Treasury Department Sites

Two-story neo-classical building of granite and limestone was built by the Algeron Blair Construction Company of Montgomery, Alabama out of thirty bids placed for the project. The building features six over six double hung windows sash windows, pedimental entrance, Greek keys on the lintels. A 1974 brick expansion was built to the east. The Algeron Blair Construction Company also built the low-cost housing project called Littlepage Terrace in west Charleston. The construction began in November 1940. The building opened on 22 June 1942. It was limited in height to two stories because of war-time restrictions, but designed to have three additional...

Constructed by the Treasury Department, this building was completed in 1935. Placeography describes the building in detail: "The popular Moderne Art Deco style building uses Mankato’s own Kasota limestone and St. Cloud black granite. The building achieves the vertical emphasis typical of the Art Deco style, despite being extremely horizontal, with a striking pattern of three-story window units with decorative relief panels (Koutsky, 2002). Approximately 500 to 700 local laborers and carpenters were summoned to construct the monumental building (Russell, 2003)." Of this building, "Postmaster General James Farley said ... 'Magnificent buildings are memorials of the strength and glory of a...

Dedicated in 1933.=, the historic main post office in Redlands, California was constructed with federal funds.

The main post office in Santa Barbara was constructed by the Treasury Department in 1936. The lobby contains a set of bas-relief murals and remains in its original condition.  

This large post office was constructed with U.S. Treasury Department funding between 1935 and 1937. Note the extensive use of inlaid depictions of postal service, state of the art at the time. Inside, the grillwork is lush as are the center islands where patrons were able to fill out forms, etc.

Formerly Fresno's Main Post Office and subsequently its Downtown Station post office, building presently houses the Fresno United School District Education Center. "The U.S. Post Office building housed the main post office branch, as well as Federal courtroom sand offices, until the mid 1970s. The building is an example of PWA or WPA Modern architecture, which combines elements of classical and modern design. Elements of classicism on this building include the fluted, column-like door surrounds and concrete exterior walls scored to look like masonry blocks, while the asymmetrical plan; spare, straight forms; and minimal ornament reflect modern design ideas. The U.S. Post...

Originally constructed as Treasury Department project and completed in 1935, Philadelphia's large Art Deco 30th St. post office served the community for many years, before being left vacant in 2006. It has since been converted into a modern office building. "In redeveloping the 862,692-square-foot Art Deco style federal building, Brandywine embraced and rejuvenated its pre-Columbian art and architecture-inspired highlights. The Post Office’s ornate public lobby, known as the "Historic Corridor", featuring two entry rotundas with mosaic domes in a Mayan motif, has been fully restored. The domes, each with 99,816 pieces of glass faience tiles in nine different shades of green...

The Reno Main Post Office no longer occupies this building and has moved to a location on Vassar Street.  The original post office (the subject of this post) was sold to a local development group in August 2012 and, after extensive and careful renovations, is now being leased as a "modern workspace" for businesses. "Designed by Frederick DeLongchamps in 1932, this post office is one of the best examples of Art Deco design, specifically Zig-Zag Moderne, in Nevada. MacDonald Engineering constructed the building, with the assistance of the Civil Works Administration (CWA), one of President Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal programs. The...

Stamford's main post office (which was later renamed the Atlantic Street Station post office) was constructed 1916-1917 and was a unique design. Additional improvements were made with federal funding in the 1930s. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) in 1985 and has since been sold to private developers. The NRHP nomination explains: "A major addition was constructed in 1939, to the rear, doubling the size of the facility and providing additional work space. The rear structure is sympathetic in detailing and only slightly less elaborate in exterior ornamentation. At the same time, the lobby was altered...

The historic (and current) main post office in Mount Vernon, New York was originally constructed in 1915. The building received an extension as part of a New Deal project completed in 1937 with federal Treasury Department funds. Work was overseen by contractor Arc Engineering Corp. and consisted of constructing the extension as well as remodeling of the building.

Daniel Rhodes painted this egg tempera mural on plaster in 1939 for the Treasury Section of Fine Arts. It was originally installed in the post office and was restored in 2008. Iowa-born artist Daniel Rhodes painted a number of murals for the federal government during the Great Depression. "Communication by Mail," depicting modern railroad technology, was his last Iowa mural commission. It is one of only three true fresco murals in Iowa. From an article in the Marion Times: The former Marion Post Office on 8th Avenue, was built with WPA funds in 1939. A mural, by Fort Dodge resident, Dan Rhodes, was...

