United States Post Office (Nyack, New York)

The U.S. Post Office Nyack is the branch of the United States Postal Service ZIP code for the 10960, the addition to the Village of Nyack also includes the villages of South Nyack and Upper Nyack. The post office is located on South Broadway in the center of the town and was built in 1932 in neoclassical style. The use of this style is rather rare for post offices in the United States from the interwar period. Several murals in the main hall depict scenes of local history. The building was in 1988 entered in the National Register of Historic Places.

Building

The post office is located on the northwest corner of the intersection of Broadway and Hudson Avenue. The neighborhood consists of a mix of commercial and public buildings as well as residential buildings. Opposite him is on the south side of Hudson Avenue, a three-story brick building series. North of the entrance there is a single house.

The one-story building, earth-colored brick in Flemish Association is built on a projecting out of the ground limestone base. The east facing front consists of a pavilion with five bays and einjöchigen wings at both ends. Limestone has been used for the sills of windows and environments, including the recessed areas above and below the window. The eaves forming a cornice and a parapet of the same material. The inscription UNITED STATES POST OFFICE NYACK NEW YORK 10960 is made ​​up of shiny metal letters on the frieze of the building.

The three bays wide side wings have similarly shaped limestone elements, with the exception of the cornices and recessed surfaces. The four bays exciting rear part ends at the loading dock.

A pair of stairs with railings neoclassical bronze and low stone walls and three-legged light poles lead to the centrally located main entrance. This consists of a simple metal door and glass window with a fighter of similar material. This is set back and is located between two Doric columns and matching pediment. Through a wooden vestibule and a small foyer leads into the main hall with a floor made ​​of terrazzo in a checkerboard pattern and a 230 cm high wall paneling grüngeadertem white marble.

With the exception of the west side cover mural by Jacob Smith Getlar the walls. They depict scenes of local history: see Indian Henry Hudson when he travels up the river with the ship Halve Maen, Dutch settlers who build a log house and the meeting of John André with Benedict Arnold. Also preserved are two round tables for postal customers of bronze and glass.

History

The first post office was established in 1835 as the Nyacks part of a shop on a pier on the present territory of Upper Nyack. When the Erie Railroad in 1870 completed in this area, reached the area in the range of New York City for commuters, so that those who came before over the summer, here over the Hudson River built houses in which they lived throughout the year.

The Congress of the United States approved in 1910 a permanent post office in the Village, which was never built. It was approved in 1926 and again, after the beginning of the world economic crisis began in 1931 finally the construction. The following year it was opened.

It was designed under the direction of James Wetmore, who was acting chief architect of the United States Department of the Treasury at the time. Wetmore was actually a lawyer and the former architectural orientation of the department was determined by Louis A. Simon, who in 1935 became the chief architect. The choice in favor of a so strictly designed after the classic style building was unusual at the time. After the First World War, the Treasury Department began in whose area of ​​responsibility the construction of post offices and several other government buildings fell to prefer the newer style of Colonial Revival, particularly in small towns like Nyack is a. Neoclassical style elements were mixed frequently with modern forms and used in larger cities, such as the U.S. Post Office Troy.

The murals Smiths were added in 1936. He had intended to cover all the walls with such images and to be supplemented by a series of small paintings above the switch bays. If this were ever completed and installed, you removed it since then.

The interior of the building was changed only by the addition of a modern heating system and mailboxes. Outside has a new door replaces the original double bronze doors and a wheelchair ramp was built to meet the accessibility requirements.

U.S. Senator Charles Schumer and Representative House of Representatives Eliot Engel introduced in 2004 a legislative initiative on the way to the post office in honor of Waverly Brown, Edward O'Grady II and Peter Paige was renamed. The two local police officers and guards were killed in 1981 by members of the Black Liberation Army, as those in the nearby Nanuet Mall a robbery perpetrated on a cash in transit vehicle of Brink's.