Helen Wills Playground
Up For Sale?
The National Trust for Historic Preservation has weighed in on the controversy over closure of hundreds of historic Post Offices, many of them of New Deal provenance and/or containing New Deal artworks. According the Trust’s Press Release, there is “lack of a transparent and uniform national process from the Postal Service — one that follows federal preservation laws when considering disposal of these buildings — is needlessly placing the future of many historic post office buildings in doubt.” Of the approximately 9,000 buildings owned by the Postal Service, about 2,500 are either on the National Register of Historic Places or eligible to be listed due to their historical significance. A search of the National Register shows 869 post offices currently listed, most no longer active. A preliminary review suggests there are over 300 currently active post offices on the National Register, according to Steve Hutkins of Save the Post Office. For more on this story, see the June 6 post on Save the Post Office.