Louis A Simon - Supervising Architect Sites

A new annex was constructed for the Bureau of Engraving and Printing in 1936-38. The building was authorized by Congress in 1935 for $6.3 million, but the funds flowed through the Public Works Administration (PWA).   The Treasury Department's Procurement Division handled the design through its architecture office, put out the contract and supervised construction, which was carried out by the John McShain Co. (Evening Star, 1936). In its 1936 fiscal year report, the U.S. Treasury noted: “On August 12, 1935, Congress authorized the construction of a new annex to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing to be located on a site...

Tillamook City Hall was originally constructed as Tillamook's post office. The building was completed in 1942 and houses a New Deal mural inside. The site for the new federal post office, located across from the Tillamook County Courthouse, was acquired in 1940. As such, it contributed to a civic center within the community. The State Historic Preservation Office's evaluation of the building and its significance describes it in the following way: "It represents the federal presence in the community and was the community's first federally constructed post office. The building is of standardized design, typical of the era. The design exhibits the...

This neoclassical style building was competed in 1939 and housed the U.S. Court House and Post Office. Today, it is owned by the Hammond Baptist Church and is used as their main office.

The Federal Building and Post Office in San Pedro, CA was built in 1936 by the Treasury Department.  It also formerly served as a U.S. Customs Office. The design is a good example of the Moderne style of architecture.   The extensive use of marble, bronze and milk glass are typical of the Art Deco style of decoration of the time. The basket weave pattern of floor tile surrounded by black marble gives the effect of rugs on a marble floor. Some of the original bronze lamps and ink wells survive at the public writing desks. The mural over the wall at...

"This large structure covering an entire city block was built by the Public Buildings Branch of the Procurement Division to house various Federal offices in San Francisco. It houses the Navy Department, Veterans' Bureau, War Department, Interior Department, the Weather Bureau, Forest Service, Public Roads Administration, Civil Service Commission, and the Employment Compensation Commission. The building is fireproof, constructed entirely of steel and reinforced concrete with the exterior walls faced with stone, and is designed to resist earthquake shocks. The lobbies have marble floors and walls, and the corridors have tile floors, marble base, and plaster walls. The project was...

The Gerald R. Ford House Office Building was constructed during the New Deal as the Federal General Office Building No. 1 (GOB #1).  It was built just behind the new Social Security and Railroad Retirement Board buildings, which were underway at the time. Its original purpose was to house 7000 employees of the U.S. Census Bureau for the census of 1940. Congress appropriated $3.5 million for the building in 1938 and it was constructed in record time in 1939-40 (FWA 1940). It provided one-half million square feet of office space. President Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal drove an unprecedented increase in federal employees...

"The Federal Office Building in Laconia, New Hampshire, was designed by Louis A. Simon, Supervising Architect for the Public Works Branch of the Treasury Department's Procurement Division. Conceived and built during the Depression era as the United States Forestry Building, the cornerstone for the building was laid in 1939, and the building was dedicated soon after in July 1940. The building, authorized under the New Deal's colossal building program, is designed in a stripped Classical Revival style and is representative of one of several styles preferred by government architects in the 1930s."

The eastern half of the former General Services Administration Regional National Capital Office Building was built under the New Deal in 1933-35.   The Public Works Administration (PWA) contributed $1,750,000 towards the project and the Treasury Department paid the rest, $850,000. The purpose of the expansion was to add ~400,000 square feet of space for a consolidated home of the Treasury Department's Procurement Division, whose workers had been spread out across several buildings in the District. Originally meant to be an addition to the Procurement Division's building across 8th Street to the west, completed in 1932, the addition was simply integrated into the...

The U.S. Government Publishing Office (USGPO) is a four building complex, which was called the Government Printing Office until the name was changed to the Government Publishing Office in 2014.  The USGPO warehouse, also known as Building #4 of the complex, was constructed in 1936-38 by the Charles H. Tomkins Co. under a $1,042,930 contract with the Procurement Division of the U.S. Treasury.   The Treasury had long been responsible for all government (non-military) buildings and a new Procurement Division was created in 1933 by the incoming Franklin Roosevelt Administration to coordinate all such activities.  The design of the building was done under...

The northern L-shape wing of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) building, at Pennsylvania Avenue and 10th Street NW, was constructed in 1934-1935.   The existing IRS building (square and containing four court yards) had been built in 1930, as part of the push to develop the Federal Triangle. According to the General Services Administration, "The second phase of building construction took place between 1934 and 1937 in response to repeal of the 18th Amendment (Prohibition) which dramatically increased the workload of the Division of Distilled Spirits." The Public Works Administration (PWA) provided the funding of $2,300,000 and construction was overseen by the Treasury Department...

