The Frank E. Moss US Courthouse (Moss) is a contributing structure in the Exchange Place Historic District of downtown Salt Lake City (District), designed in the Neoclassical Revival style. The building was originally designed  by Supervising Architect of the Treasury, James Knox Taylor, and constructed in 1905 serving as a Federal Courthouse and US Post Office. The structure was expanded to the west in 1912, enclosing the “U” shaped structure. In 1932 the building was expanded to the south, almost doubling the structure in size and mimicking the central lightwell configuration of the 1905 and 1912 structure. The Courthouse was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978. The building has five principal floor levels as well as a basement, and will serve as a Federal Bankruptcy Courthouse and Federal Office Building.

The buildings built between 1903 and 1917 in the District represents Salt Lake City’s second major commercial district. The District was created as a direct outgrowth of the rapid development of Utah’s mining industry during the last quarter of the nineteenth century. The impressive commercial architecture in the district reflects the way large amounts of wealth produced by Utah mines were used to build up Salt Lake City. Exchange Place played an important role in the growth of Salt Lake’s economy and documents an important commercial rivalry between Gentile (non-Mormon) capitalists and the Mormon financial community, each of which was polarized in a separate commercial district.

The Moss is the oldest building in the district and serves as the visual terminus for Exchange Place. The District grew up around the building inasmuch as it represents the Federal presence in Utah after it gained statehood. The building is significant architecturally for introducing the heretofore unknown Neoclassical Revival style to Utah, a governmentally promoted style which found its way into commercial, religious and residential architecture in Utah after 1903.