In 1924, Bakersfield became the twenty-first city in California to receive a Federal Post Office Building. Built at a cost of $130,000, the Mission-style masonry and concrete building, reinforced with steel, served for many years as the official federal government center in Kern County. Although architectural credit is often given to Acting Supervising Architect James A. Wetmore (1863-1940), the building was designed by an unknown architect in the Office of the Supervising Architect, an agency of the United States Treasury Department that designed federal government buildings from 1852 to 1939.