{"nrhp_refnum":"88002364","name":"US Post Office-Madison Square Station","other_names":["Madison Square Station"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"149--153 E. 23rd St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"New York","county":"Manhattan","state":"NY","lat":40.73974325100005,"lon":-73.98400357599996,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1989-05-11","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Art","Politics/Government","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A two-story granite post office building at 149-153 East 23rd Street in Manhattan, with a rear facade on East 24th Street, designed in 1935 and built 1935-37 by consulting architect Lorimer Rich.","why_significant":"The nomination argues it is an extremely sophisticated example of the stripped-down Classical Revival style of 1930s public buildings and one of the finest postal stations in New York State. It is the most distinguished example of Lorimer Rich's work in the state. It also holds one of the largest collections of Treasury Department-commissioned art in New York State, including exterior bronze reliefs and interior murals.","narrative":"Madison Square Station is a two-story post office on East 23rd Street in Manhattan, two and a half blocks east of Madison Square. Designed in 1935 by consulting architect Lorimer Rich and completed in August 1937, it has a facade of Dakota Mahogany granite with six two-story Doric piers and pilasters framing recessed entrance bays. Five bronze relief panels by Edmond Amateis and Louis Slobodkin, each representing an aspect of communication, sit above the entrances. Inside, a green marble lobby holds eight murals by Kindred McLeary, painted in 1937-39, showing New York scenes such as Park Avenue, Harlem, Broadway and Central Park. The station was one of twelve built in Manhattan in the mid-1930s to ease Depression-era unemployment, and by 1939 it was the busiest in the city. It is valued for its austere classical design, its use of polished granite, and its Treasury-sponsored art. Some interior changes, including new counters and a dropped ceiling, have occurred.","period_of_significance":"1935-7; 1937-9","architect_builder":"Lorimer Rich","architectural_style":"Stripped-down Classical Revival","criteria":[],"status_note":"Occupied and in good condition; exterior retains a very high degree of integrity, while the interior has had some major alterations but retains much of its integrity.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:50:45.072588-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NY/88002364.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/88002364/30bb0274e2-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/88002364/30bb0274e2-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Americasroof at English Wikipedia","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:23postoffice.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Americasroof at English Wikipedia</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:23postoffice.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/75313819","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Post_Office_(Madison_Square_Station)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q6728105"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/new-york/manhattan/us-post-office-madison-square-station-88002364/"}