page_title: Lewis F. Powell Jr. United States Courthouse
section_title: Building history
hierarchical_section_title: Lewis F. Powell Jr. United States Courthouse / Building history
caption_attribution_description: English: U. S. General Services Administration, Architect's Drawings, Volume 3, Public Buildings in the Course of Construction under Treasury Department. 1856. Drawing No. 3 of 14.
context_page_description: The Lewis F. Powell Jr. United States Courthouse, also known as the U.S. Post Office and Customhouse, is a historic custom house, post office and courthouse located in Richmond, Virginia. Originally constructed in 1858, it was for decades a courthouse for the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia and the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. A new federal district courthouse opened in 2008, but the Powell Courthouse still houses the Fourth Circuit. The United States Congress renamed the building for Supreme Court justice Lewis F. Powell Jr., in 1993. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as U.S. Post Office and Customhouse.
context_section_description: The courthouse is one of only two buildings in the historic core of Richmond to survive the devastating 1865 fire that marked the evacuation of the Confederate Army during the last days of the Civil War. It is the oldest courthouse in GSA's inventory. Constructed as the U.S. Custom House, Post Office and Courthouse, the original portion of the building was completed in 1858 to designs of Ammi B. Young, then Supervising Architect of the U.S. Treasury Department. The building received additions that were completed in 1889, 1912, and 1932, all three of which hewed closely to the imposing Italianate forms that characterized the original building.
  The building played a significant role in the American Civil War when the Congress of the new Confederate States of America selected Richmond as its capital. The courthouse provided offices for Confederate President Jefferson Davis. Following the conflict, the federal government reoccupied the building. Then, in 1866, the Grand Jury of the United States District Court met on the third floor and indicted Davis for treason. Davis returned to the courthouse in 1867 for a hearing, but was granted amnesty and never stood trial.
  Pressure to enlarge the courthouse began in the first decade of the 20th century, when the antitrust policies of President Theodore Roosevelt and associated legislation created an expansion of judicial oversight. In 1910, construction began on a massive expansion of the courthouse, which increased the size of the original building twelve-fold. Matching wings on the east and west were constructed between 1910 and 1932. An Art Deco Annex was constructed in 1935–36 adjacent to the courthouse.
  In 1993, by which time the building housed only judicial functions, President Bill Clinton dedicated the building as the Lewis F. Powell Jr. United States Courthouse in honor of the retired Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court Lewis F. Powell Jr., a native Virginian.
caption: Richmond Customhouse,1856
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