Murch Brothers Construction Co. Sites

The old downtown post office – officially, the Federal Building – was built in 1933 by the Treasury Department in Modesto, California.  The project has a long pre-history and was to be built as part of a sweeping catalogue of federal buildings around the country in the 1920s.  It finally got underway in the early 1930s.  The design was drawn up in the Treasury Department in 1931 and bids for construction were advertised in late 1932.  The contract awarded to Murch Brothers Construction Company of St. Louis, a large firm that built several other post offices around the country. The project was continued as...

A federal Treasury Department-funded construction, the old National Leprosarium Infirmary building, "built in 1933, had 68 beds in two open wards--men upstairs and women downstairs. Architects provided screened porches across the front of the building to allow patients fresh air. Notice the flat roof. Originally canopies had been installed to give patients a shady spot in the non-air-conditioned building and a place to catch a breeze." In some files the facility was called "the National Home for Lepers." The contractor for infirmary construction was Murch Brothers Construction Co. of St. Louis.