The Richard Sheppard Arnold United States Post Office and Courthouse is a courthouse of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas in Little Rock, Arkansas. Completed in 1932, in 2003 it was renamed for Court of Appeals judge Richard S. Arnold. It is located at 600 West Capitol Avenue. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1999 as Little Rock U.S. Post Office and Courthouse.SignificanceAfter the Civil War ended, the city of Little Rock prospered as a cotton and lumber market and as the chief center of trade for Arkansas. The population had grown from 3700 in 1860 to 88,000 by 1940. During the growth period of the 1930s, the need arose for a larger post office. Thus, the United States Post Office and Courthouse in Little Rock was built in 1931-32, during one of the most difficult periods of American history, the Great Depression of the 1930s.The passage of the Public Buildings Act of 1926 precipitated a period of building construction that was unprecedented in the United States. The Public Buildings Act specified that the office of the Supervising Architect of the Department of the Treasury would be responsible for the design and construction of all public buildings. James A. Wetmore was Acting Supervising Architect at the beginning of this period of construction. Since he retired in the early 1930s this may have been the last federal building whose construction he supervised. Though pre-dating the economic problems of the 1930s, the Public Buildings Act was the catalyst for the vast federal building program of the period and for providing jobs for thousands of construction workers around the country.
