Naval Officer, Surveyor, Public Store Keeper, their Deputies and Clerks; and for the facilities of doing business this arrangement is not surpassed. The grand-cross shaped Rotunda, for the general business of the Collector's department, in the centre of this story, is finished in the Grecian Corinthian order; it is in its greatest length, 59 feet wide, and in the skylight. In one of the panels of the Rotunda is inserted a tablet of marble (Dedication Tablet 1847), containing the following inscription: Boston Custom House Building. Authorized by the 23d Congress, A.D. 1835. Andrew Jackson, President U.S.A.; Levi Woodbury, Sec'y of the Treasury.—Opened August 1st, A.D. 1847, James K. Polk, President U.S.A.; Robert J. Walker Sec'y of the Treasury; Marcus Morton, Collector of the Port; Samuel S. Lewis, Robert G. Shaw, Commissioners; Ammi Burnham Young, Architect. Tower By 1905, increased shipping required the building's expansion. In 1913–1915, the architecture firm Peabody and Stearns added the tower to the base. Although Boston at that time had a height restriction, the Custom House was federally owned and exempt from it. The new tower's made it the city's tallest. In 1947, the Old John Hancock Building, just one foot shorter, joined it in the skies over Boston. In 1964, it was exceeded by the Prudential Tower. The tower was completed in January 1915 after four and a half years of work. It cost about $1.8 million to build. The tower contains a rotunda made of Vermont white marble covered by a dome. Outside of the top floor is a balcony, which, at the time of the tower's opening, was said to have views of Mount Wachusett, the Peterboro Hills, and the shores of Cape Ann. The dedication ceremony was attended by Assistant Secretary of the Treasury Andrew James Peters, Collector Edmund Billings, Governor David I. Walsh, Mayor James Michael Curley, Cardinal William Henry O'Connell, Bishop William Lawrence, and the building's architect, Robert Swain Peabody. The tower was opened on January 23, 1915. The clock on the upper tower of the building is in diameter. It was started at noon on April 6, 1916. The clock cost $2,500. Its hands are made of gold leaf painted California redwood and weigh 101 and 141 pounds respectively. Because of an undersized motor, the clock failed to work properly through much of the 20th century. In 1960, the Great Seal of the United States was painted in the