The first federal building constructed in Corpus Christi opened in 1917 on Starr St. at Lower Broadway.
Construction of the building was approved by Congress on May 21, 1908 with an appropriation of $70,000. The building site on Starr Street was purchased from Mr. M. Ucovich for $9,000 on February 11, 1910. Bids for construction were submitted in 1912, but all were rejected after they far exceeded the money appropriated for the project.
In 1913, an additional $70,000 was approved for construction of the building.
The design plans were approved by James A. Wetmore, Supervising Architect of the United States, in August of 1914. The contract for construction was awarded to Barnes Brothers Construction of Logansport, Indiana on December 22, 1915, and excavation work began immediately.
The building was completed in September of 1917 at a cost of $130,000.
The new building would house the U.S. Post Office, which would occupy the entire first floor. The Federal Courtroom and court offices would occupy the second floor. The U.S. Customs Service, U.S. Marshall's office, Internal Revenue, and The U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service would occupy the third floor. In December 1920, the U.S. Weather Bureau moved its office and instruments from the City National Bank Building to the new Federal building where more accurate measurements of temperature and wind speeds could be obtained.
The Weather Bureau would remain in the Federal building until the early 1940’s when it moved out to Cliff Maus Airport.
Because the building housed the Post Office, it became one of the busiest places in Corpus Christi. And as the city’s population grew, it became even more hectic. By the early 1930’s, it was apparent that the Federal Building was too small to handle the increased federal business of a rapidly growing city and a busy new port. The building would need to be expanded.
In July of 1932, Congress appropriated $148,500 for the expansion. But, the Depression was on and getting worse, and the money got diverted to other projects. A new appropriation of $138,000 was passed in June 1934, but that money was also diverted. The fact that most of the overcrowding was due to the post office being located in the building, a decision was made in 1936 to construct a new Post Office up on the Bluff directly above the Federal Building.
Condemnation proceedings began to acquire the property needed on the Bluff for the new building. The property selected was occupied by 3 historic homes….the Edward Ohler home, built in the 1850’s, the Allen M. Davis home, and the Edmund J. Davis house (once the home of the controversial Republican Reconstruction Governor of Texas). This would mean that more of the stately old houses on the Bluff would be moved or demolished.
The new Post Office opened on September 1, 1939.
With the Post Office gone, the 1915 Federal Building was renovated in 1939 and continued to serve primarily as the site of the Federal Court for the Southern District of Texas.
But, by the 1950’s, the old building was again woefully inadequate. Many of the federal agencies were forced to rent space in other buildings spread throughout the city. Finally, in 1982, eight federal agencies moved into a new 10-story building at 400 Mann Street. The move freed up the entire third floor of the old 1915 Federal Building for the construction of a second federal courtroom. For the first time since the building was constructed, it housed nothing but federal courts and the staff of the U.S. Attorney’s office.
Even so, there were already predictions that the building would once again become inadequate within 10 years. The need for a new, much larger federal courthouse became apparent by 1990.
In September of 1994, Congress approved $6.44 million for site selection, purchase of property, and design for a new federal courthouse building. In 1995, a site was selected at the intersection of Shoreline and I-37, and construction on a new, $24.5 million Federal Courthouse began in August 1998. The building was completed and opened to the public on February 12, 2001. The new courthouse contained 172,000 square feet of space compared to the 30,000 square feet in the old Federal Building.
The government made it clear that the historic 1915 federal building would not be demolished, and that it would be maintained until a suitable tenant or buyer was found.
In October 2002, the building was put up for sale. San Antonio developer Rick Leeper bought the building for $550,000. It would then be sold to Attorney Thomas J. Henry in March 2004. To his credit, Henry has done a fabulous job at preserving this magnificent and historic 107-year-old building.
Robert Parks is a special contributor to KRIS 6 News. Parks was a history teacher at Carroll High School for 19 years and is now retired. His knowledge of Corpus Christi history makes him a unique expert in the subject.