US Post Office Saratoga Springs
The US Post Office Saratoga Springs is the Saratoga Springs , New York branch of the United States Postal Service and is located at the intersection of Broadway ( US 9 / NY 29 / NY 50 ) and Church Street ( NY 9N ) in the center of the city . It is a brick , neoclassical style building dating from the early 20th century and designed by James Knox Taylor , chief architect of the United States Department of the Treasury . The post office uses the ZIP code 12866, with which theCity of Saratoga Springs is covered.
At the time of its construction, the post office had one of the grandest entrance halls of any post office in the state. Two murals depicting the local harness racing track were added in the 1930s. The lobby has undergone minor changes since then, but enough of the building's original design and condition has been preserved for it to be added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1989 . The building had been a contributing property of the Broadway Historic District since 1978 .
building
The post office is set back from Broadway. Some tall trees and gardens are between the sidewalk and the street. The post office is one of four notable at this lively intersection. Across Broadway is the city hall, which is built in the Italianate style . Diagonally opposite is the massive, ornate Ainsworth Building and on the other side of Church Street is the 1916 Beaux-Arts building of the Adirondack Trust Company with its marble facade.
The building is a single-storey flat roof -construction with three to four yokes . The facade is made of yellow bricks on a base made of worked granite . Both marble and limestone were used for decoration. Above the window front, a row of ornaments runs around the building in which egg-shaped and arrow-shaped limestone elements alternate. Above is the entablature with a frieze , which is designed in a geometric pattern of red and yellow bricks. The cornice is serrated, with simple frames and flat panels in between. The low roof parapet has a limestone wall crown and, on a slightly elevated section above the main entrance, leaf-like corbels.
The middle yoke on the east side protrudes. It is a semicircular arch, the flat archivolt of which is supported by free-standing Doric columns made of veined and polished marble. A recessed bronze plaque contains windows in the upper part and the doors of the main entrance in the lower part. Granite stairs with a central bronze railing lead up there. The original heavy bronze doors are still there, but have been functionally replaced by modern aluminum doors. A meander ornament frames the doors, and above them is the inscription POST OFFICE .
The flanking windows and the eastern yokes on the north and south façades are designed in a similar way, except for the pillars, which are based on a balustrade . The other window openings on the north and south sides of the building are set back, the straight window sills are supported by corbels . Their arches have windows with star-shaped wooden bars inserted . A small vertical window is arranged between the easternmost protruding yoke and the next. A ramp for wheelchair users rises on the south side and allows access to the building at this point. On the north side there is an open loading ramp that takes up part of the rear.
Inside the lobby has a 4.3 m high plaster ceiling with a arranged in the middle of skylight from lead glass , to match that is bent to the angle of the back wall. The walls themselves consist of recessed arches with a cornice at the top. The entrance archway has a similarly designed environment. On both sides of the vestibule there are murals by Guy Pène du Bois with the title Saratoga in the Racing Season (German: "Saratoga in der Rennsaison").
The floor is a modern carpet ; a white marble base and a marble paneling green marble edge part of the lobby. A three-meter-high partition with mail counters divides the room in two. These switch windows are on the north side of the room.
history
Saratoga Springs has had a post office since founder Gideon Putnam opened the first vacation hotel here in 1802. The first two post offices were housed in the offices of a local merchant. Later in the 19th century it was housed in an office block that, like the two stores in front of it, was on Broadway, the main street of Saratoga Springs. The property at today's location was purchased at the beginning of the 20th century for a purchase price of just under 125,000 US dollars (inflation-adjusted US $ 3,825,000).
It was one of the last buildings designed by James Knox Taylor , then chief architect of the United States Department of the Treasury. He had already established neoclassicism as the preferred architectural style for public buildings at the time, in order to reflect the enthusiasm of the founding fathers of the United States for classical ideals. The Saratoga Springs post office shares the style of its arched windows with two other New York state post offices ( Johnstown and Ithaca ), but the neo-renaissance touch expressed in the pillars and ornaments can only be found in one other post office in New York, the post office in Olean , which was opened around the same time. Both features make it harmonize with the other buildings at the intersection, as both the Town Hall and Ainsworth Building share similar features inspired by the Italian Renaissance style, and the bank building on the adjacent corner of Church Street is also classically designed.
At the time it opened, the building's lobby was one of the most finely decorated post office counters in the state. This impression was later spoiled by the removal of the row of switches when a new, modern partition was put in place.
The murals date from 1936–1937 and were added as part of the Treasury Relief Arts Program. The loading ramp was built in 1961 and the lobby was modernized in 1974. The exterior lighting has also been replaced in the meantime. Otherwise there were no major changes to the building.
See also
Individual evidence
- ^ A b c d Larry Gobrecht: National Register of Historic Places nomination, US Post Office — Saratoga Springs . New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation . November 1986. Retrieved October 8, 2009.
Coordinates: 43 ° 5 ′ 0 ″ N , 73 ° 47 ′ 6 ″ W.