The Martin Luther King, Jr. Civic Center Building was originally constructed for the federal Farm Credit Administration, an agency created by the early New Deal to provide credit to farmers in difficulty and to stimulate investment in the farm sector. It was built between 1938 and 194o, hence started by the Procurement Division of the Treasury Department (which handled federal buildings at the time) and completed by the Public Buildings Administration in the reorganized Federal Works Administration (most of the same staff transferred over to the new administration in the 1939 federal reorganization). The six-story Moderne-style building was designed by noted Berkeley architect,...

Many of the projects of the New Deal involved large scale public works projects that required hundreds of workers. While this type of project was incredibly important to help alleviate widespread unemployment, there was also a belief that the United States should not forsake its cultural heritage. As such, Federal Project Number One was formed as a division of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) to give work to so-called "starving artists," as well as musicians, playwrights, and writers. The Federal Art Project is particularly well known for creating murals in public places across the country. In 1937, artist Umberto Romano...

Mell Hall was constructed as the Clemson post office in 1940; as such its construction was funded by the federal Treasury Department. After postal operations relocated the building became part of the Clemson University campus, and it now serves as Clemson, University's housing office. The building is located just off the southern side of Old Greenville Highway between Riggs Field and Bowman Field.

Brooklyn, New York's Metropolitan Station post office (originally known as Station A) was constructed with Treasury Department funds in 1935-6. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1988, the building is "a two-story, flat roofed brick building with a three bay wide central pavilion flanked by three bay wide wings in the Colonial Revival style."

The Art Moderne Michael J. Dillon U.S. Courthouse in Buffalo, New York was constructed with federal Treasury Department funds. The building was constructed in 1936 and is still in use today.

The historic U.S. Border Inspection Station at Milltown International Bridge in Calais, Maine was constructed with federal Treasury Department funds. The Neo-Classical facility was completed in January 1939. The facility was altered and later replaced in 2014.

The post office in Mineola was built in 1936 under the Public Works Administration (PWA) program and was designed by architects at the U.S. Treasury Department. It continued to be used as a post office until 1998. It is now the Mineola Historical Museum.

This building was originally the post office, but then was repurposed as the Mineola Historical Museum. The oil-on-canvas mural by Bernard Zakheim, entitled "New and Old Methods of Transportation," was funded by the Treasury Section of Fine Arts. From Art Daily, on the occasion of the announcement of its restoration: During the Great Depression, jobs were scarce and rural inhabitants were struggling to come to terms with the explosion of new industries and new forms of transportation. Mineola residents, who at the time were mostly farmers, were trying to catch up with their country, which was rapidly changing from being an agricultural...

The Mission Historical Museum was constructed as the city's post office in 1940. The building houses an example of New Deal artwork.

Phone: 415-453-5279 Access Hours: 8:30-5 M-F, Sat 10-1

This USDA building is a U.S. Treasury project from 1936-37. According to the West Virginia Department of Commerce: “Dedicated in 1937, the USDA building symbolized increased importance of the Department of Agriculture and the Forest Service in the New Deal era. It housed offices for Civilian Conservation Corps projects and local New Deal programs designed to assist rural farmers and woodsmen. The rectangular, three-story, Neo-Classical designed building is constructed of red brick with stone trim. The original grading and landscaping around the exterior of the building was done with CCC labor. Most notable is the woodpaneled interior reception/entrance area where two...

The historic Morgan Park post office in Chicago, Illinois was constructed with federal Treasury Department funds in 1936. The building is still in service.

The historic Morris Heights Station post office in the Bronx, New York was constructed with federal Treasury Department funds in 1936. The building is still in use today.

The Morrisania Station post office of the Bronx, New York (originally constructed as New York, New York's Station T post office in the Bronx) "is a historic post office building located at Morrisania in The Bronx, New York, United States. It was built in 1936, and designed by consulting architect William Dewey Foster for the Office of the Supervising Architect. The building is a two story, five bay wide brick building with a hipped roof and a one bay recessed wing in the Colonial Revival style. It features an arcade of five recessed brick round arches with limestone keystones." (Wikipedia) The...

The historic Mott Haven Station post office in the Bronx on East 139th St. was one of several post offices in the borough constructed with federal Treasury Department funds during the New Deal era. The post office was initially known as New York, New York's Station 'X' until its redesignation as Mott Haven Station on June 1, 1947. This project was implemented by the Public Works Administration, and the building's cornerstone dates an initial stage of construction to 1935. The building is still in service. C.W. Short and R. Stanley-Brown: This postal station is in the Bronx on East 139th Street and serves a territory bounded by the Harlem...

