An outstanding example of the Beaux-Arts Classical style popularized by McKim, Mead and White, this federal building of rusticted gray Vermont granit replaced a Renaissance Revival federal government building erected in 1879. The two-story, half-columned colonnade at the second level of the original main facade is balanced by two pedimented entry pavilions, and the distinctive tripartite horizontal division is suggestive of the east facade of the Louve (without its central pavilion) or, even more, the individual blocks of the Place de la Concorde.

A congressional appropriation of $500,000 won by Sen. Alden Smith in 1906 assured its construction. When it was declared surplus by the General Services Administration in 1975, the city acquired the building. Under the direction of Steenwyk-Thrall Architects, it was rehabilitated in 1980, without the ooss of the elegant interior plasterwork, woodwork, and mosiac flooring, to house the Grand Rapids Art Museum at 155 Division North in downtown Grand Rapids, Michigan. Another view of the building.