National Register of Historic Places in Humboldt County
The Eureka Post Office and Courthouse is representative of the eclectic classicism which distinguished most public buildings designed by the Treasury Department's Supervising Architect's office in the early 20th century. Although it may not have succeeded in its role as exemplar of good taste to be imitated by subsequent private structures, the building is perhaps the most refined of the early public architecture of Eureka.
The tempera murals added to the courtroom in 1937 are Eureka's only federally sponsored decorative artwork executed during the Depression. The Eureka murals, which were more skillfully painted than most of their contemporaries, are excellent examples of the widespread social realist art movement of the thirties and forties.
Excerpted from the NRHP Nomination.
The Office of the Supervising Architect was an agency of the United States Treasury Department that designed federal government buildings from 1852 until World War II.
1869: United States Mint, Carson City
1888: Federal Government Building, Carson City
1893: United States Post Office and Courthouse, San Francisco
1910: United States Post Office and Courthouse, Eureka
1910: United States Post Office and Federal Building, Santa Rosa
1912: United States Post Office, Chico
1915: United States Post Office, Berkeley
1915: United States Post Office and Courthouse, Medford
1932: United States Post Office, Marysville
1933: United States Post Office and Courthouse, Las Vegas