The Municipal Court building in Jackson, Georgia was constructed as the city's post office during the 1930s. This New Deal structure served as the post office until 1995, upon its relocation to East 2nd St. The building also housed an example of New Deal artwork, which was moved to the current post office site upon the post office's relocation.

The historic post office building in Edmond, Oklahoma, now the Edmond Municipal Court and Courthouse, was constructed during the Great Depression with federal Treasury Department funds. The building was completed in 1938.

"The building was constructed in 1933, one of the projects undertaken during President Roosevelt's Depression-era New Deal building campaign. Although remodeled in 1965 to make it wheelchair accessible, it remains relatively unchanged since it was built." (Napa County, 82)

The National Archives building was substantially completed under the New Deal and the central stacks were added with funding from the Public Works Administration (PWA). In 1926, Congress approved $8.7 million for a home for the National Archives. The Public Buildings Commission and Commission on Fine Arts had to approve the site and design, which led to much jostling over where it would fit within the larger plans for a "Federal Triangle" in the center of the city.  As a result, the site was moved twice before the architect, John Russell Pope, was officially appointed by Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon and...

The exterior of the National Archives is graced by sculptures, bas-reliefs and inscriptions. The building above ground was completed under the New Deal by the Treasury Department Office of Procurement, including the sculptures. Congress originally approved a new home for the National Archives in 1928, but construction did not start until late 1931. The foundation was laid and the cornerstone placed by President Herbert Hoover during his last weeks in office. Construction above ground began under President Franklin Roosevelt in 1933 and the exterior was completed in late 1935; an addition with more stacks was finished in 1937. The architect of the...

A federal Treasury Department-funded construction, the old National Leprosarium Infirmary building, "built in 1933, had 68 beds in two open wards--men upstairs and women downstairs. Architects provided screened porches across the front of the building to allow patients fresh air. Notice the flat roof. Originally canopies had been installed to give patients a shady spot in the non-air-conditioned building and a place to catch a breeze." In some files the facility was called "the National Home for Lepers." The contractor for infirmary construction was Murch Brothers Construction Co. of St. Louis.

William Zorach was commissioned by the New Deal’s Treasury Section of Fine Arts to create the statue “Benjamin Franklin.” The statue was made out of marble, and Zorach was paid $8,000 for the job. This artwork was created for the headquarters of the U.S. Post Office Department—today’s Clinton Federal Building—and now resides in the National Postal Museum (and the museum itself served as the main post office—not to be confused with the headquarters building—for Washington, DC from 1914-1986). The Treasury Section of Fine Arts existed from 1934 to 1943. It was initially called the “Treasury Section of Painting and Sculpture”; then...

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...

Charles R. Knight produced a frieze of Pre-Historic Animals inside the Large Mammal House at the National Zoo in 1937. They were cast in aluminum by the Manhattan Terrazzo Brass Strip Company. On the floor are roundels by Knight in marble and aluminum depicting various large mammals. Those were also carried out by the Manhattan Terrazzo Brass Strip Company. These artworks were commissioned and paid for by the Treasury Relief Art Project, which aimed to put unemployed artists back to work.    

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...

Two one-foot square cast-aluminum plates, depicting the  "Pied Piper of Hamelin," were produced by Domenico Mortellito in 1936 and installed in the Small Mammal House at the National Zoo. These pieces were commissioned and paid for by the Treasury Relief Art Project (TRAP), which gave work to unemployed artists in the Depression.

In 1937, Domenico Mortellito painted habitat background murals for the Bird House and the Pachyderm (Elephant) House and added murals to the zoo restaurant.  These murals were commissioned by the Treasury Relief Art Project (TRAP), which aimed to put unemployed artists back to work.   Mortellito used a rubber-based paint for the animal house murals and carved linoleum for the restaurant.   It appears that all have been lost over the years, though two murals at the Bird House are said to survive (this  needs to be verified). Mortellito is shown in the photos below painting the background murals in the Elephant House, including...

Cleveland's historic Newburg Station post office was constructed with federal funds in 1935-6. The building, which was designed by Julius Boenisch, is still in service.

The historic red-brick North Philadelphia Station post office was built in 1935. Constructed with federal Treasury Department funds, the building is still in use today. It houses a collection of New Deal artwork in the lobby.