Federal Facilities Sites

The Downtown Post Office in Burbank, CA, was constructed by the Treasury Department between 1937 and 1938. The Mission Revival style Post Office was designed by architect Gilbert Stanley Underwood. "Its Spanish roof and five arches grace the facade that welcomes patrons inside. The suspended lanterns in the porch are reminiscent of a Spanish hacienda that provides beauty as well as shelter. The main entrance’s double doors are handcrafted and trimmed with blue and red. The architectural theme of the building is further carried out in the interior. Masonry floors and tiled walls decorate the public areas and elicit a...

The historic Federal Building—originally U.S. Post Office and Court House in downtown Orlando, Florida—was constructed with federal Treasury Department funds. The building was dedicated on April 15, 1941, and continues to serve as the downtown post office for Orlando.

The old downtown post office and federal building in Long Beach, CA, was built in large part under the New Deal, contrary to the date and name on the cornerstone. The building was planned and started under the Hoover Administration and the cornerstone laid in late 1932, but before construction was far along, the Long Beach earthquake hit in March 1933. There is some dispute over whether the quake did major damage to the unfinished structure.  Certainly, everything had to be checked out and some damaged material removed before construction could resume.  The building opened in September 1934. The design is Classical...

The historic post office building in downtown Panama City, Florida was constructed with federal Treasury Department funds. Construction started in 1937 and the building was dedicated on April 29, 1938.

The old Main Post Office for San Diego, now the Downtown Station post office, was constructed with Treasury Department funds and houses Archibald Garner's 1937 sculpture, "Transportation of the Mail," produced under the Treasury Section of Fine Arts.

The historic downtown post office in San Jose, California was constructed in 1933. It is sometimes mis-attributed to the Works Progress Administration (WPA).

The historic Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Station post office in Milwaukee, Wisconsin was constructed in 1938 with federal Treasury Department funds. The building is still in service.

J.D. Sutton, a private in the 10th West Virginia Infantry, was a veteran of the Battle of Droop Mountain. As a visionary he began the movement to preserve Droop Mountain. He and other veterans began to worry in the aftermath of World War I that their role will be forgotten. In the 1920s the veterans of the battle began to meet at the battlefield making locations of the engagement. In 1928, Governor Howard M. Gore accepted the first 141 acres for the state from the veterans. The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) worked to develop West Virginia's Droop Mountain Battlefield State Park. "A...

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) established a camp 23 miles north of Monticello  in San Juan County, in the southeast corner of Utah. CCC teams worked around Dry Valley, Indian Creek, Blanding, Monticello and La Sal, building fences and corrals; flood control and erosion works, including reseeding, revegetation and cultivation; telephone lines; and  campgrounds.  The CCC men also built the road through the Abajo Mountains from Monticello to Blanding.  Nothing remains of the camp except ruins of the camp gate, building foundations, the access road and an old Pontiac -- all of which are well documented by Mary Cokenour on her blog site...

Although the Eagle Creek Campground opened as the first "auto camp" in the northwest region in 1915, Civilian Conservation Corp (CCC) workers made significant improvements to the campground from 1934 to 1937. As early as August 1934, the Oregonian reported that "Eagle Creek Campground is being improved so it will accommodate more picnic parties, through labors of boys from the Benson CCC camp . . . ". Their work included clearing additional campground space, building fireplaces and cutting up fallen snags to create wood for campfires. Headlines from the same Portland newspaper announced later in the fall that a record number of visitors...

In 1937, CCC workers from Camp Cascade Locks began improvements on recently acquired park land to extend the Eagle Creek campground and picnic area to the shores of the Columbia. These twenty-one acres were acquired to provide access to land overlooking Bonneville Dam. This new campground and picnic area is referred to as the Eagle Creek Overlook Group Site. In addition to landscaped trails and new picnic facilities and campsites, the CCC workers built the Eagle Creek Overlook Shelter to serve as a community kitchen, picnic shelter and restroom facility. As a 1984 US Forest Service report states: "The overlook building...

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) set up five camps in the East Bay hills, starting in 1933-34 and carrying on until 1942.  From those camps, the "CCC boys" set out into the newly-created East Bay regional parks to do a wide range of improvements, such as clearing brush, planting trees, building roads and trails, and laying out picnic areas. The first camp was set up at Wildcat Canyon at the present site of the Tilden Environmental Education (Nature) Center.  About 3,500 young men rotated through Camp Wildcat Canyon.  As Eugene Swartling, who supervised the camp, recalls, "these young men were not being...

The historic East Boston Station post office was constructed with federal Treasury Department funds in 1939. The post office contains New Deal murals.

The historic East Portland Station post office was constructed with federal Treasury Department funds in 1936. The post office houses New Deal artwork.

