James Farley Post Office

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James A. Farley Building
(U.S. National Register of Historic Places)
A carefully-detailed Corinthian colonnade under the inspirational inscription
A carefully-detailed Corinthian colonnade under the inspirational inscription
Location: Manhattan, New York City, New York Flag of United States United States
Coordinates: 40°45′4.4″N, 73°59′42.64″W
Built/Founded: 1912
Architect: McKim, Mead, and White
Architectural style(s): Beaux-Arts
Added to NRHP: January 29, 1973
Reference #: 73002257[1]

The James A. Farley Building, New York City's General Post Office, is located at 421 Eighth Avenue, between 31st Street and 33rd Street in the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the street from Pennsylvania Station and Madison Square Garden. The Post Office is officially named "The James A. Farley Building" and consists of the the old general post office building and its western annex. The Farley building, bearing the inscription: Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds, is a National Historic Landmark, and occupies two full city blocks , an eight-acre footprint straddling the tracks of the Northeast Corridor (Farley Corridor) in the heart of Midtown Manhattan. The Landmark, was designated in 1982 as a monument to the political career of former Postmaster Gereral Farley. The inscription, which is frequently mistaken as an official motto of the United States Postal Service, actually was supplied by William Mitchell Kendall of the firm of McKim, Mead & White, the architects who designed the Farley Building and the original Pennsylvania Station in the same Beaux-Arts style. The sentence is a paraphrase of an excerpt from the works of Herodotus (Wikiquote) and describes the expedition of the Greeks against the Persians under Cyrus the Great, about 500 BCE. The Persians operated a system of mounted postal couriers, and the sentence describes the fidelity with which their work was done. The USPS does not actually have an official motto or creed, but none the less the inscription on the building is universally recognized as such.

"...the life of James A. Farley should serve as an example for present and future generations of Americans of the vital contributions which individual citizens can make to the life of the nation through diligent public service..."

House Resolution 368, 97th Congress, 2nd Session, March 2 1982

Contents

[edit] Round-the-clock service

The Farley Post Office holds the distinction of being the only Post Office in New York City that is open to the public 24 hours and 7 days a week -- with the exception of certain holidays.

[edit] Future plans

The Landmark Farley Building is planned to be used as a new entrance and concourse for Penn Station by the Pennsylvania Station Redevelopment Corporation, which is a subsidiary of the Empire State Development Corporation. The expansion, supported in part by new retail space, is estimated to cost over $750 million and is intended to restore some of the grandeur lost when the original Penn Station was demolished in 1964. The new "station" (that is, a new part of Penn Station) to be constructed within the historic James A. Farley Building is to be named after the late Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan.

New Jersey Transit announced on November 21, 2005 that it would become the anchor tenant of the new Moynihan Station, slated to open to passengers in 2010. Moynihan Station will encompass 350,000 square feet of the historic James A. Farley Building while the United States Postal Service will retain approximately 250,000 square feet of the 1.5 million square-foot National Historic Landmark . Beyond retail lobby services, other postal operations remaining in the building will include Express Mail, mail delivery, truck platforms, and a stamp depository. Administrative offices for the Postal Service's New York District will also be headquartered within Farley.

All mail processing operations will be relocated one block away to the Morgan Processing and Distribution Center. All other administrative functions now in the Farley Building will be moved to the Church Street Processing and Distribution Center in Manhattan. Approximately 2,500 postal employees worked in the Farley Building as of 2002. Once operations and administrative offices are moved, approximately 900 employees will remain in their current location.

When Moynihan Station opens, Amtrak and NJ Transit passengers will be able to board and exit trains from either Moynihan Station/Farley Post Office or the previously existing part of Penn Station.

In additions, plans are being drawn up for a new version of Madison Square Garden in Farley's western Annex. This building, which would face Ninth Avenue, would replace the current Garden located a half-block away. This version of the Garden would be placed atop the extension of the Farley Building known as the "Farley Annex" which was erected in 1934 by Farley, when he served as Postmaster General of the United States. The current proposals call for the state to purchase the historic Farley Complex, buillding Madison Square Garden within the Farley Annex while constructing a mixed use post office/entrance to Moynihan Station within the historic Farley Post Office. [see external links]

[edit] Handicapped access

Handicapped access is extremely poor in the current building. Patrons who require access to the building must call to request access, wait on hold, then ask for someone to let them in the back of the building or locate a police officer on the perimeter of the large block, and ask the police officer to contact someone inside the post office building to help them.

[edit] History

The interior of the post office
The interior of the post office

The James A. Farley Building was constructed in two stages. The original monumental front half was built in 1912 and opened for postal business in 1914; the building was doubled in 1934 by James A.Farley as Postmaster General where it backs up to Ninth Avenue: along the side streets, McKim, Mead, and White's range, which continues its Corinthian giant order as pilasters between the window bays, was simply repeated in order to carry the facade to Ninth Avenue. Farley, as Postmaster General, oversaw the hiring of McKim, Mead, and White to construct the "Farley Annex", as not to disturb the continuity of the original monumental architecture of the structure. This practice of the federal government hiring private firms to provide the architecture of the country's post offices was put to a halt in 1934, a decision that was repealed in 1939. The monumental façade on Eighth Avenue was conceived as a Corinthian colonnade braced at the end by two pavilions. The imposing design was meant to match in strength the colonnade of Pennsylvania Station (McKim, Mead, and White, 1910) that originally faced it across the avenue. An unbroken flight of steps the full length of the colonnade provides access, for the main floor devoted to customer services is above a functional basement level that rises out of a dry moat giving light and air to workspaces below. Each of the square end pavilions is capped with a low saucer dome, expressed on the exterior as a low stepped pyramid. Inside, the visitor finds an unbroken vista down a long gallery that parallels the colonnaded front.

Upon opening in 1914 it was named the Pennsylvania Terminal. In July 1918, the building was renamed the General Post Office Building, and in 1982, renamed once more as the James A. Farley Building.( 97th Congress, H.Res. 368 3/2/1982). James Farley was the nation's 53rd Postmaster General and served from 1933 to 1940. Farley (a native New Yorker) was instrumental in the political careers of Alfred E. Smith and Franklin D. Roosevelt (serving as campaign manager to both). James A. Farley was a candidate for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States in 1940 (only the second Roman Catholic to receive delegates towards such a nomination behind Alfred E. Smith and before John F. Kennedy) and publicly stood against a presidential third term. Farley is also considered the finest Athletic Commissioner/Boxing Commissioner in New York State history. The James A. Farley award is given by the Boxing Writers Association for honesty and integrity in the sport of boxing. James A. Farley is the first nationally successful (Roman Catholic) Irish American politician.

The Farley Building was instrumental to maintaining service levels in the New York City area following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks when it served as a back up to operations for the Church Street Station Post Office located across the street from the World Trade Center complex. Advances in automated mail processing technology, coupled with adjustments to postal distribution and transportation networks now make it feasible to absorb associated mail volumes at the Morgan Center.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ National Register of Historical Places - New York (NY), New York County. National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service (2007-02-14).

[edit] External links

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