HISTORY · HISTORICAL MARKER
Mint Building
Charlotte, North Carolina
· Charles R. Jonas Federal Building
History
14
The first branch Mint of the United States stood here. Built in 1836 in the Classical Revival style and designed by William F. Strickland, it burned to the ground on July 27, 1844, but was reconstructed largely in keeping with Strickland's original design and reopened on October 1, 1846. The Mint produced over five million dollars of gold currency through 1861, when North Carolina seceded from the Union. After the war, it reopened as a US Assay Office. In 1891, a Romanesque Revival Post Office and Courthouse opened beside the Mint on the southwest portion of the site. In 1913, the assay functions were discontinued, and the 1891 Post Office was razed. On that site, the government built a new Post Office facility in 1916, the first portion of which would eventually become the Charles R. Jonas Federal Building. When expansion of the new Post Office threatened the Mint, citizens of Charlotte financed relocation of the structure's foundation to the Eastover neighborhood, where it was rebuilt and opened as the Mint Museum of Art in 1936. The 1934 addition to the Post Office, constructed in the Classical Revival style, tripled the size of the structure and reoriented the main axis of the building north to front on Trade Street. The Charles R. Jonas Federal Building, formerly known as the United States Post Office and Courthouse, is now one of the few historically significant structures remaining in Charlotte's central business district.
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