This slide show is enhanced content for the Summer 2013 Forum Journal (Preservation in the City). To learn more about Preservation Leadership Forum and how you can become a member visit: http://www.preservationnation.org/forum

1. Post Offices
Enhanced Content:
Iconic Urban Buildings

2. Post offices are threatened with closure in
cities across the country. The fate of these
historic post office buildings is unclear as
they are left vacant or sold to new owners.
Many of the challenges stem from long-term
logistic and financial problems at the United
States Postal Service (USPS), such as:
• A projected $18 billion annual debt faced by
USPS resulting in part from a congressional
mandate to pre-fund retiree health benefits.
• Decline in the volume of first-class mail as
electronic communications become much
more prevalent.
• The high staffing and overhead costs
needed to maintain a retail presence
(selling stamps, postage, mailing materials,
PO boxes, etc.).
• The increasing automation in the
processing and distribution of mail that
cannot be accommodated easily in older
facilities.
• Maintenance and other costs associated
with the ownership of large number of
buildings in prominent (and high-value)
locations in cities.
Local groups in Berkeley and La Jolla, Calif. are working to save
their post office buildings. The Berkeley Post Office was
constructed in 1915 (above), La Jolla Main Post Office in 1935
(below). Photo: National Trust for Historic Preservation.
Challenges

3. Left: The 30th Street Main Post Office (1935) in Philadelphia, Pa., was renovated for an office building in
2012. Read full story here and here. Photo: Barry Halkin
Right: The Beverly Hills Post Office (1933) in Beverly Hills, Calif., will open as the Wallis Annenberg
Center for Performing Arts in fall 2013. Read the full story here. A video with the SPF: Architects’
description of the project can be viewed here. Photo: Historic Resources Group
“The post office was ‘the one concrete link between every community of individuals and the
Federal government’ that functioned 'importantly in the human structure of the community....
[The post office] brought to the locality a symbol of government efficiency, permanence,
service, and even culture.”
– Marlene Park and Gerald Markowitz, Democratic Vistas: Post Offices and Public Art in the New Deal, Temple University Press,
Philadelphia, 1984
Case Studies

4. National Trust for Historic
Preservation’s Saving Places
historic post office buildings
campaign.
Save the Post Office, most current
site about the status of post offices
around the country
National Association of
Postmasters of the United States
(NAPUS) Preservation Toolkit
Elaine Stiles, “Right-Sizing the
Mail: Advocating to Retain or
Reuse Historic Post Offices,”
Forum Bulletin, August 15, 2011.
Old Chelsea Station, New York, N.Y. (1935). Sale announced
January 14, 2013: Photo: By Beyond My Ken, via Wikimedia
Commons.
The CBRE website lists all USPS properties for sale
http://www.uspspropertiesforsale.com/.
Additional Resources