Alexander Hamilton US Custom House

Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House is a building in which a branch of National Museum of the American Indian as well as Federal Bankruptcy Court are housed. However, when it was built, originally only as U.S. Custom House, it was a federal government building that housed the duty collection operations for the port of New York.

Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House was built in 1902 – 1907, according to the design of Cass Gilbert. The building is considered to be the masterpiece of Beaux-Arts style. Sculptures, paintings and decorations were made by well-known artists of that time and they decorate the facade, the two-story entry portico, the main hall parallel to the facade, the Rotunda, and the Collector's Reception Room. Interesting and notable are especially four seated statues of the Four Continents (Asia, America, Europe and Africa) created by Daniel Chester French. Sculptures representing the great sea-faring nations are standing above the main cornice. During the period of Great Depression the Works Projects Administration commissioned murals for the main rotunda from Reginald Marsh.

Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House is a historical landmark located in the southern tip of Manhattan, next to Battery Park at 1 Bowling Green. This seven story structure contains 41,806 square metres (450,000 square feet) of space and sits on three city blocks. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, for both exterior and public interior spaces. The building was supposed to be demolished in 1970s. Fortunately, Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan saved it and it underwent vast exterior and interior renovation and conversation. It included cleaning the building's Bowling Green facade and cleaning and conserving interior murals, decorative paintings, woodwork, metalwork, and marble.