The old main post office in Arlington VA was constructed in 1937 by the Treasury Department to consolidate postal services in the surrounding area. "As the first federal building in the County, the post office provided a focal point for establishing the identity of Arlington and unifying the area’s disparate suburban villages into a single community." (Arlington webpage) The architecture is Federalist/Colonial/Georgian Revival – not unusual for East Coast post offices built during the New Deal – and was designed by the team under Louis A. Simon, Supervising Architect of the Treasury. It features a central domed portico flanked by tripartite...

The modern campus of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) was established at Bethesda MD during the New Deal.  It included the first laboratory of the newly-created National Cancer Institute, as well (the NCI came under the NIH in 1944). The NIH is the leading medical science agency of the United States, performing its own research and funding research at universities and hospitals around the country. The NIH was launched in 1930 as a reorganization and enhancement of government-funded medical research efforts that date back to 1887. NIH’s original location (1930-1938) was at 25th and E streets NW, Washington DC.   In...

The New Deal years 1933 to 1941 were arguably the best years in the history of the National Zoo, thanks to the many projects undertaken by the Roosevelt Administration.  Labor was provided by work-relief programs — the Civil Works Administration (CWA), Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA), and Works Progress Administration (WPA) — and construction was funded by the Public Works Administration (PWA) and, later, the Federal Works Agency (FWA). New Deal agencies built or improved virtually every aspect of the zoo.  The PWA paid for a new elephant house and small mammal house and an addition to the bird house.  It funded...

The south wing of the Bird House at National Zoo – which had been left off the original building in 1927-28 – was constructed in 1936 with funding from the Public Works Administration (PWA). It completed the the imposing, Romanesque style Bird House, adding space for more cages/exhibits and housing the Bird Resource Center. The PWA contributed around $1 million to several zoo improvement projects in the 1930s, including new elephant house, a small mammal house and an addition to the bird house.  The separate cost of the Bird House addition is undetermined.  The original building had been design by Albert Harris and the...

The Machine and Carpenter Shops building was constructed at the National Zoo in 1936-37, with a grant from the Public Works Administration (PWA). The PWA paid for four buildings and other improvements to the zoo in the 1930s. In 1938, the National Zoo reported that “fiscal year 1937 was probably the most outstanding in the history of the Zoo.  The construction under the Public Works Administration grant of $892,920 was completed. These improvements include… machine and carpenter shops...”  The separate cost of the Machine & Carpenter Shops building is not specified in the reports. The Zoo report described the new utility building as...

The Public Works Administration (PWA) funded the building for a restaurant at National Zoo, constructed in 1939-40.  The restaurant building still serves the public today as the Mane Cafe. In its 1939 fiscal year report, the National Zoo noted: “The Public Works Administration allotted the sum of $90,000 for the much-needed restaurant building at the Park. Work on plans for this building was commenced immediately by the Supervising Architect, Procurement Division, Treasury Department, and in a short time it is expected that bids will be let and construction begun. This will be a marked improvement in the service that the Zoo gives...

The historic Plaza Station post office—originally main post office—in downtown Orange, California was constructed with federal Treasury Department funding. Note that it is sometimes mis-attributed to the Works Progress Administration (WPA). "In 193, the built a new downtown post office. It served as Orange's main office until the current headquarters on Tustin Avenue opened in 1971. Today the downtown office is known as the Plaza Station."

The post office in Audubon was completed in 1940 with funds provided by the Treasury Department. It is also the site of Virginia Snedecker's 1942 mural, "Audubon's Trip down the Ohio and Mississippi--1820," completed with funds provided by the Treasury Section of Fine Arts and viewable in the lobby.

The post office in Berwyn was constructed in 1940 with funds and labor provided by the Federal Works Agency (FWA). It was constructed under the supervision of architect Louis A. Simon and engineer Neal A. Melick.

The post office in Brookfield was constructed in 1935 under the supervision of architect Louis A. Simon and engineer Neal A. Melick.

Constructed by the US Treasury in 1934.    

The post office in Clarion was completed in 1939 with funds provided by the Treasury Department and with Louis A. Simon as the supervising architect and Neal Melick as the supervising engineer. It is also the site of Paul Faulkner's 1943 mural, "Farm Scene," completed with funds provided by the Treasury Section of Fine Arts and viewable in the lobby.

