Justice John McKinley Federal Building and United States Post Office

Justice John McKinley Federal Building and United States Post Office

Downtown Businesses

The federal building is located at the corner of Seminary and Tombigbee and its address is 210 North Seminary Street, Florence, Alabama. The building is currently named in honor of Alabama’s first Supreme Court Justice, John McKinley. The United States Post Office and Federal Court House was erected from 1912 to 1913 at a cost between $120,000 and $130,000 dollars. The structure was built on property owned by the Florence Female Synodical College and bought by the government for around ten thousand dollars. The architect of the federal building was John Robie Kennedy, Jr., a native of Lauderdale County, with the supervising architect being a local contractor, James Knox Taylor, also of Lauderdale County. The architecture of the structure is a mix of Neo-Classical styles and includes elements of Greek Revival with the Ionic columns and Italianate with the cornices, red Spanish clay hipped roof, and white limestone facade. On the inside, the floors are Cherokee, Georgia marble in twelve-inch squares, the stairs are Alabama marble, and the rails are made of oak with wrought iron balusters. Two additions have been added over the years, one in 1946 and another in 1965, both for the purpose of the post office. Even with the additions, the building is still on the National Register of Historic Places because of the original architecture of the building.

M.C. Fesmire, University of North Alabama

Text Sources:

UNA Archives & Special Collection. McDonald Collection. Florence, Buildings, U.S. Post Office and Court House. Florence, Alabama. Florence Times, exceprt.

UNA Archives & Special Collection. McDonald Collection. Writings, Articles, WLM: Writings 10.24. Florence, Alabama. McDonald, William Lindsey. “The United States Post Office and Courthouse at Florence."

Gamble, Robert S. “Historic Muscle Shoals Buildings and Sites: Muscle Shoals Architecture.” editor McDonald, Mary Jane. Journal of Muscle Shoals History, vol. X (1983).

Picture Source:

UNA Archives & Special Collection. William L. McDonald Collection. “Florence Federal Building." Florence, Alabama. Box 8: Post Office, 8-1.

Alabama Cultural Resource Survey

Early Nineteenth Century-Present

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