Portal:New York/Selected article/5

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The front of the james A. Farley Building.

The James A. Farley Building is New York City's General Post Office, located in 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 old general post office building and its western annex. The Farley building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and occupies two full city blocks, an eight-acre footprint straddling the tracks of the Northeast Corridor (Farley Corridor) in western Midtown Manhattan. The building was designated in 1982 as a monument to the political career of former Postmaster General James Farley.

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. The James A. Farley Building in New York boasts the longest giant order Corinthian colonnade in the world. 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, replacing the 1878 Post Office at Park Row and Broadway. 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.