The General Post Office, also known as the Tariff Commission Building, is a historic building at 700 F Street NW in Washington, D.C., United States. Built in 1839 to a design by Robert Mills and enlarged in 1866 to a design by

Thomas U. Walter Thomas Ustick Walter (September 4, 1804 – October 30, 1887) was an American architect of German descent, the dean of American architecture between the 1820 death of Benjamin Latrobe and the emergence of H.H. Richardson in the 1870s. He was ...

, it is an example of

Greek Revival The Greek Revival was an architectural movement which began in the middle of the 18th century but which particularly flourished in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in northern Europe and the United States and Canada, but a ...

architecture. It was designated a US

National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...

in 1971 for its architecture. and The building has housed the

Hotel Monaco The Kimpton Hotel & Restaurant Group, LLC is a San Francisco, California, based hotel and restaurant brand owned by IHG Hotels & Resorts (IHG) since 2015. Founded in 1981 by Bill Kimpton and led by Chief Executive Officer Mike DeFrino, the group ...

since 2002.

Description

The former General Post Office building occupies an entire city block in central Washington, bounded by 7th and 8th Streets NW, and E and F Streets NW. Built in two major stages, it is composed of two U-shaped structures surrounding a central

courtyard A courtyard or court is a circumscribed area, often surrounded by a building or complex, that is open to the sky. Courtyards are common elements in both Western and Eastern building patterns and have been used by both ancient and contemporary ...

. The southern section, mainly facing E Street, is a

marble Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or dolomite. Marble is typically not foliated (layered), although there are exceptions. In geology, the term ''marble'' refers to metamorpho ...

structure three stories in height, set on a raised basement. Its main facade is nineteen bays wide, with the entrance recessed in an enlarged bay at the center. Bays are articulated by banded piers on the first floor and Corinthian

pilasters In classical architecture, a pilaster is an architectural element used to give the appearance of a supporting column and to articulate an extent of wall, with only an ornamental function. It consists of a flat surface raised from the main wall ...

above. Windows on the second floor are topped by peaked lintels. The northern section has a more elaborate facade fronting F Street, which serves as the main hotel entrance. At its center is a five-bay entrance pavilion, with an arcaded recess above the entrances framed by Corinthian pillars and pilasters. The building's public interior spaces on the south side exhibit characteristics of Robert Mills' design, including

barrel-vaulted A barrel vault, also known as a tunnel vault, wagon vault or wagonhead vault, is an architectural element formed by the extrusion of a single curve (or pair of curves, in the case of a pointed barrel vault) along a given distance. The curves are ...

passageways.

History

The site was originally developed by Samuel Blodget, Jr. (son of Samuel Blodgett), who enlisted James Hoban to design a hotel, which was the largest privately-owned structure in Washington when completed in the early 1800s. The federal government purchased Blodget's hotel in 1810, to house the

US Post Office Department The United States Postal Service (USPS), also known as the Post Office, U.S. Mail, or Postal Service, is an independent agency of the executive branch of the United States federal government responsible for providing postal service in the U. ...

and

US Patent Office The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is an agency in the U.S. Department of Commerce that serves as the national patent office and trademark registration authority for the United States. The USPTO's headquarters are in Alexa ...

. During the

Burning of Washington The Burning of Washington was a British invasion of Washington City (now Washington, D.C.), the capital of the United States, during the Chesapeake Campaign of the War of 1812. It is the only time since the American Revolutionary War that a ...

in the

War of 1812 The War of 1812 (18 June 1812 – 17 February 1815) was fought by the United States of America and its indigenous allies against the United Kingdom and its allies in British North America, with limited participation by Spain in Florida. It ...

William Thornton William Thornton (May 20, 1759 – March 28, 1828) was a British-American physician, inventor, painter and architect who designed the United States Capitol. He also served as the first Architect of the Capitol and first Superintendent of the Un ...

, Superintendent of the Patent Office, convinced British troops to spare the building. Because the

United States Capitol The United States Capitol, often called The Capitol or the Capitol Building, is the Seat of government, seat of the Legislature, legislative branch of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government, which is form ...

had been burned down, the

US Congress The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, composed of a lower body, the House of Representatives, and an upper body, the Senate. It meets in the U.S. Capitol in Washi ...

temporarily met in the building. In 1836, a fireplace accident set the building on fire, destroying thousands of patent models and records. President

Andrew Jackson Andrew Jackson (March 15, 1767 – June 8, 1845) was an American lawyer, planter, general, and statesman who served as the seventh president of the United States from 1829 to 1837. Before being elected to the presidency, he gained fame a ...

sought to rebuild the General Post Office, and Robert Mills designed and oversaw construction, with the new General Post Office completed in 1842. The original building was a U-shape, extending along E Street and part way up 7th and 8th Streets. In 1845,

Samuel Morse Samuel Finley Breese Morse (April 27, 1791 – April 2, 1872) was an American inventor and painter. After having established his reputation as a portrait painter, in his middle age Morse contributed to the invention of a single-wire telegraph ...

opened the first public telegraph office in the General Post Office.

oversaw the building's expansion from 1855 to 1866, when the building was extended and connected along F Street to form a complete rectangle. This expansion was interrupted by the

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government polic ...

, when Union soldiers used the basement as munitions storage. The US Post Office Department moved out in 1897. The US

General Land Office The General Land Office (GLO) was an independent agency of the United States government responsible for public domain lands in the United States. It was created in 1812 to take over functions previously conducted by the United States Department ...

was a tenant from 1897 to 1917. The US National Selective Service Board was a tenant in 1919, and it was here that US Army General

John J. Pershing General of the Armies John Joseph Pershing (September 13, 1860 – July 15, 1948), nicknamed "Black Jack", was a senior United States Army officer. He served most famously as the commander of the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) on the Wes ...

wrote his report on the

American Expeditionary Forces The American Expeditionary Forces (A. E. F.) was a formation of the United States Army on the Western Front of World War I. The A. E. F. was established on July 5, 1917, in France under the command of General John J. Pershing. It fought alo ...

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

. The US Tariff Commission was a tenant from 1932 to 1988, eventually occupying the entire building. The building was vacant from 1988 to 2002, when Michael Stanton Architecture in partnership with the Kimpton Group was selected by the US

General Services Administration The General Services Administration (GSA) is an independent agency of the United States government established in 1949 to help manage and support the basic functioning of federal agencies. GSA supplies products and communications for U.S. gove ...

(GSA) to convert the building into a 184-room hotel, which became the Kimpton Hotel Monaco Washington DC. The Washington Monaco Hotel was honored with the Washington DC Mayor's Award for Historic Preservation, the Business Week / Architectural Record Award, the GSA Heritage Award for Adaptive Use, and the GSA Heritage Award for Conservation and Restoration.

References

External links

*
Kimpton Hotel Monaco DC web site
* {{DEFAULTSORT:General Post Office (Washington, D.C.) National Historic Landmarks in Washington, D.C. Post office buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Washington, D.C. Historic American Buildings Survey in Washington, D.C. Greek Revival architecture in Washington, D.C. Neoclassical architecture in Washington, D.C. Government buildings completed in 1886 Robert Mills buildings

Description

History

See also

References

External links