Parcel Post Building (former) - Richmond VA

City:: Richmond, VA
Site Type:: Federal Facilities, Post Offices, Federal Courthouses
New Deal Agencies:: Public Works Administration (PWA), Federal & Military Operations, Public Works Funding, Treasury Department
Started:: 1935
Designers:: Lee Smith, Marcellus E. Wright, Vandervoort
Site Survival:: Extant

Description

The historic former Parcel Post Building at 1100 E Main St. in Richmond, Virginia was originally designed by Marcellus Eugene Wright, Sr. in association with the Richmond architectural firm Lee & Smith & Van der Voort. According to some sources designs were drawn up during the Hoover administration, in 1929.

Begun as a four-story facility, a work order mid-construction enlarged part of the building, which became six stories tall. It is likely at this point in the construction process (ca. 1934-5) that Public Work Administration (P.W.A.) funding became involved in addition to standard Treasury Department funds; two photos of the facility can be found in a photo file of federal P.W.A. projects at the National Archives. The six-story portion of the building, particularly that facing Bank Street, bears additional Art Deco flourishes.

The building had also housed multiple examples of New Deal artwork, which were painted after the building’s completion and which have since been relocated.

The facility is no longer houses postal operations; it is now part of the Lewis F. Powell Jr. United States Courthouse & Annex complex.

Source notes

National Archives Record Group 135-SAR: Prints: Photographs rejected for use in the Photographic Report to the President: “Survey of the Architecture of Completed Projects of the PWA, 1939”; Box 23: Federal Folder.

https://www.dhr.virginia.gov/registers/Cities/Richmond/127-6031_Main_Street_Banking_HD_2005_NR_FINAL.pdf (accessed 2017)

Facilities manager

Site originally submitted by Evan Kalish on April 18, 2017.