Building History

The U.S. Customs Service was established by the First United States Congress in 1789, making it the oldest federal agency in the country. The functions of the Customs Service are to assess and collect duties and taxes on imported goods, to control carriers of imports and exports, and to combat smuggling and revenue fraud.

The Robert C. McEwen U.S. Custom House is the oldest building in Ogdensburg, New York, and the oldest known building continuously occupied by the federal government in the continental United States. Constructed between 1809 and 1810, the building is closely linked to the history of Ogdensburg and the citizens who shaped its early growth.

The U.S. Custom House building was originally built as a simple store and warehouse known as the Parish Store and Wharf in reference to its first owner, David Parish, a German financier who immigrated to the United States in 1808. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, it was an important component of a regional distribution network for goods brought to upper New York State via the St. Lawrence River. The area around Ogdensburg was unsettled and remote; there were few roads and transportation of goods was extremely difficult. When the Parish Store was built, goods were brought up the St. Lawrence River, warehoused in Ogdensburg, and distributed regionally.

In 1811, Congress established the U.S. Customs District of Oswegatchie in Ogdensburg. According to local tradition, the Parish store likely housed U.S. Customs Service functions as early as 1811 until 1870 (when a new building was constructed to house government offices). In 1928, the district headquarters of the U.S. Customs Service was moved into leased space in the Parish Store; the U.S. Government subsequently purchased the building in 1936 and changed its name to the U. S. Custom House. The fact that the U.S. Custom House in Ogdensburg was the district headquarters encouraged regional trade, which was a key to both the development of Ogdensburg, and the preservation of the building through continued use.

Architecture

The U.S. Custom House is an unusually fine example of the utilitarian buildings constructed in native limestone in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries in the Ogdensburg region. The original building has excellent proportions, giving it lightness that masks the massiveness of its structural system. It is best classified as of the Adam (or Federal) style. Master carpenter Daniel W. Church oversaw the work of a group of French Canadian stonemasons who came from Montreal to work on its construction.

The building’s exterior appearance remains much the same as when constructed in 1809-1810. At the front (east) facade the U.S. Custom House is a three-story, side-gabled building. As the site slopes to the west, the basement is exposed on other sides. Constructed of native limestone laid as fieldstone, with quoins at each corner, the building’s load-bearing masonry walls are three feet thick in places. All masonry openings have segmental arches with voussoirs (wedge-shaped stones) of matching limestone. The front facade is two-and-a-half stories high.

After purchasing the building in 1936, the federal government modified the exterior. Dormers and cornices supported by modillions (scroll-shaped brackets) were added. Most of the large loading doors were partially filled in with limestone and converted to paired windows. In 1958, a simple, one-story portico, similar to one constructed in 1937 and later removed, was added to the North Water Street side of the building, and a small limestone addition was built at the southwest corner. The exterior modifications were done with restraint and sensitivity, leaving the character of the building largely intact while accommodating its new use.

With only minor changes such as partitions and doors, the building interior dates entirely from 1937 when a complete remodeling was undertaken to provide offices for the U.S. Customs Service. Vestiges of the 1809-1810 structure remain in transverse load-bearing masonry walls, the closets under the eaves of the third floor, and the original beams.

Distinctive interior features include the vestibule, lobby and information desk, center stairway, Cashier’s Office, and Public and Private Collectors Offices. From the main entry on the east facade, a small vestibule opens into the lobby. In the lobby are bulletin cases of glass and wood marked "Immigration" and "Customs," and a wood building directory. A recessed area contains a wood-panel information desk with a hinged gate. In the wall behind the desk, a shallow, elaborately detailed closet was built into one of the original arches in the masonry bearing wall.

The first-floor corridor opens off the lobby and is T-shaped, with painted plaster walls and ceiling. There are original (1937) wood baseboards and chair rail with abstracted triglyph (three vertical bands) design. The ceilings of the lobby have a molded plaster cornice; the corridor ceilings have a plain cornice band. At the westernmost end of the east-west corridor is a built-in-panel wood counter with a glazed wall and window for business transactions above. This is the original site of the Cashier’s Offices.

The building was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1974, and in 1982, the building was renamed the Robert C. McEwen U.S. Custom House in honor of the area’s Representative to Congress.

Significant Events

1809-1810:  David Parish builds a stone store and warehouse on the waterfront.

1811:  Congress establishes the U.S. Customs District in Ogdensburg.

1811-1870: The U.S. Customs Service may have occupied the building.

1880:  The George Hall Coal Company buys the Parish Store.

1928:  The headquarters of the St. Lawrence District No. 7 of the U.S. Customs Service is relocated to leased space in the Parish Store.

1936:  The U.S. Government purchases the Parish Store, and renovates the building.

1974:  The building is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

1982:  The building is renamed the Robert C. McEwen U.S. Custom House.

Building Facts

Builder: Master Carpenter Daniel W. Church

Construction Dates: 1809-1810

Landmark Status: Listed in the National Register of Historic Places

Location: 127 North Water Street

Architectural Style: Adam (or Federal) Style

Primary Materials: Native limestone

Prominent Feature: Massive, two-feet-thick, limestone bearing walls