United States Post Office (Granville, New York)

The U.S. Post Office is the local branch of the U.S. Postal Service in Granville, New York. It is located in the center of town on Main Street (NY 149). The brick building serves the ZIP code 12832, which includes the Village and the adjacent areas in the Town of Granville.

It was built in the mid-1930s and was a job creation measure to alleviate the consequences of the world economic crisis. As with a number of other post offices in small towns from this era, which were designed by Louis A. Simon, it was designed in the architectural style of the Colonial Revival. From other post offices in this style in New York State, it differs by the hochgezogenene parapet to the gable - this feature is only found in two other post offices in the state - and by the asymmetrical arrangement of the front facade, which was very unusual at that time for a post office this size was. It was founded in 1989 as the first ( and still only 2009) included building Granville in the National Register of Historic Places.

Building

The post office is located on a small parcel of land on the south side of Main Street. The neighborhood consists entirely of two-story Gewerbebaute. There is a small passage between the post office and the eastern neighboring building and a driveway leads to the west of the post office to the small parking lot behind the building. The post office is off the road a little further set back as the neighboring buildings, so plants and a flagpole find space.

The building comprises five to six yokes and has one and a half floors. It is a steel frame to a raised pedestal slate at the front as well as artificial stones on the sides and rear facade. In the facade of brick is set out in stretcher bond. The gable roof is slated gables are covered by a stone coping, high masonry bricks on the parapet of the gable fooled existing fireplaces ago. The rear wing has four bays and a flat roof, under which there is a loading dock is located.

The north facade has a recessed entrance in an archway arranged asymmetrically in the western yoke. It is decorated with a keystone and fighters stones of marble. The gate input itself is located on a level with the sidewalk and has a coffered ceiling. Light is let in through skylights.

The window in the easternmost bay is smaller than the three middle window. The lintels are built of brick, keystones and sills are marble. Above is the inscription "UNITED STATES POST OFFICE" and including slightly smaller " GRANVILLE, NEW YORK". A bar made ​​of marble sets the lower part of the facade from optically to the small, barred windows at the level of the mezzanine. About these windows again is the person sitting on corbels cornice.

The entrance opens into a vestibule, whose steps lead to a further double wooden door and the underlying main hall. This is perpendicular to the main entrance. The floor is covered with stone tiles, wainscoting is up to the level of the switch performed accordingly. The ceiling is plastered and has molded cornices. The switch wooden furniture and the information board are original.

History

The first post office in Granville in 1797 opened after the Village was settled on the border of New York to Vermont. Like many other post offices in smaller towns it was in the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century in rented premises other buildings.

The United States Congress approved in 1931 the construction of 136 new post offices in New York, to alleviate the direct effects of the global economic crisis. Under these approved new buildings was also the post office in Granville. However, it was only from 1935, when it replaced a number of shops that had previously been found on the property. A building contractor from Maryland erected the building at a cost of U.S. $ 75,000 ( inflation-adjusted 1.323 million U.S. dollars). It was completed the following year and opened.

Louis A. Simon, the former chief architect of the United States Department of the Treasury, the building was designed in the style of Colonial Revival, which was standard for post offices in smaller towns since the beginning of the 20th century. In Granville Simon turned the style in an unusually ornate and atypical manner. In addition to features such as Eingangstorbogen and cornice there is the raised parapet only in two other post offices in the state, in Dobbs Ferry in the south of the state and in Hudson Falls close. Although used Simon and other architects of the Treasury Department's asymmetrical facades sometimes to smaller buildings with only three bays, such as in Whitehall to the north; However, the post office Granville is the only one from this period with five bays in New York.