Terminal Annex

The U.S. Post Office Los Angeles, Terminal Annex was from 1940 to 1989 the central mail sorting office in Los Angeles. It is located on Alameda Steet near Union Station. The building in the Mission Revival Style was designed by Gilbert Stanley Underwood and in 1985 entered in the National Register of Historic Places.

Construction and inauguration

The Terminal Annex was built in 1939-1940 by the Construction Sarver & Zoss contracting. The building should serve the distribution of all incoming and outgoing mail in Los Angeles. Although so the building was a purpose built, architect Gilbert Stanley tried the Underwood, adjust the architecture of the building of lying on the opposite side of the road in May 1939 Union Station. Originally owned the three-story building two towers and involved some 37,000 square feet of space.

The new building cost three million dollars and was taken in May 1940, with 1632 employees in operation, the daily umschlugen two million items of mail back then. The device, which had opened around the clock, in line with the latest technical standards and was equipped with the then- modern technology and was considered at the time of commissioning as the most advanced and most economical post office in the United States. At the official opening ceremony in June 1940, the postmaster designated the building as a symbol of the achievements of democracy, while the monuments of Europe are laid in ruins ("at a time When the monuments of Europe were, being ground into the dust '. " )

Expansion to increase capacity

Ten years after the completion of the mail volumes had exceeded the capacity of the new building in Los Angeles. Therefore, in 1950 plans were announced to expand the post office for an investment of twelve million dollars, including a five-story terminal building parcel post.

In the 1980s, the expanded capacities were exhausted. The mid-1980s up to 14 million items were handled daily and the complex suffered from lack of space, congestion and inadequate jobs. That is why the postal administration decided in 1984 to a 151 million U.S. dollars expensive new construction in South - Central Los Angeles. After almost 50 years of operation, the main post office was relocated in 1989. The main hall in the ornate lobby remained to the public, however, continue to operate until they, too, was closed in 1995. The Terminal Annex Building was included because of its architectural style in the National Register of Historic Places.

Scandals and incidents

During its period of use as a post office took place in him a series of scandals and incidents, some of the better known were: