Built in 1835 and designed by Robert Mills, the Newburyport Custom House served the federal government by collecting taxes on imported merchandise during the height of the city’s maritime trade. For much of the 19th century, import duties were a primary source of American government revenue, and for four decades the Custom House stood at the center of Newburyport’s waterfront business. Much of its income came from sugar and molasses exchanged for New England salted cod and imported from slave plantations in the West Indies, while duties were also collected on goods including salt, sail cloth, iron, cordage, wine, fabrics, spices, and pottery arriving from Western Europe, Russia, India, Southeast Asia, and China. After 1850, imports became less varied and shifted mainly to goods from Nova Scotia and the West Indies as larger ports such as Boston drew more foreign trade. Receipts peaked in 1875 at more than $100,000, largely from molasses and sugar imported by Bayley & Son, but after that company went bankrupt in 1879, receipts collapsed. At the same time, the Newburyport City Railroad and the infilling of wharves cut the Custom House off from the shoreline and reshaped the waterfront economy, and foreign trade declined so sharply that operating costs far exceeded collections. Over the next 23 years, only $3,509 was collected while $13,800 was spent on collection officers, and in some years no foreign vessels arrived at all. The building later became dilapidated, was taken over in 1968 by the Newburyport Redevelopment Authority for rehabilitation, and is now leased by the non-profit Newburyport Maritime Society, which operates the Custom House Maritime Museum to preserve Newburyport’s maritime heritage and the legacy of the U.S. Coast Guard.