In 1933, the Washington Post reported the appropriation of $2,000 for unspecified repairs and $5,000 for removing old chimneys to the former State, War, and Navy Building – now known as the Eisenhower Executive Office Building.    The 1888 building was supplanted by a new War Department building in 1941, which the War Department quickly left to occupy The Pentagon.  That building passed to the State Department and is still part of the Truman State Department complex.

The old downtown post office – officially, the Federal Building – was built in 1933 by the Treasury Department in Modesto, California.  The project has a long pre-history and was to be built as part of a sweeping catalogue of federal buildings around the country in the 1920s.  It finally got underway in the early 1930s.  The design was drawn up in the Treasury Department in 1931 and bids for construction were advertised in late 1932.  The contract awarded to Murch Brothers Construction Company of St. Louis, a large firm that built several other post offices around the country. The project was continued as...

The Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) describes the New Deal's extensive work on Ellis Island, which included building this new immigration building: "The New Immigration Building is one of three major New Deal-era buildings at Ellis Island created to meet the changing scope of immigration services at the facility. Constructed on fill joining Island 1 and Island 2, the New Immigration Building was intended as the new processing center for the diminishing numbers of arriving immigrants, while the existing Baggage and Dormitory Building and the Main Immigration building on Island 1 handled the increasing number of deportees. The clean lines and...

The Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) describes the New Deal's extensive work on Ellis Island, which included building this and another long covered passageway: "A system of covered passageways connected the three islands, providing sheltered circulation during inclement weather. Pipes and electrical conduits were also located above the ceiling in these corridors. The one-story brick passageways between Islands 1 and 2 were built with Works Progress Administration (WPA) funding in 1934-35 and are now designated C7. These corridors include a short connection from the east facade of the New Immigration Building (HABS NY-6086-O) and the long section that runs parallel to...

The Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) describes the New Deal's extensive work on Ellis Island, which included building this and another long covered passageway: "The one-story brick passageways on the west side of Islands 2 and 3 are now designated C8. A system of covered passageways connected the three islands, providing sheltered circulation during inclement weather. Pipes and electrical conduits were also located above the ceiling or in a side service passage. The two curving sections at the northwest side of Island 2 were first built around 1900, connecting the Hospital outbuilding (HABS NY-6086-K). The rest of this long corridor travels...

The Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) describes the New Deal's extensive work on Ellis Island, which included building this recreation building: "The Recreation Building at the Ellis Island U.S. Immigration Station was designed and built between 1933 and 1937 as part of a series of projects made possible through New Deal public works funding. In 1933 the federally-appointed Ellis Island Committee completed a report that recommended widespread improvements to the immigration facilities, among which was the development of adequate accommodations for recreation. The Recreation Building was designed for Ellis Island by consulting architect Chester Aldrich and the Public Buildings Service, along...

The Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) describes the New Deal's extensive work on Ellis Island, which included building this recreation shelter: "The Recreation Shelter on Islands 2 and 3 was part of the last active phase of construction at the Ellis Island U.S. Immigration Station during the 1930s. The Recreation Building and two Recreation Shelters were designed for Ellis Island alongside the New Immigration Building (1934-1936) and Ferry Building (1934), all of which were financed through New Deal funding. The construction of these new facilities contributed to a reconfiguration of the island into clearly demarcated spaces for patients, immigrants and deportees,...

The Washington Post, October 11, 1933, reported on Public Works Administration (PWA) disbursements for federal buildings in the District:  "Five Government buildings will get new window fixtures here at a cost of $77,324. The departments sharing in this grant are Post Office, Interstate Commerce, Labor, Justice and the auditorium which connects the Interstate Commerce Commission and the Labor Buildings. The work is expected to provide 150 men with jobs for three months." The Department of Labor was relocated in 1979 and the Interstate Commerce Commission was dissolved in 1996. The buildings are now part of the the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) complex...

Created for the former Everett branch post office, the mural "Mail for New England" is an example of New Deal artwork. Painted by Stephen Etnier, and completed in 1940, the work has since been relocated to Boston's Back Bay post office. Jimmy Emerson: "When the Everett post office building was sold in the 1970s, the mural was removed, rolled up and stored where it suffered water damage. It was discovered in 2005 and restored. It was installed in the Back Bay post office in Boston in 2009."

The F. Edward Hebert Federal Building was built from 1935 to 1939 and is still in use. At the time it was built, the Treasury Department was responsible for all federal buildings. Formerly home to the New Orleans Main Post Office, the building still houses a post office station inside.  It is decorated by three groups of New Deal era sculptures on the exterior. The state of the interior of the building is unknown to us.

This red brick post office building was built in 1936 as Philadelphia's Fairmount Station post office, and is now the Fairmount carrier annex.

Abilene's historic Federal Building was constructed as the U.S. Post Office and Court House during the Great Depression. It was constructed with Treasury Department funds between 1935 and 1936. The building is still used by various federal agencies.

