This text traces the evolution and accomplishments of the office, that from 1852 until 1939 held a virtual monopoly over federal building design. Among its more memorable buildings are New York City's neo-Renaissance customhouse, and the ancient adobe Palace of the Governors, Santa Fe.

This unique and carefully researched study traces the evolution and accomplishments of the Office of the Supervising Architect of the United States - the office that from 1852 until 1939 held a virtual monopoly over federal building design. Among its more memorable buildings are the Italianate U.S. Mint in Carson City, the huge granite pile of the State, War, and Navy Building in Washington, D.C., the towering U.S. Post Office in Nashville, New York City's neo-Renaissance customhouse, and such "restorations" as the ancient adobe Palace of the Governors in Santa Fe. In tracing the evolution of the Office and its creative output, Antoinette J. Lee evokes the nation's considerable efforts to achieve an appropriate civic architecture.

Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. Prelude
2. No Blueprint for the New Nation, 1789-1851
3. THe Bureau of Construction and the Corps of Engineers, 1852-1865
4. Alfred B. Mullett, 1866-1874
5. The Supervising Architect's Office in the Gilded Age, 1875-1896
6. The Tarsney Act, Its Passage and Postponement in Implementation, 1893-1939
7. Proponents of "Academic Classicism," 1895-1925
8. The Public Buildings Program in Eras of Affluence and Depression, 1926-1939
Epilogue