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The United States Custom House is a historic United States federal government building in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Built between 1932 and 1934 to the Art Deco designs of the architectural firm of Ritter & Shay, the building occupies an entire block between Second, Chestnut, and Sansom Streets and the former Exchange Place in the heart of the oldest section of the city. Its south and west sides border Independence National Historical Park. At 17 stories and 287 ft tall, the massive building towers above other nearby historic buildings of the shipping, financial, and commercial quarter. The building currently houses federal offices for the U.S. FDA, Department of State, Department of Homeland Security, National Park Service and U.S Customs and Border Protection agencies. The building was rehabilitated in 1991-93 and underwent a major renovation in 2010-13.〔("U.S. Custom House Renovations Nearly Complete", CBS-3 Philadelphia, March 21, 2012 )〕 It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on May 25, 2011. ==Building history== The United States Custom House in Philadelphia is a product of the great federal building projects of the Depression era. Begun in December 1932 under the Works Progress Administration (WPA), a massive federal unemployment relief program, it opened on November 10, 1934, having cost over $3,500,000. Distinguished by richness of materials, by the quality of its design, and by a decorative program by a major local artist, the U.S. Custom House is a fitting architectural monument to Philadelphia's status as one of the nation's largest ports. The growth of Philadelphia as a prosperous center of industry at the turn of the twentieth century resulted in a greatly increased number of ships entering and leaving the port. As the U.S. Customs Service expanded to fulfill its duties, it outgrew its home since 1845 in the renowned Second Bank of the United States building, which was designed by William Strickland and completed in 1824. The new U.S. Custom House documents the social and economic history of the early 1930s — vividly illustrating the WPA's role in combating unemployment through large-scale building projects that employed local craftspeople, suppliers, and manufacturers while providing workers with a fair wage. In an effort to stimulate the economy following the stock market crash of 1929, Congress passed a bill appropriating funds for the U.S. Custom House in Philadelphia. The building's construction helped spur the local economy by directly employing more than 4,000 workers for two years. Construction of the U.S. Custom House was the initial component of an early urban redevelopment plan that ultimately spread to include the creation of Independence National Historical Park and the revitalization of Society Hill. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「United States Custom House (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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