Federal Building and United States Courthouse (Sioux Falls, South Dakota)

The Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse, also known as U.S. Courthouse, Sioux Falls, is a historic federal office and courthouse building located at Sioux Falls in Minnehaha County, South Dakota. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.Building historyThe monumental Romanesque U.S. Courthouse in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, embodied and validated the federal government's faith in westward expansion. The U.S. Government purchased a two-lot parcel dedicated to the construction of a Federal building in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, on July 22, 1891. South Dakota's first senator, Richard Pettigrew, introduced a bill to fund the structure, recommending that native Sioux quartzite be used for its construction. Willoughby J. Edbrooke, Supervising Architect of the Treasury and architect for the original portion of the building, designed it to house a post office on the entry level and a courthouse on the second floor. Originally constructed between 1892 and 1895, the building was expanded in 1911 and again in 1931.In the early 1890s, South Dakota was a young state that had recently witnessed a major conflict between the U.S. Army and Native Americans at the Wounded Knee Massacre. The construction of a Federal building at Sioux Falls was intended to create a sense of stability and permanence among the newly arrived settlers.