U.S. Post Office and Courthouse
About this property
The Ronald N. Davies Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse is a historic post office and federal office building located at Grand Forks in Grand Forks County, North Dakota, United States. It is a courthouse for the United States District Court for the District of North Dakota. Also and historically known as U.S. Post Office and Courthouse, the building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places under that name. The building was among the first monumental civic buildings in Grand Forks. Originally completed in 1906, the building was envisioned to be a majestic Post Office and Federal Courthouse at a time when Grand Forks was achieving increasing prominence in the agricultural hub of the Red River Valley. The city's existing post office, housed in an 1870s log cabin, had become obsolete and rising political and business influences demanded a more monumental and permanent post office and courthouse. The new Federal building was sited at the north corner of Fourth Street and First Avenue in the downtown business district. James Knox Taylor, Supervising Architect of the U.S. Treasury Department, was responsible for the building's Beaux-Arts Classical design. The building inspired similar architecture for the adjacent enclave of Classical Revival buildings, including City Hall and Central High School. In 1936, the demand for more space prompted the construction of a three-story addition to the rear of the building, designed by Louis A. Simon of the Supervising Architect's Office. The addition harmonized modern infrastructure with the original architecture by using like materials and details. The new configuration included passenger elevators and a light well to illuminate the first-floor work areas. In 1964, when the U.S. Postal Service moved out of the building and into a new, larger facility, interior renovations remodeled the first floor into offices, adding a new stair tower to the north side of the building. In 2001, the building was renamed after Federal District Judge Ronald N. Davies, pursuant to legislation sponsored by Senator Byron Dorgan, and signed into law by President Bill Clinton the previous year. Judge Davies served in the municipal courts in Grand Forks from 1932–40, and was appointed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower as the U.S. District Court Judge of North Dakota. Davies presided over the Stromsodt v. Parke-Davis and Company case in 1966, a case that involved a damage suit against one of the nation's largest pharmaceutical manufacturers, and, while on temporary assignment, "made a monumental decision to desegregate schools in Little Rock, Ark[ansas]" in 1957.
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Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).
Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
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Questions about this property
When was U.S. Post Office and Courthouse listed on the National Register?
U.S. Post Office and Courthouse was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on June 2, 1976.
What type of historic resource is U.S. Post Office and Courthouse?
U.S. Post Office and Courthouse is classified as a building in the National Register of Historic Places.
What is the period of significance for U.S. Post Office and Courthouse?
The period of significance for U.S. Post Office and Courthouse is recorded as the industrial era.
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Yes. Aubrey Research reports search National Register listings, battlefield records, land patents, and other primary historical sources within any radius of a US address. A report for an address near U.S. Post Office and Courthouse will include this listing and all other historical records in the area.
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