Where in the World is Evan: Border Inspection Stations

Many historic border inspection stations built with New Deal support still mark the border between the United States and Canada. The facilities that Evan Kalish, our Researcher at Large, documented during a recent research trip to Vermont and Maine were built with Treasury Department funds. In the 1920s, fast-growing, cross-border vehicular traffic and transportation of goods rendered existing port of entry facilities inadequate for monitoring illegal crossing and trafficking. The US Government moved to design and build these stations between 1933 and 1943 as the need to enforce customs and immigration law increased. These combined Customs and Immigration Inspection stations represented a novel federal facility typology for that time. The Architect of the Treasury planned three types of border stations, which ranged from basic offices to mixed-use facilities with living quarters. Despite the need for standardization, the buildings were designed and built with attention to regional architecture. Colonial Revival, Spanish Colonial Revival, and Pueblo Revival are some of the many styles local architects applied to the basic plans. Many of these New Deal-built facilities are still in service today.

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