Golden Era Post Offices

[Atomic Glee]

Yes, a bit of an odd thread perhaps, but still might be nifty.

As some of you who know me already know, I'm an architecture geek, especially Golden Era architecture - the Art Deco, Moderne, and other styles popular in this era. One of the types of buildings that often got amazing examples of Golden Era style were '30s Post Offices, and having recently taken some shots of our own example here in Fort Worth, I thought I'd share.

The downtown Fort Worth Post Office was built in 1933 on Lancaster Avenue, one of the (at the time) busiest and most vibrant streets in downtown. Designed by prolific local architect Wyatt C. Hedrick as part of a complex also featuring a stunning Art Deco train station and rail warehouse, the Post Office is a mixture of Beaux Arts and Classical styles. It has remained a functioning, busy Post Office ever since its opening - I have a PO Box there, in fact. It features incredible details on the exterior, and an absolutely stunning interior.

Some pics follow. This first pic was taken by John Roberts, webmaster of Architecture in Downtown Fort Worth. The rest were taken by me.

This second pic shows the Post Office in relation to the other two members of the complex, the Texas & Pacific terminal (tall building on left) and the T&P warehouse (in the distance beyond the Post Office). The reason for the ugly construction is that Fort Worth is undoing the mistakes of '60s and '70s "urban renewal" planners who widened Lancaster Avenue from a pedestrian-friendly four-lane road surrounded by historic buildings to an eight-lane mammoth surrounded by parking lots and dwarfed by a horrible interstate overpass. The overpass has been rerouted, and Lancaster is shrinking from its ugly eight-lane layout to its traditional '30s four-lane layout, featuring a return of street parking, many trees, and a median with a series of glass & light sculptures. The old T&P Terminal has been opened as a loft condo building (and also remains a functioning train station), a new 500-foot Omni hotel & condo building is going up across Lancaster to the north, and the land formerly occupied by the other four lanes of traffic is being returned to developers wishing to building pedestrian-friendly mixed-use buildings. In essence, taking the area back to its '30s look, and completely undoing the misguided "future" of the '60s.

The Post Office features intricately detailed lion heads, cow heads, and Longhorn skulls atop its columns.

Eagles and griffons adorn the entrances.

The grand lobby, which runs the length of the building.

The ceiling. Can you imagine anybody today creating such astonishing beauty for a Post Office?

 

[Atomic Glee]

Typical PO Box.

Typical light fixture.

How about your town?

 

[Atomic Glee]

Here's a pic of the Post Office shortly after opening in the early '30s, and a look at the Lancaster neighborhood before the modernists got their hands on it:

 

[Atomic Glee]

And this image shows the Post Office as it will fit in to the reborn '30s/'40s layout Lancaster Avenue:

 

[happyfilmluvguy]

All I want to say is, I wish my post office looked like even half of that.

 

[Sefton]

Why would anyone want to send e-mail when you can take a letter to that beautiful Post Office! :eusa_clap

 

[Atomic Glee]

It's truly remarkable how far Post Offices have fallen from the Golden Era. Compare the above to your average postwar Post Office - it's inconceivable that anybody would build such a magnificent structure today to house a Post Office. And people wonder why we love the Golden Era - their sense of style permeated every little part of their lives.

 

[Harp]

Post Office Bldg

Thanks for those great pics! Chicago still has a few gorgeous
post office gems around, and the main rail hub, Union Station remains
standing. Unfortunately, LaSalle Street Station was torn down some
years ago to provide locale for the new Stock Exchange; however, the
old LSS can be seen in the Chicago-based film, 'The Sting.'

 

[Atomic Glee]

Ah, the train stations are another great stop in the Golden Era.

The train station here in Fort Worth, attached to the Post Office, designed by the same architect, went in a different direction - the Zigzag Moderne school of Art Deco. The results were, well, spectacular:

Here she is during cleanup of the exterior right before the lofts opened.

