United States Courthouse and Custom House Toledo, Ohio

Text courtesy of the National Register of Historic Places, a program of the National Parks Service. Minor transcription errors or changes in formatting may have occurred; please see the Nomination Form PDF for official text. Some information may have become outdated since the property was nominated for the Register.

The 1932 United States Courthouse and Custom House, Toledo is a well-executed authoritative example of the Neoclassical Revival style in its massing, exterior detailing, and internal planning, while its rich interior displays custom features reflecting classical vocabulary. The large, imposing structure was built to accommodate overcrowded federal agencies previously housed in a variety of buildings scattered throughout downtown Toledo. Situated at the northern end of the Toledo Civic Center Mall and built of high-quality materials, the building dominates an important view corridor along Spielbusch Avenue from the north and also anchors the Mall itself. Using the tenets of the City Beautiful movement, the Toledo building was designed to be the centerpiece of the expansive lawns of the Toledo Mall. The courthouse's somber presence and monumentality still confer a calm sense of dignity and order to the mall, the civic center and downtown, as the proponents of the movement intended. It shows its allegiance to Neoclasscal Revival in its distribution of conventional exterior ornament neither lavish nor paltry. In contrast, its exuberant interior, richly detailed with ornate detailing rendered in brass, gold leaf, and pink marble, indicates a financial investment rarely seen in Midwestern federal buildings executed during the Great Depression.