The city's business community was primarily concerned with wholesale commerce, and furnished the trade goods for all of Texas, the Indian Territory, and parts of Louisiana and New Mexico.

Plans and specifications were prepared by the supervising architect of the office of Construction of the U.S. Government Treasury Department who was at that time Ammi Burnham Young.

Their bid was for $869,723.93 This began a series of difficulties and problems that beset the whole building history of the Custom House.

Public officials immediately rejected Young's three-story design on the grounds that it lacked sufficient space.

Their design was based on Young's concept, but provided additional space for the Custom Service and Post Office.

Custom House was taken over by the United States Government and the building was nearly complete when Texas seceded from the Union.

Custom House was impacted by a nine inch shell, fired by the Federal fleet, which passed through a wall but did not explode.

[3] Significant alterations were made in 1917, when the General Services Administration added courtrooms and judicial offices to the second floor of the U.S.

[4][5][6] The building continued to serve as a courthouse until 1917, and housed offices for federal agencies throughout the twentieth century.

Custom House by General Gordon Granger as he marched through Galveston, Texas with approximately two thousand Federal Soldiers.

The prominent location at the southeast corner of Twentieth and Post Office (Avenue E) Streets emphasizes its importance to Galveston's shipping-based economy.

Nearly all the original decorative elements on the exterior of the building are cast iron including columns, cornices, balustrades, dentils, entablatures, and window architraves.

The interior of the building is H-shaped in plan and was originally designed to provide space for the Customs Service and the Post Office.

The stair's ornamental newel posts have an acanthus motif and fluted shafts set on octagonal bases.