John Charles Tarsney

Who was John Charles Tarsney?

John Charles Tarsney was a politician from the U.S. state of Missouri.

One of Tarsney's most long-lasting contributions was the "Tarsney Act", which permitted private architects to design federal buildings after being selected in a competition under the supervision of the Supervising Architect of the United States Treasury. Competitions were held for the Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House, Ellis Island, James Farley Post Office, Cleveland Federal Building, U.S. Post Office and Courthouse in Baltimore, Maryland, and U.S. Customhouse in San Francisco, California among others. The competitions were met with enthusiasm by the architect community but were also marred by scandal as when Supervisory Architect James Knox Taylor picked Cass Gilbert for the New York Customs job. Taylor and Gilbert had been members of the Gilbert & Taylor architecture firm in Saint Paul, Minnesota. In 1913, the act was repealed.

Tarsney was born in Medina Township, Michigan, and attended the common schools. During the Civil War, he enlisted in the Fourth Regiment, Michigan Volunteer Infantry, in August 1862, and fought and was captured at the Battle of Gettysburg.