US Post Office Lake George
The US Post Office in Lake George , New York is the branch of the United States Postal Service for the Village , the surrounding town and the parts of Queensbury that belong to the ZIP code 12845. The post office is on the corner of Canada Street ( US 9 / NY 9N ) and Kurosaka Lane (formerly James Street). It's a small brick building that was built just before World War II.
The building was designed by the then chief architect of the United States Department of the Treasury , Louis A. Simon, in a cautious interpretation of the Colonial Revival , but has some allusions to modernity . A mural showing Lake George was later integrated into the counter hall. The building was in the 1989 National Register of Historic Places entered and is the only post office in Warren County , which is recognized in this way as a historic landmark.
building
The post office is at the west end of a narrow parcel that slopes gently towards the lake shore, at the northwest corner of the intersection. The buildings in the neighborhood are used commercially. To the east of the building is a parking lot with an access from Kurosaka Lane. The building is set back from the street, a garden and hedges are in front of the building.
The structure is a one-story steel frame building on a raised foundation made of poured concrete, which is clad with black bricks in the English style. The facade on the front side includes five yokes and falls through an outstanding pavilion with three yokes whose cranked at the corners of a saddle roof with slate is covered. All other roof areas of the building are flat roofs . On the roof line, a wall crown runs around the entire building. There is a separate loading ramp at the rear .
The central pavilion has beveled corners . The entrance in the middle of the front facade is formed by an archway, the border, lintel and keystone of which are made of brick Theen. An eagle made as a stone carving sits above the door. On the upper edge of the facade is the inscription "UNITED STATES POST OFFICE" made of bronze letters, with "LAKE GEORGE NEW YORK 12845" underneath in smaller letters. Three granite steps lead up from the walkway to the entrance; a ramp for wheelchair users leads there from the south along the facade. It is lined with iron railings and free-standing lanterns.
The inside counter hall is L-shaped. The floor consists of terrazzo , a Lambris of green, veined marble from Vermont runs on the walls and extends up to the height of the counters up. Above that there is wood paneling with information boards. The tables and counters are original. Judson Smith's mural was painted on canvas and hangs above the entrance door to the postmaster's office .
history
Lake George had had a post office since 1825, twelve years after the town was chosen to be the county seat of the newly founded, but was then still called Caldwell after a large landowner in the area. For most of the 19th century the post office was rented in other buildings. During this time, the village transformed from a trading center in the southeastern Adirondack Mountains and resting place on the main trade route to Canada to a busy summer colony.
In 1938, Congress approved $ 75,000 ( $ 1,358,000 adjusted for inflation) to build what is now the post office. This measure was part of the measures to overcome the global economic crisis . A year later the property was purchased and construction began. The new post office was opened in early 1941.
Louis Simon, then chief architect of the United States Department of the Treasury, chose the Colonial Revival as the architectural style for the building. This architectural style was standard for post offices in small, rural towns at the time. Notable features of this architectural style are the brick facade, the eagle ornaments and the symmetrically arranged windows of the post office of Lake George . The protruding central pavilion with the flanking yokes is an allusion to Georgian architecture .
He also used design elements from contemporary modernism and Art Deco , such as the beveled corners, the asymmetrical window panes and the large brick surfaces above the windows. Only two other post offices in the state, Frankfort and Middleport , which opened around the same time, used the same design. The Westhampton Beach Post Office on Long Island , which was also built in 1940, is quite similar. All three illustrate the influence of another post office on Long Island, the Rockville Center Post Office, built in 1937 .
Judson Smith's mural was installed in 1942. With the exception of the installation of fluorescent lamps in the counter hall in 1973, the building was not significantly changed.
See also
Individual evidence
- ^ A b c d Larry Gobrecht: National Register of Historic Places nomination: US Post Office - Lake George . New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation . November 1986. Retrieved on October 13, 2009. and accompanying photo documentation from 1983
Coordinates: 43 ° 25 ′ 25 " N , 73 ° 42 ′ 47" W.