Main Post Office and Federal Building

Completed in 1932, this two-story post office and federal building at 201 13th Street in Oakland is a Neo-Classical design in the Beaux Arts tradition. Granite and terra cotta sheathe its brick walls, and colossal Corinthian columns flank the entrances at the Jackson and Alice Street ends, giving them the look of a temple front. Inside, a wide public corridor has a barrel-vaulted ceiling, light gray Columbian marble walls and floors, and cast aluminum tables and light fixtures. It was Oakland's first building constructed as a post office, replacing an outdated 1891 facility at Seventeenth Street and Broadway. Local groups pressed for it from 1921, and the authorizing bill was signed in 1928. Construction began in 1931, when Depression unemployment made the project important to the local economy. Government architects prepared the plans under William Arthur Newman during James Wetmore's tenure as Supervising Architect. It was the first building in the area later designated the Civic Center, which became the city's main district for government buildings.