The Postal Square Building (formerly the City Post Office) served as the main

post office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letters and parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post offices may offer additional se ...

for the city of Washington, D.C., from the building's completion in 1914 to 1986. It now houses the

National Postal Museum The National Postal Museum, located opposite Union Station in Washington, D.C., United States, covers large portions of the Postal history of the United States and other countries. It was established through joint agreement between the United ...

, the

Bureau of Labor Statistics The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) is a unit of the United States Department of Labor. It is the principal fact-finding agency for the U.S. government in the broad field of labor economics and statistics and serves as a principal agency of ...

, and offices of the

United States Senate The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and po ...

. Architect

Daniel Burnham Daniel Hudson Burnham (September 4, 1846 – June 1, 1912) was an American architect and urban designer. A proponent of the '' Beaux-Arts'' movement, he may have been, "the most successful power broker the American architectural profession has ...

designed the building in the

Beaux-Arts style Beaux-Arts architecture ( , ) was the academic architectural style taught at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, particularly from the 1830s to the end of the 19th century. It drew upon the principles of French neoclassicism, but also incorporat ...

—the same style Burnham used for the neighboring

Union Station A union station (also known as a union terminal, a joint station in Europe, and a joint-use station in Japan) is a railway station at which the tracks and facilities are shared by two or more separate railway companies, allowing passengers to ...

. Construction for the Postal Square Building began in 1911 on a lot near the

Capitol A capitol, named after the Capitoline Hill in Rome, is usually a legislative building where a legislature meets and makes laws for its respective political entity. Specific capitols include: * United States Capitol in Washington, D.C. * Numerous ...

. Planning began with a 1901 proposal by the Senate Parks Commission. The commission called for three buildings to mark the northern end of the Capitol complex. While the first two buildings in the plan, Union Station and the Postal Square Building, were completed early in the 20th century, the 1901 plan would not be fully implemented until the completion of the Thurgood Marshall Federal Judiciary Building in 1992. A major renovation from 1929 to 1935 expanded the building for increased mail processing and service capacity. By the 1950s, renovations had removed many of the Beaux-Arts features of the building. The main hall and lobby area only showed traces of their former grandiose design with modernist elements replacing the Beaux-Arts style. The building received another major renovation in the early 1990s, during which the original appearance of the lobby and main hall area was restored. The

moved into the building in 1993 following the renovations. The Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Capitol City Brewing Company also moved into the building during the 1990s. (Capitol City Brewing Company closed in 2011 to make room for an expansion of the National Postal Museum.)

Gallery

File:Dc city post office foyer habs 1989 sw entrance lobby.jpg, Southwest entrance lobby in 1989 showing some elements of the original design such as the columns and modified

coffer A coffer (or coffering) in architecture is a series of sunken panels in the shape of a square, rectangle, or octagon in a ceiling, soffit or vault. A series of these sunken panels was often used as decoration for a ceiling or a vault, also ...

ing File:Dc city post office main hall before restoration.jpg, The main hall and lobby area before the restoration; The ceiling has been lowered, and the hall narrowed. File:Postal Square Building from Columbus Circle HABS 1989.jpg, Postal Square Building (left) from Columbus Circle with Union Station to the right

References

{{reflist Government buildings completed in 1914 Beaux-Arts architecture in Washington, D.C. Buildings of the United States government in Washington, D.C. Office buildings in Washington, D.C. Post office buildings in Washington, D.C.

Gallery

See also

References