The American Guide Series, produced by the Federal Writers’ Project, is one of the most well-known WPA projects. Written as a collection of travel guides, the series included suggested tour routes as well as essays on the history and culture of each U.S. state and territory. Major U.S. cities and several regions were also given their own separate guidebooks.
The state guides give a fascinating snapshot of American life in the 1930s. Written in a lively and approachable style, they detail and celebrate the rich diversity that our country displayed at that time. The writers’ enthusiasm is infectious and their guide is as much fun to read today as it must have been for travelers in the 1930s.
Several historians have written about the American Guide Series over the past 80 years, but no one, to my knowledge, has used them as current-day travel guides. That is just what I set out to do. I am an American historian, art photographer, and enthusiastic traveler. I have read each of these guides. I love them for their wonderful enthusiasm and their curiosity about every aspect of regional life—from food, to linguistics, to folklore, to statistics, to geography, to environment, to history—and especially for their liberal attitudes and respect for diversity. In this series, I will be posting photo essays and articles based upon tours recommended in the guides.
Fern L. Nesson
Minnesota is the epitome of an unprepossessing state. It is interesting, friendly, varied, cultured, but above all, it is modest. The Minnesota State Guide, like the state that produced it, tends toward matter-of-fact statements. Even when it describes a gem of a building, it underplays its aesthetic impact.
There is no better example of understatement than the Guide’s entry about the Minneapolis Post Office. Built by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) from 1933 to 1935, the post office is a remarkable example of Art Deco architecture on a grand scale. But reading the Guide, you would likely never be tempted to visit:
“The Minneapolis Post Office is a four-story building with a base of black granite and superstructure of Shakopee dolomite. The [cornerstone of] the modern structure, designed by the local firm of Magney & Tusler […] was laid in 1933; in February, 1935, the building was ready for occupancy.
The main building is on the approximate center of a three-block area; its four stories reach a height of 100 feet. The design—dignified and impressive—is based on utility rather than artistic embellishment. In addition to mail-handling facilities, there are a cafeteria, an assembly room, meeting rooms, a gymnasium and rifle range.”
Minnesota Guide, p. 183.
Last week, I went to see it anyway. I was encouraged to do so when I read on the Living New Deal site that the main floor of the Post Office possessed the world’s largest light fixture:
“The lobby within the Minneapolis Post Office remains largely intact today. The lobby’s most prominent feature is a 365-foot-long bronze chandelier that runs along the entire length of the lobby. This astounding fixture is perhaps the longest in the world of its kind (Mack, 2004). The interior lobby also features inlaid terrazzo floors and many original bronze features including teller windows, freestanding mailing stations, and bulletin signs.”
Reader, I was blown away. The interior of the post office is truly beautiful. The proportions of the mail room are truly grand and the architectural details are stunning. The post office boxes, the mailing stations, the booths for postal workers’ booths, the signs and directories are all in bronze polished to a beautiful sheen. The floor and the walls are inlaid with black marble and the light fixture is definitely impressive. It stretches the length of three city blocks and each bay of post office boxes contains a similar smaller version.
Minnesotans could afford to brag about this building. A visit returns us to the best of the 1930’s and speaks volumes about the achievements of the WPA.
March 2023.
