When it was built in 1959, the Federal Building provided one location for basically all of the United States government entities at work in Fort Dodge.

In its heyday, it housed the Postal Service, Social Security Administration, Internal Revenue Service, Small Business Administration, Mine Safety and Health Administration, a U.S. District Court and the U.S. Marshal’s Service. The local office of former U.S. Rep. Tom Latham was briefly in the building.

By the late 1990s, the fourth floor was empty and the third floor courtroom was rarely used. The Postal Service moved its mail processing work to a new building at 3440 Maple Drive on the east side of town.The Social Security Administration and the other agencies moved into privately owned buildings.

In 2004, the federal government sold the building to Benjamin “Bing” Minerva, of San Diego, California, for $755,000 during an online auction.

Minerva quickly decided that the building was too far away from California for him to manage effectively. He unsuccessfully tried to sell it during a May 24, 2006, auction. When the high bidder, whose name was never revealed, couldn’t close the deal, the property went back on the market.

The Postal Service abruptly closed its customer service facilities in the building at the end of February 2007 during a dispute over who was responsible for paying the utility bills. Government officials claimed Minerva was to pay the bills; Minerva claimed that was the government’s responsibility.

Postal officials moved the retail counter to the mail processing facility. The mailboxes were first moved to a storefront in the 600 block of Central Avenue before being moved to the Maple Drive location.

After the Postal Service left, the building sat empty until Frye Property Management, of Fort Dodge, bought it from MInerva in December 2008. Frye Property Management sold it to Harvest Baptist Church in 2011.