Custom House & 1891 Post Office

The Custom House is built of massive brick masonry, granite, brownstone, bluestone and terracotta exteriors. Listed in the National Register of Historic Places and locally designated a landmark, the Custom House has been named Florida’s best example of Romanesque Revival Architecture and is considered one of the five most significant historical buildings in the State. Keystone Restoration, Inc. lavished painstaking attention to the building’s fine details in its adherence to the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for Historic Rehabilitation and quest to match original fabric.

The building was built by the U.S. Treasury Department as home to Federal Courts, U.S. Customs, Lighthouse Service and the Post Office. During World War I, Thomas Edison worked there during a stay in Key West, at that time Florida’s most populous and important seaport. The massive three story building is constructed of brick, granite, brownstone and bluestone with elaborate terracotta details. Sited adjacent to an 1820′s naval base, the Custom House was the site of many important historical events, most notably the inquiry into the sinking of the USS Maine in Havana’s harbor. In 1932, the building became headquarters for the U.S. Navy’s Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico operations. Declared surplus and abandoned for nearly twenty years, the building was purchased by the State of Florida in 1993 for use as a museum of art and history.