The Robert S. Vance Federal Building and United States Courthouse, previously known as the U.S. Post Office and Federal Building & Courthouse, is located at 1800 5th Avenue North in Birmingham, Alabama. The Beaux-Arts-style building was constructed in 1921. It served historically as a courthouse of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama, and as a post office. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on June 3, 1976. It is still in use by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Alabama.In 1990, the United States Congress enacted H.R.3961, officially redesignating the building as the "Robert S. Vance Federal Building", in honor of Robert Smith Vance, a United States Court of Appeals judge who had been assassinated the previous year by a mail-bomb sent to his home. The bill was signed into law by President George H. W. Bush on May 29, 1990, becoming Public Law No: 101-304.SignificanceThe building is representative of the Classical Revival style of architecture, and because it is a continuing symbol of the Federal presence in Birmingham. With its sleekness and lack of ornate embellishment, the Birmingham Federal Building was a precursor to the more conservative Classicism exhibited in the Federal Buildings of the 1930s. The Classical Revival style of the building seems to be a transition between the pre-World War I preponderance of Beaux Arts Classicism and the more austere classicism of the 1920s and '30's. James A. Wetmore, Supervising Architect of the Treasury, is listed as architect of the building. It was common in the early 20th Century for the employees of the U.S. Treasury Department to design Federal buildings with the Supervising Architect listed as the architect of record.
