US Customhouse

- Moved - Unexposed (Check One) * Origiral Site The U. S. Custom House in Newburyport is located on a deep, narrow lot on the fringe of the city's central business district and in sight of the Merrimack River and the Newburyport Harbor. As is usual with mest small buildings of the Neo-Classical style, the Custom House is almost without exterior embellishment. The two-story (plus basement) rectangular building has regular ashlar walls of gray granite; the corner pilasters are dressed granite blocks laid up as quoins. A simple fúscan entablature extends around the building, surmounted by an unornamented pediment at each of the two gable ends. The low-pitched roof is broken only by four central chimneys with cor- beled caps; a short span of metal roof-cresting connects the chimneys.

The main facade of the Custom House is three bays wide. To emphasize the axis, Mills has projected the middle bay slightly from the wall and has permitted this projection to run through the entablature. This creates a pavillion at the center of which is a one story entrance porch. Two unfluted columns, composed of elements of both the Doric and Tuscan orders, support an entablature which repeats on a smaller scale that of the main building. Unadorned rectangular panels, recessed in tro stages, are centered between the first and second story windows of the flanking bays. The interior of the Custom House is constructed of granite and brick with prominent arches and a vaulted vestibule.

Though structurally sound, the Newburyport Custom House has been allowed to deteriorate and requires extensive restoration. There are no basic faci- lities such as heating, plumbing or electrical fixtures. Doors and windows either are missing or are in dilapidated condition.

The U. S. Custom House built in Newburyport in 1834-35, one of five such port facilities known to be extant in Massachusetts, is one of two buildings in the state designed by Robert Mills, the first architect of international reputation both born and trained in America. Mills supervised the construc- tion of the building himself and, in its austere geometry, it is an excel- lent example of his bold and simple handling of the Neo-Classical forms.

In 1836, Mills was appointed by President Andirew Jackson to a position which the architect later described as "Architect of Public Buildings." In that office he was to use a style similar to that of the Custom House, but on a more monumental scale, in his plans for the Treasury (1836), the Old Post Office (1839) and the Patent Office (1839), the three most important buildings to be constructed in Wasington after the Capitol and the "President's House." Thus linked by its form to these major architectural works, the Newburyport Cus- tom House is, at the same time, directly related in its function to the mari- time history of the famous port in which it stands. Collection of duties on merchandize imported through Newburyport had begun in 1789.

Following the construction of the Custom House, receipts at the port reached a maximum in 1875 and 1876; more than $100,000 was collected each year, largely in duties on sugar and molasses imported from the West Indies by the firm of Bayley and Sons. It is estimated that during its half century career, this firm paid the government, through the Newburyport Custom House, more than $3,000,000 in duties.