Now, our commuter rail, the Trinity Railway Express, makes the T&P its home, and the upper floors have just opened as loft condos:

http://www.texasandpacificlofts.com/

 

[Mike in Seattle]

The old main p.o. in Long Beach, CA was very much like the interiors you showed. Marble floors and walls, lots of wood and brass. I don't know if it's the same today, but that's how it was about a dozen years ago when I moved north. Our neighborhood station, both in Long Beach and here in Renton are the typical 60's glass and formica and pressboard. I'll have to make it a point to check out the downtown (30's era) p.o.'s in downtown Renton & Seattle. I've seen some really cute, small, 20's & 30's era p.o.'s still in operation in some of the smaller towns around here. I'll have to take some pictures because many still have the 30's / 40's look and feel to them.

 

[up196]

The Texas & Pacific

Thanks for posting the pics of the T&P Building. My father hired out as a Fireman (on the locomotive, not the truck) for the T&P in 1944 and worked for some time in the Arlington area, on a switch job at the North American plant. And his father was with the T&P from 1913 'till 1946. I'm sure they both knew their way around that building . . . Tom

 

[Harp]

T&P Bldg

WOWWWWW!!!!:eusa_clap

 

[Tony in Tarzana]

Kevin, great pictures! Fort worth sounds very tempting!

...how's the job market?

 

[Air Boss]

Beautiful

Buidlings and pictures. Thanks for sharing them. I have enjoyed looking at the pictures you have posted from your local area. If ever I find myself in the DFW area on business I have a bunch of places I must see.

 

[Atomic Glee]

WOWWWWW!!!!:eusa_clap

Indeed! We still have a very nice assortment of Golden Era Art Deco buildings in and around downtown. There's a gorgeous Zigzag Moderne office building, the Sinclair Building, a few blocks away that has a very old-fashioned barber shop in the lobby, which is where I get my hair cut. The barber shop is the first door on the right in the lobby pic.

 

[Sefton]

Imagine living in one of those lofts...I'd feel right at home walking through that deco lobby in my fedora and suit! There'd probably be guys in ballcaps and flip-flops trying to bust up my dream but I'd just ignore them!lol

 

[Atomic Glee]

Imagine living in one of those lofts...I'd feel right at home walking through that deco lobby in my fedora and suit! There'd probably be guys in ballcaps and flip-flops trying to bust up my dream but I'd just ignore them!lol

What's even niftier is that next to that lobby (still in the building), there's an old diner from 1931 that hasn't been used for decades and has been virtually untouched, and the loft people say they're planning on cleaning it up and reopening it at some point in the future.

 

[McPeppers]

Well its a different era but here's the old U.S. Post Office and Courthouse in Lafayette Square, New Orleans. It is now home to the U.S. Court of Appeals.

From their site:

John Minor Wisdom U.S. Court of Appeals Building
600 Camp Street, New Orleans, LA 70130
Architect: Hale & Rogers
Constructed: 1909 - 1915
Nat'l Register ID #: 74000937
GSA Building #: LA0035ZZ
PDF history


I'll go snap some pics soon. Just gettin this out here

 

[Harp]

Golden Era Style

What's even niftier is that next to that lobby (still in the building), there's an old diner from 1931 that hasn't been used for decades and has been virtually untouched, and the loft people say they're planning on cleaning it up and reopening it at some point in the future.

Thank-you for this glimpse of past/present Ft Worth.
Chicago retains much of the Art Deco Golden era, but due to an
eclectic architectural mix-mash of masterpiece design and slap-dash
steel and glass; especially today's blah construction, separating the
wheat from chaff can becomes a sore chore. We could take a lesson
from Texas.

 

[Tony in Tarzana]

If you ever get to the Big Island of Hawaii for a visit, check out the post office/federal building in Hilo. It's quite an imposing edifice for a sleepy little town. I wish I had pictures... gotta go hunt for some.