United States Custom House

The United States Custom House is an Art-deco skyscraper designed by Ritter & Shay and built between 1932 and 1934, for a reported $3.50 million dollars, in Philadelphia, PA.

Its precise street address is 200 Chesnut Street, Philadelphia, PA. You can also find it on the map here.

The United States Custom House is a structure of significant importance both for the city of Philadelphia and the United States as a nation. The building embodies the distinctive characteristic features of the time in which it was built and the Art Deco style. Because of that, the United States Custom House was officially included in the National Register of Historic Places on May 25^th 2011.

The building has been restored 3 times over the years to ensure its conservation and adaptation to the pass of time. The main restoration works happened in 1993, 2013 and 2024.

Ritter & Shay was the architecture firm in charge of the architectural design.

Ritter & Shay was in charge of the architectural design, however, architecture is a complex discipline, which usually involves many professionals from different fields, without whom this building would have not been possible. We will surely be leaving out a lot of names here, but at the very least we know that there was one other part involved, that was George Harding as the collaborating Artist.

The United States Custom House can be categorized as an Art-deco building.

The United States Custom House was completed in 1934, right when the Art Deco movement was at its peak, so it kind of went with the trend at that time.

From an aesthetic point of view, the facade features a pilastered limestone three-story base with decorative aluminum details. From there on the building continues as a red brick cruciform tower with limestone trims and double-hung wood windows. Towards the top the clad of the facade changes to white terracotta to crown the building.

Other materials found at the United States Custom House include, aluminum, used for the elevator's ornaments, railings and exterior doors and lamps, and black marble, used in interior rotunda columns and the coffered dome.