U.S. Custom House and Post Office



Kansas City was the go-to city during the great western migration in the early 1900s because of the area’s rich beef and agriculture industries. Thanks to this economic and urban growth, the local city post office hit its limit by 1930. Around this time, President Franklin D. Roosevelt enacted the “New Deal” program (from 1933-1938) after the Great Depression that focused on the “Three Rs:” relief, recovery and reform. A portion of the New Deal programs included funding for public-use buildings such as post offices and customs. Kansas City took full advantage of this idea. In 1935, Kansas City received $3.3 million, which would now be more than $56 million, in funding from the U.S. government to build a brand new, state-of-the-art (for the times) post office building located at 811 Grand Ave., which was completed in 1939 and stood proudly for decades.