United States Post Office (Madison Square Station)

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United States Post Office
Madison Square Station
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(October 2008)
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Location149-153 E. 23rd St.
Manhattan, New York City
Coordinates 40°44′22″N73°59′2″W / 40.73944°N 73.98389°W / 40.73944; -73.98389
Built1937 [1]
Architect Lorimer Rich
Architectural style Classical Revival
MPS US Post Offices in New York State, 1858-1943, TR
NRHP reference No. 88002364 [2]
Added to NRHPMay 11, 1989

The United States Post Office Madison Square Station is a historic post office building located at 149 East 23rd Street between Lexington Avenue and Third Avenue on the East Side of Manhattan, New York City. In spite of the building's name, it is not located on Madison Square but about three blocks east (approximately 1/4 mile) along 23rd Street. The building runs through the block to East 24th Street, where there are loading docks and another much smaller and less formal public entrance.

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The building was constructed in 1937, and was designed by Lorimer Rich for Louis A. Simon, the Supervising Architect of the Treasury. [1] It is a two to three story building clad on its main facade with polished "Dakota Mahogany" granite in the Classical Revival style. The main facade features six two-story Doric order piers and pilaster that surround the recessed entrance bays. The exterior also features five bronze relief sculptures by artists Edmond Amateis and Louis Slobodkin illustrating different forms of communication: from west to east, the god Mercury, jungle drums, mail, carrier pigeon, and smoke signals. The interior features eight murals executed between 1937 and 1939 by artist Kindred McLeary. [3]

In the mid-1930s, the post office was included as part of a plan to have Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn designated as the eastern terminus of air mail, forming a link in the delivery of mail to the General Post Office through its connection to the pneumatic mail tube system. The plan involved using flying boats to transport mail from Floyd Bennett Field to a new seaplane base on East 23rd Street that was being constructed nearby. [4]

The Madison Square Station was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989. [2]

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The central one of the five relief sculptures shows a mailman with mailbags
Madison Square Station USPO west mural 1.jpg
One of Kindred McLeary's murals, this one from the west wall of the main room

References

Notes

  1. 1 2 White, Norval & Willensky, Elliot (2000). AIA Guide to New York City (4th ed.). New York: Three Rivers Press. ISBN   978-0-8129-3107-5., p.212
  2. 1 2 "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service. March 13, 2009.
  3. ↑ Gobrecht, Larry E. (July 1986). "National Register of Historic Places Registration: Madison Square Station Post Office". New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation . Retrieved October 1, 2010.See also: "Accompanying 20 photos".
  4. ↑ "Work to Start on New Skyport". Brooklyn Times-Union . March 1, 1936. Retrieved January 25, 2025– via Newspapers.com.



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