"Constructed almost twenty years before Alaska became the forty-ninth state, the Federal Building in Anchorage symbolized the U.S. government's commitment to the economic growth and development of the territory. Providing residents with a post office, courthouse, and other federal services, it was the first large federal building constructed in Anchorage." (U.S. General Services Administration) "The building housed every federal agency with an office in Anchorage, and tenants included the Civilian Conservation Corps, the United States Department of the Interior, the Signal Corps, and the Alaska Railroad. In order to accommodate all of them, the building expanded several times. The first wing...

The Federal Building in Clarksville, Tennessee—originally constructed as a post office, was constructed during the Great Depression with Treasury Department funds. The design of the United States Post Office for Clarksville was released April 19, 1935, to be located on the corner of Legion and Second streets. The front of the building is marble, with brick sides with marble trim. Six partial columns extend across the front, spaced between windows/center door, and light posts are on either side of the door on short columns. The lobby floor was marble. Two murals were installed in the building, in 1938, painted by F....

Originally constructed as the United States Post Office and Courthouse, the historic Federal Building in Columbia, Tennessee was constructed with Treasury Department funds. The building houses multiple examples of New Deal artwork.

By the early 1880s, the U.S. Custom House on Post Office Street was inadequate to contain all the federal offices in Galveston. To supplement it, a new United States Courthouse, Post Office, and Custom House was built at the corner of Rosenberg and Church Streets between 1886 and 1891. By the mid-1930s that ponderous Victorian building had also become inadequate, even though a separate Custom House had been built on Galveston’s “Strand” in 1933. Therefore, this six-story federal building, occupying the entire block front on Rosenberg Street, was authorized. Designed by Alfred C. Finn of Houston, it exemplifies the penchant of...

The first federal courthouse in Ketchikan was opened in 1905. By 1913, a federal grand jury requested the government build a new facility. In 1923, a report found the 1905 courthouse "dilapidated beyond reasonable repair and overcrowded past endurance." Finally, a decade later, relief came to Ketchikan in the form of the Work Projects Administration. An initial appropriation of $300,000 was allotted for the project with a supplemental appropriation of $100,000 to cover the $350,000 cost of the building. The plain, box-like exterior, flat roof and lack of ornamentation identify the Federal Building as International Style architecture. The building also represents...

The J. Will Robinson Federal Building occupies the former Provo main post office building, constructed c. 1936. The building bears an unexpected cornerstone from 1965, owing to the building's extensive renovation at that time. The building houses multiple federal agencies today, as well as the original post office mural.

The Federal Building in downtown Flagstaff was constructed as the city's main post office in 1935-1937. Plans had originally called for a combination Post Office and Federal Building, but they were dropped in 1931 by the Hoover Administration for lack of funds (Cline, p 311). When the New Deal came in, funding was restored in 1934. The Federal Building is a gem of Moderne/Deco style architecture of the period. The basic form is a simple, two-story, rectangular box, but the facade is exceptional, consisting of three tall vertical openings (entrance and flanking windows) featuring gleaming copper panels and vertical bands. 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.

This New Deal post office is now known as the Federal Building: MesaAZ.gov: "The Federal Building was built in 193 by the Federal Government Department of Treasury to become Mesa's first 1st-class post office and one of the finest buildings in the City at its completion.  The significance of the building was substantiated by the arrival of the Postmaster General, James A. Farley, who attended the dedication of the building as the guest of honor at a banquet at the Mezona Hall.  Local postal officials, Democratic leaders, and other community leaders from all parts of Arizona also attended the function.  James...

The historic former post office—now Federal Building—in Greenwood, South Carolina was constructed during the 1910s but received a large addition constructed with federal Treasury Department funds. The extension and remodeling work was completed in 1941.

This federal building, formerly known as the U.S. Post Office and Courthouse, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and was originally occupied in 1907. According to the General Services Administration, a three-story, 100-foot extension was constructed to the west side of the building during the New Deal. “At the date of the second addition, in 1935, the original two-story courtroom was demolished, its materials salvaged, and a new, larger courtroom was added to the west end of the second floor. The new courtroom is distinguished by oak paneled wainscoting, marble baseboards, acoustic stone walls, and a decorative plastered...

The historic 1907 Federal Building and United States Courthouse in Wheeling, West Virginia was expanded during the New Deal era with Treasury Department funds. Wikipedia: "The 1938 addition, built to accommodate a district courtroom, altered the symmetry of the building. The addition uses materials and architectural details that are compatible with the original building." The building, which has been expanded further, is still in service.

Originally built as the U.S. Post Office and Courthouse and now the Federal Building and Courthouse, the building was completed as a federal Public Works Administration (PWA) project with Treasury Department funding in 1935. Construction took approximately one year (~Sept. 1934 to Sept. 1935), and a striking set of New Deal murals resides in the lobby.

This Beaux-Arts building was originally completed as the U.S. Court House and Post Office in 1906. James A. Wetmore supervised a New Deal extension of the building that was completed in 1934. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on November 13, 1976. The building no longer houses postal operations.