{"nrhp_refnum":"73002257","name":"U.S. General Post Office","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"8th Ave. between 31st and 33rd Sts.","address_restricted":false,"city":"New York","county":"Manhattan","state":"NY","lat":40.76046083400007,"lon":-73.98380673099996,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1973-01-29","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A four-story, steel-framed, granite-faced federal post office building on 8th Avenue between 31st and 33rd Streets in Manhattan, New York City, built from 1910 to 1913.","why_significant":"The design was won in competition by McKim, Mead & White, the firm that also designed the demolished Penn Station, which was its companion piece. Its monumental size and long colonnade make it an example of the classical \"City Beautiful\" movement. It is freestanding and designed to be seen from all sides, and it remains well suited to its original postal purpose.","narrative":"Occupying the equivalent of two city blocks on Eighth Avenue between 31st and 33rd Streets in Manhattan, this four-story post office was built between 1910 and 1913. Its steel frame is clad in smooth granite ashlar. A long Corinthian colonnade forms a loggia twenty-two feet above the street, reached by thirty-one steps. The columns once matched the main facade of the old Penn Station. The frieze carries the well-known quotation from Herodotus about couriers and their appointed rounds. McKim, Mead & White won the design commission in competition and also designed Penn Station, demolished in 1964, which was the building's companion piece. The scale, the sweeping colonnade and the pairing with another immense structure place it within the classical City Beautiful movement. The building is freestanding and was meant to be seen from all sides, with the colonnade theme repeated as pilasters on the other elevations. It remains in use as a post office and is described as in excellent, unaltered condition.","period_of_significance":"20th Century; begun 1910, completed 1913","architect_builder":"McKim, Mead & White","architectural_style":"Classical \"City Beautiful\" style with Corinthian colonnade","criteria":[],"status_note":"Still used as a post office; condition listed as excellent, unaltered, and on its original site.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:50:40.001593-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NY/73002257.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/73002257/03eb99aa26-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/73002257/03eb99aa26-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY 2.0","author":"ajay_suresh","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:James_A._Farley_Building_(51878872365).jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">ajay_suresh</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY 2.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:James_A._Farley_Building_(51878872365).jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/75320010","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_A._Farley_Building","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q2466300"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/new-york/manhattan/u-s-general-post-office-73002257/"}