"The Crawford US Post Office is located at the northwest corner on 2nd and Main Streets in the commercial district of Crawford, Nebraska. It was built in the Moderne style in the late 1930s from standardized blueprints. Included in the listing are three contributing objects: two ornamental lampposts flanking the staircase to the main entrance and a flagpole. The structure has one story with a basement and measures approximately 60 by 50 feet (18 by 15 m). It is constructed of red brick with a concrete base and topped by a limestone parapet. The main entrance features an aluminum grill...

The Crystal Springs post office building was built in 1940-41 by the US Treasury Department in the Colonial Revival style. Features include twin wooden Tuscan columns on either side of the front doors, wooden vestibule, terrazzo floor, and marble wainscoting.

The De Queen Post Office was constructed in 1940 with Treasury Department funds. The Waymarking site for the post office explains that: "The DeQueen Post Office ...has a similar look to many of the Treasury Department post office buildings. This is a one-story tan brick building which is square, with a hipped roof covered with composition shingles..." It also draws our attention to the concrete cornerstone to the left of the post office entrance that reads: James A. Farley Postmaster General John M. Carmody Federal Works Administrator W. Englebert Reynolds Commissioner of Public Buildings Louis A. Simon Supervising Architect Neal A. Melick Supervising Engineer 1940

Constructed by the Treasury Department in 1936.

The historic post office in Eufaula, Oklahoma was constructed with federal Treasury Department funds. The building was completed in 1939 and is still in use today.

Constructed in 1937 and occupied June 1, 1938 (Save the Post Office). The building is a blond brick Colonial Revival style, similar to many of the post offices constructed during this time period.

The historic branch post office in Hamtramck, Michigan, was constructed in 1935 with Treasury Department funds. The building, which houses multiple examples of New Deal artwork, is still in service.

This New Deal post office was built in 1937. It remains in 'mint condition' to this day, with the interior looking exactly as it did in the 1930s (2017).  The building on is on the National Register of Historic Places (as part of the Helper Historic District) and marked with a cornerstone and a plaque. The plaque mistakenly attributes the building to the WPA, but all post offices were built by the Treasury Department at the time (as the cornerstone clearly states). It contains Jenn Magafan's 1941 mural, "Western Town," painted for the Treasury Section of Fine Arts.

The post office in Hutchinson was completed in 1940 with funds provided by the Treasury Department. Louis A. Simon was the supervising architect and Neal Melick was the supervising engineer. It is also the site of Elsa Jemne's 1942 mural, "The Hutchinson Singers," completed with funds provided by the Treasury Section of Fine Arts and viewable in the lobby.

This one-story Art Moderne style post office was built in 1935. It originally contained a New Deal mural, "White Gold in the Delta." The mural was destroyed in the 1960s.

The Lancaster post office was built in 1941 by the US Treasury Department, as indicated on the cornerstone.   It is a trim, one-story Art Moderne building of a familiar type of the post offices of the New Deal era – but with a distinctive tower at the NE corner.   The interior is virtually unchanged over time and includes a striking mural on the west wall by Jose Moya del Piño.

The Lexington, Massachusetts branch post office was constructed with Treasury Department funds and opened for business in 1938. The building, which houses an example of New Deal artwork, is still in service. The 1937 cornerstone reads: "Henry Morgenthau Jr Secretary of the Treasury James A Farley Postmaster General Louis A Simon Supervising Architect Neal A Melick Supervising Engineer 1937"

Constructed by the Treasury Department in 1935.

Plain building design with a James Farley marker in the ground in front of the building showing that it was constructed by the US Treasury in 1939.

The Martinez downtown post office was constructed by the Treasury Department Office of Procurement for the United States Post Office in 1936-37.  It is a striking one-story Moderne building built of reinforced concrete, with a central entrance and two windows on each side of the facade.   The entrance and central windows are bordered by lovely decorative bas-relief elements and there is a beautiful golden-eagle sculpture over the door. The interior of the post office is in excellent condition, with the original woodwork, metal grills and post boxes.  It also houses a New Deal mural by Hamlin and Dixon at the south...

Constructed by the Treasury Department in 1934.

This New Deal post office in Nazareth was built in 1936. Louis A. Simon served as the Supervising Architect and Neal A. Melick as the Supervising Engineer.

The post office in Orange, Virginia was constructed in 1935 with Treasury Department funds. It is also the site of Arnold Friedman's 1937 mural, "Upland Pastures," painted for the Treasury Section of Fine Arts. Louis A. Simon was the Supervising Architect and Neal A. Melick was the Supervising Engineer.