Our Colonial Revival Post Offices Often Standardized Beautiful Designs
Our Colonial Revival Post Offices Often Standardized Beautiful Designs
U.S. Post Office, Athens, Pennsylvania
Standardized Colonial Revival Design for U.S. Post Office at Auburn, Washington
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While American Architectural History records the existence of standardized designs for Federal buildings long before the Works Progress Administration (WPA), the enormity of the New Deal Architectural Program made standardization a far broader practice than ever before in America’s Federal buildings. In essence, FDR constructed a post office “in every town,” precipitating national form and type in Federal building broad and wide spread enough to truly be represented nation level.
U.S. Post Office, Athens, Pennsylvania, 1940s Photograph.
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The adorable Colonial Revival post office at Athens, Pennsylvania is very much a specimen of this movement. And as for this specific example, not only does it represent a particular type, but it stands with great integrity. Take a gander at the current photograph and then reference the 1940s view. There is very little difference in building’s facade.
Modern View of the Colonial Revival Specimen at Athens, Pennsylvania
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We think this was a Type CC25 1600, but who really cares about its numerical file number? What we really care about is that standardized designs actually can be beautiful, a concept long gone from American architecture. Faithful to the ever reoccurring Colonial Revival style, Athen’s post office building has the following integral features: five bay main block, central dominant bay entry, Doric pilasters flanking the door/bay, smooth faced stone entablature; eight-over-twelve-light wood sash windows above recessed molded wood spandrels; and a cladding of rusticated stone, native to Pennsylvania. All but the original multi-light wood double door appear to be among the preserved features. And, we have it on good authority, that its interior is no different, even down to the original workroom configuration. Perhaps the slow pace of Pennsylvania’s small town today accounts for the preservation or maybe the locals actually value their quaint, but high-quality building. A value that we know seems to ebb and flow even in Pennsylvania.
Standardized Post Office Design at Kings Mountain, North Carolina
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Note: We know of other specimens of the same design. With few differences, there are similar post office designs in Auburn, Washington; Ayer, Massachusetts; Boston’s Chestnut Hills Branch; Kings Mountain, North Carolina; New Haven, Connecticut; Oregon, Illinois; Toms River, New Jersey; Whitinsville, Massachusetts; and Williamstown, North Carolina.
Standardized Post Office Design at New Haven, Connecticut. Circa 1940s, this image and the other period views show a roof type variation along with the prevalent use of brick masonry rather than stone.
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