The 2+1⁄2-story building was constructed in 1935-36 as part of a Public Works Administration initiative during the Great Depression.

The building has a steel frame, and is clad in brick laid in Flemish bond, with limestone trim elements, and topped by a truncated hip roof.

The main entry, slightly recessed in this section, consists of a pair of modern glass-and-aluminum doors topped by an extended round-arch fanlight window.

[2] The upper portion of the east lobby wall contains a mural entitled A Skirmish between British and Colonists near Somerville in Revolutionary Times, painted by Ross Moffett in 1937 and commissioned by the Treasury Department's Section of Fine Arts.

The mural depicts skirmishing that took place in the Union Square area in the later phases of the 1775 Battles of Lexington and Concord that began the American Revolutionary War.