{"nrhp_refnum":"85000132","name":"US Post Office-San Pedro Main","other_names":["San Pedro Main Post Office"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"839 S. Beacon St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"San Pedro","county":"Los Angeles County","state":"CA","lat":33.73632140600006,"lon":-118.28051905299998,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1985-01-11","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Art","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A three-story reinforced concrete combined post office and federal office building at 839 S. Beacon Street in San Pedro, Los Angeles, California, built between October 1935 and September 1936 to a design by the Office of the Supervising Architect under Louis A. Simon.","why_significant":"The nomination argues it is the purest example of the Starved Classical style in the thematic group of California post offices. It retains complete architectural integrity in its front elevation and public lobby. It also contains a 1937 federally commissioned mural by Fletcher Martin. It was judged exceptionally significant despite being under 50 years old.","narrative":"San Pedro's main post office is a three-story reinforced concrete building on Beacon Street, built between October 1935 and September 1936. It was designed by the Office of the Supervising Architect under Louis A. Simon in the restrained Starved Classical style, with ornament limited to fluting cast into the front walls and piers. Inside, the public lobby keeps its terrazzo floor, polished brass trim, bronze fixtures, marble kickboards and glass-topped desks. A mural by Fletcher Martin, painted in 1937 for the Treasury Department's Section of Fine Arts, covers the lobby's west wall and shows an idealized view of the Indian communities that first occupied the San Pedro area. The building was listed as an exceptionally well-preserved example of the large combined post office and federal office building of the mid-1930s to early 1940s, and as the purest Starved Classical example in its thematic group, even though it was not yet fifty years old.","period_of_significance":"1900-","architect_builder":"OSA, Louis A. Simon","architectural_style":"Starved Classical","criteria":[],"status_note":"Occupied and in use as a government post office; in excellent structural condition, well maintained, with only minor visible alterations such as a fire escape on the north elevation.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:54:28.108504-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_CA/85000132.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/85000132/d94decd21f-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/85000132/d94decd21f-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Los Angeles","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:San_Pedro_Post_Office_Building.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Los Angeles</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:San_Pedro_Post_Office_Building.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/123857625","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Post_Office_(San_Pedro,_Los_Angeles)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7891042"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/california/los-angeles-county/us-post-office-san-pedro-main-85000132/"}