United States Post Office (Saratoga Springs, New York)

The U.S. Post Office Saratoga Springs is in charge of Saratoga Springs, New York branch of the United States Postal Service and is located at the intersection of Broadway (U.S. 9/NY 29/NY 50) and Church Street (NY 9N) in the city center. It is a brick building in neo-classical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century by James Knox Taylor, the chief architect of the United States Department of the Treasury. The Post Office serves the ZIP Code 12866, which the City Saratoga Springs is covered.

At the time of its construction, the post office had one of the most magnificent lobbies of all post offices in the state. Two murals, which depict the local trotting track were added in the 1930s. The lobby has been changed since then, although slightly, but the original design and condition of the building is sufficient to receive a lot, so it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989. Since 1978, the building was a contributing property of the Broadway Historic District.

Building

The post office is a little bit of Broadway reset. Some tall trees and a garden area is located between the Geheweg and the road. The post office is one of four noteworthy at this bustling intersection. About the Broadway away is the town hall, which is built in the Italianate style. Diagonally opposite is the massive, ornate Ainsworth Building, and on the other side of Church Street is the built in 1916 at the Beaux - Arts building of the Adirondack Trust Company, with its marble facade.

The building is a single-storey flat roof building with three to four bays. The facade is designed in yellow bricks on a base of granite processed. Both marble and limestone were used for decoration. Above the windows runs around the building an ornament series in which alternating egg - and arrow-shaped elements made ​​of limestone. Above is the entablature with a frieze, which is designed in a geometric pattern of red and yellow stones back. The cornice is serrated, intervening with simple frame and flat panels. The low roof parapet has a limestone wall crown and, to a slightly elevated section above the main leaf-like corbels.

The center yoke on the east side stands out. There is a semicircular arc whose flat-shaped Archivolte is supported by free-standing Doric columns of veined and polished marble. A sunken bronze plaque contains windows in the upper part and the doors of the main entrance at the bottom. Stairs made of granite with a centrally disposed bronze railings lead up there. The original heavy bronze doors are still there, but was functionally replaced by modern aluminum doors. A Mäanderornament framed doors, and above it there is the inscription POST OFFICE.

The flanking windows and the eastern bays of the north and south facades are similar in design, except for the columns, which are based on a balustrade. The other windows on the north and south sides of the building are set back, the even window sills are supported by corbels. Your bows have windows with star-shaped set wooden rungs. A small vertical window is located between the eastern, protruding yoke and the next. On the south side a ramp rises indignant and allows access to the building at this point. There is an open loading dock, which occupies a portion of the back on the north side.

Inside the lobby has a 4.3 m high ceiling with a plaster which is arranged in the middle of the upper light from lead glass, which is bent to correspond to the angle of the back wall. The walls themselves are composed of recessed arches, at the upper end of a cornice sits. The Eingangstorbogen has a similarly designed environment. On both sides of the vestibule itself mural by Guy Pene du Bois are titled in the Saratoga Racing Season ( German: " Saratoga in the racing season ").

The floor is a modern fitted carpets; a white marble base and a marble paneling of green marble surround some of the lobby. A three-meter- high partition with post check-in counters divides in half the space. This switch windows are located on the north side of the room.

History

Saratoga Springs had a post office, since the founder Gideon Putnam here in 1802 opened the first holiday hotel. The first two post offices were housed in the premises of a local businessman. Later in the 19th century, it was housed in an office building, which as I was before the two shops on Broadway, the main street of Saratoga Springs. The land at the present site was at the beginning of the 20th century, purchased at a purchase price of nearly $ 125,000 ( adjusted for inflation 3,630,000 U.S. dollars).

It was one of the last building, which was planned by James Knox Taylor, the former chief architect of the United States Department of the Treasury. He had previously established the neoclassicism as the former preferred architectural style for public buildings in order to reflect the enthusiasm of the founding fathers of the United States for classical ideals. The post office in Saratoga Springs shares the nature of his arch windows with two other post offices in the State of New York ( Johnstown and Ithaca ), but the touch of neo, which expresses itself in the columns and ornaments, is found only in a further post office in New York, the post office in Olean, which originated around the same time. Both features make it harmonize with the other buildings at the intersection, since both the Town Hall and the Ainsworth Building similar inspired by the Italian Renaissance style characteristics and be the bank building on the adjacent corner of Church Street is also designed in a classical manner.

At the time of opening the lobby of the building was one of the most finely decorated switch halls of a post office in the state. This impression was later affected by the removal of switch series, as a new, modern partition was drafted.

The wall paintings date from the years 1936-1937 and were within the Treasury Relief Arts Programs added. The loading dock was built in 1961 and the modernization of the lobby was 1974. The exterior lighting has been replaced in the meantime. Otherwise, there were no major changes in the building.