It stood in The Loop neighborhood on a block bounded by Dearborn, Adams and Clark Streets and Jackson Boulevard.

The push for a new building was spearheaded by postmaster Washington Hesing with backing by civic leaders and Illinois's members of Congress.

By the time Congress approved funding for a new building, the post office had expanded to 1,319 clerks and 1,096 carriers.

[2] Other agencies housed in the building complained of poor planning and shoddy construction which resulted in crumbling plaster, broken plumbing and flooding.

Congress passed a bill in late 1894 that President Grover Cleveland signed on February 13, 1895, appropriating $4 million to demolish the existing structure on the site and erect a new one.

The Chicago Federal Building was the first government structure constructed with the purpose of housing the post office.

The completed building reached a height of 297 ft (91 m) and was dedicated by President William McKinley on October 9, 1899, the twenty-eighth anniversary of the Great Chicago Fire.

[2] The Federal Building was constructed over a steel frame with exterior walls of brick sheathed with 500,000 sq ft (46,000 m2) of gray granite from Mount Waldo, Maine.

[4] The four wings met under the dome to form an octagonal rotunda, inspired by Imperial Roman architecture, that was open to the ninth floor.

Floors in the rotunda were marble accented with mosaic tile while railings and elevator grilles throughout the building were wrought iron.

The four courtrooms on the sixth floor contained a series of murals depicting historical moments in the development of law.

[8] In 1907, Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis presided over an antitrust case against Standard Oil in which the company was fined $29 million for accepting freight rebates from the railroads.

Two mail clerks and two patrons were killed in the explosion, which was immediately blamed upon the radical Industrial Workers of the World, which had recently been involved in a mass trial at the location.

The 45-floor Kluczynski Federal Building and Loop Postal Station, designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, were built in its place.