Established in at the confluence of the Eau Claire and Chippewa rivers, Eau Claire, Wisconsin, expanded rapidly in the second half of the nineteenth century with the lumber industry. The U. District Court of the Western District of Wisconsin, which first met in Eau Claire in , was also in need of a permanent home. Thus, the government began planning the first federal building for the growing town.
The Office of the Supervising Architect of the U. Drawings were completed in and construction of the building began the same year. Additions to the rear of the building in and reflected expanding demand for postal services.
The second addition, designed under Supervising Architect Louis A. However, in , the post office moved to a new facility on North Barstow Street. Subsequently, space occupied by the post office was converted for use by other federal tenants, and in the building name was changed to reflect its current use.
In , a U. Bankruptcy courtroom was constructed in a portion of the former postal lobby, and the former postal workroom was rehabilitated for court offices. In , the building was listed in the National Register of Historic Places. The Federal Building and U. Courthouse is sited near the center of a city block in downtown Eau Claire. The building is composed of two main volumes, a three-story rectangular structure, and a one-story addition constructed in The Office of the Supervising Architect of the Treasury judiciously employed stylistic features of Beaux Arts Classicism to imbue the relatively modest building with a sense of grandeur, and, nearly thirty years later, used compatible materials and detailing for the addition.
The elevations of the original building are composed of three distinct parts. The first story, or base, consists of limestone, atop a raised granite foundation. The second and third stories, or shaft, are composed primarily of buff-colored brick with limestone trim. The capital consists of a dentilled cornice with a mansard roof behind a limestone parapet. The elevations of the one-story addition are a horizontal extension of the granite and limestone base of the original building.
