Designed by the Office of the Supervising Architect under James A. Wetmore, it was completed in 1915; the building was renamed in honor of long-serving North Carolina Congressman Charles R. Jonas, and was transferred to the city in exchange for land in the fall of 2005, and has been leased back to the federal government for continued use.

The Charles R. Jonas Federal Building is located on a site important to the history of Charlotte, and is one of the few historic structures remaining in the Central Business District.

In 1915 the first portion of what would later become the Charles R. Jonas Federal Building, a new post office, was built on the site of the older one.

The addition tripled the size of the original and changed the orientation of the main facade and entry of the building to West Trade Street at the southeast.

It is, in fact, the busiest statutory location for holding Federal Court in the Western District of North Carolina.

Each of the three entry doors has an elaborate limestone surround featuring fluted engaged pilasters which support a decorative cornice.

The L-shaped lobby, once a Post Office sales area, retains its original marble floors, wainscot, pilasters, light fixtures and ornamental plaster ceiling.