Hipolito F. Garcia Federal Building and United States Courthouse

Description

The Hipolito F. Garcia Federal Building and United States Courthouse is a historic courthouse, federal office, and post office building located in Downtown San Antonio in Bexar County in the U.S. state of Texas. It was formerly the U.S. Post Office, Federal Office Building and Courthouse. It is the courthouse for the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas. It holds a prominent location on Alamo Plaza, across from the Alamo. The building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as San Antonio U.S. Post Office and Courthouse.Building historyThe building was a product of the Federal Public Works programs enacted to relieve widespread unemployment during the Great Depression of the 1930s. Its construction accomplished several goals—generating employment, housing all federal agencies in a single building, and streamlining San Antonio's quickly expanding postal needs.Prominent local architect Ralph Haywood Cameron (1892–1970) designed the building in association with renowned Philadelphia architect Paul Philippe Cret under the direction of the Office of the Supervising Architect of the U.S. Treasury Department. Both Cameron and Cret studied at the prestigious École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Cameron, a native Texan who also designed the Dewitt County Courthouse, went on to become one of the leading Beaux-Arts architects of south Texas, and Cret was nationally recognized as one of the foremost practitioners of the style. A ceremonial cornerstone was laid for the new federal building in 1935. Construction was completed in 1936, and the building officially opened in 1937. At that time, the first floor and basement were air-conditioned, a new technology that had not been installed in the any other post office in the country.