Tyler, Then and Now
Menu

1934: The federal building

A federal building of 1934 on the site of the one it replaced, at West Ferguson and North Bois D’Arc.

Town and civic· 1934–1976

U.S. Post Office and Courthouse
What the sources put on the map by 1938, over today’s streets.Under it: Sanborn map, 1938, the key map at the front of the atlas. Sanborn Map Company, Tyler, Smith County, Texas, 1938. Library of Congress, Geography and Map Division, Sanborn Maps Collection.Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors.

The record

  1. By April 1933

    With $360,000 appropriated by Congress, the old federal building has been razed and construction of a new one is under way, by Ralph Sollitt and Sons of Chicago.1

  2. August 4, 1934

    The Tyler U.S. Post Office and Courthouse, designed by Tyler architect Shirley Simons Sr. under Treasury supervising architect James A. Wetmore, is dedicated at the northeast corner of West Ferguson and North Bois D’Arc. Its address is 211 West Ferguson Street by the state’s Atlas, 221 by the downtown nomination’s inventory.1

  3. Until 1951

    Federal judge Randolph Bryant, an oil and gas specialist, hears East Texas oil field cases in the courthouse.2

  4. 1976

    After the post office moves out, a Brutalist courthouse annex, approved by Congress in 1966, is finished for more than $2.8 million on the site of the Mayer & Schmidt department store.1

  5. April 25, 2001

    The building is listed on the National Register.3

Pictures

United States Court House and Post Office, Tyler, Texas (built 1889), as pictured in a 1901 Treasury Department history
The U.S. Court House and Post Office at Tyler, built in 1889, as pictured in a Treasury Department history of federal buildings published in 1901.U.S. Treasury Department, A History of Public Buildings Under the Control of the Treasury Department (Washington: GPO, 1901). Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.The originalPublic domain (U.S. government publication)
Exterior. U.S. Post Office and Courthouse, Tyler, Texas
The 1934 building, November 2014. Photograph by Carol M. Highsmith.Carol M. Highsmith, photographer, 2014. Photographs in the Carol M. Highsmith Archive, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division (LC-DIG-highsm-31248).Library of Congress

Notes

  1. National Register nomination, Tyler Downtown Historic District (NRHP 100008283) (atlas.thc.texas.gov). The Atlas gives the address as 211 West Ferguson Street; the downtown nomination's inventory lists 221 W Ferguson St. Research notes

  2. National Register nomination, Tyler Downtown Historic District (NRHP 100008283) (atlas.thc.texas.gov). Research notes

  3. THC Atlas, National Register listing: Tyler U.S. Post Office and Courthouse (atlas.thc.texas.gov). Research notes

  4. Library of Congress, Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from Tyler, Smith County, Texas, 1938, Report page (image 2 of 59; not sheet 1) (loc.gov). The line is on the bound atlas's Report/index page (file 08793_1938-ind1), not sheet 1, which is a block map. Counts all paving, not only brick; the 2000 survey says about 20 miles of brick streets were completed by about 1942. Research notes

About this plate

  • The pin is the geocode of 211 W. Ferguson St. (the Atlas’s address) from OpenStreetMap’s address data: right to the block. The 1938 Sanborn map under the plate prints ‘Post Off.’ in that block.
  • U.S. Post Office and Courthouse: a filled pin marks the place the sources tie the event to. The dotted ring means right to the block, not the building. 32.35182° N, 95.30187° W, from OpenStreetMap address data.
  • Under the plate, the Sanborn map, 1938 (the key map at the front of the atlas). The atlas’s report page says ‘Paving:—About 37 miles’, without naming the material.4 It is placed by 13 street crossings that still exist; checked by leaving each out in turn, it is off by about 11 m downtown. How the old maps are placed.
  • The faint linework is today’s map, from OpenStreetMap. How the map is made.