Light sandstone, three stories tall, the Alton Lennon Federal Building and Courthouse is also known as the Customs House. Built between 1916 and 1919 from light sandstone, this imposing three-story Classical Revival building was designed by the Office of the Supervising Architect under James A. Wetmore. Its broad central mass is flanked by balanced projecting wings with engaged pedimented porticos; the design even incorporates the front facade of the earlier 1840s customs house into those wings, right down to the cast-iron details.
The building measures 332 feet by 113 feet, a deliberate scale for a federal presence. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974, and in 1976 the building was named for U.S. Congressman and Senator Alton Lennon (1906-1986). Today it houses the Wilmington Division of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina, and if you recognize the facade, it served as the outside of the courthouse on seasons 7–9 of Andy Griffith's TV series Matlock on ABC.
Picture the balanced projecting wings and engaged pedimented porticos, the same facade that once played the courthouse on Matlock.