnade of the Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House, rising majestically over Bowling Green.

Key Facts

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Gaze up at the monumental granite facade and Corinthian colonnade of the Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House, rising majestically over Bowling Green. Completed in nineteen zero-seven by architect Cass Gilbert, this Beaux-Arts masterpiece was once the single most lucrative building on the American continent.

Why did the federal government spend millions of dollars building such a luxurious palace for tax collectors? In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, before the federal income tax existed, customs duties levied on foreign cargo entering New York Harbor generated nearly eighty percent of the entire revenue of the United States federal government. This building literally funded the American republic.

Look at the four monumental marble sculptures flanking the front staircase, carved by Daniel Chester French, the genius who carved Abraham Lincoln in Washington. They represent the Four Continents: Asia lost in ancient contemplation, America surging forward with a torch, Europe backed by classical ruins, and Africa slumbering beside an Egyptian sphinx.

Step inside the oval Great Hall under its forty-eight-foot ceiling: the skylight weighs one hundred and forty tons without a single steel beam, held entirely by ceramic Guastavino tile engineering. Today, this temple of maritime wealth houses the National Museum of the American Indian, honoring the indigenous cultures that thrived here long before customs stamps existed.