United States Courthouse and Custom House

About this property

The James M. Ashley and Thomas W.L. Ashley United States Courthouse, formerly the United States Courthouse, Toledo, Ohio, is a courthouse of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio built in Toledo, Ohio, in 1932. It is named for two former Congressmen, Republican James M. Ashley, and his great grandson, Democrat Thomas W. L. Ashley. As early as 1909, Toledo's leaders explored the idea of developing a civic center within the city. Intrigued with the philosophy of the City Beautiful movement, officials determined that Beaux Arts planning principles suited their vision for a monumental government center. Toledo's 1924 master plan formalized the concept. By 1925, the city purchased the quadrangle bounded by Jackson, Erie, and Orange streets and Spielbusch Avenue. The civic center's first structure was constructed in 1926. In 1929, architect Graham H. Woolfall presented Acting Supervising Architect of the U.S. Treasury James A. Wetmore's design for the spacious four-story United States Courthouse and Custom House to be located within the civic center. The new federal building would replace the overcrowded 1888 federal building located at Madison Avenue and St. Clair streets. Constructed between 1930 and 1932, the new building was celebrated as "a monument of efficiency" for combining all federal offices in Toledo under one roof. The building is a notable example of Neoclassical architecture in Toledo and was constructed during the ambitious public works program developed in response to the Great Depression. In the early 1940s, Toledo's civic center was extensively landscaped to include an expanse of open space, trees, and a glass-block fountain. In 1962, several agencies relocated from the 1932 building to the newly constructed federal building on Summit Street. As a result, the building underwent renovations to accommodate the remaining departments, including installation of a central air-conditioning system. In the 1970s, the building underwent further renovations for the U.S. Bankruptcy Court. The customs service and FBI vacated the building in 1981. In the 1990s, exterior window repair and replacement occurred as well as additional interior renovations for the District Courts and offices. The United States Courthouse is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The courthouse is a distinguished example of the Neoclassical architectural style that dominated public building design throughout the early twentieth century. The style incorporated elements of the Georgian, Federal, Early Classical Revival, and Greek Revival traditions. It is located at the northwest end of Toledo's extensively landscaped civic center. The exterior has remained largely intact since the building's completion in 1932. The rectangular, four-story building rests on a sandstone basement and contains two light courts that admit natural light into the structure. The first-story exterior is faced with rusticated, buff-colored limestone panels, and sandstone covers the exterior of the second and third stories. A standing-seam copper, hipped roof caps the building.

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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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