United States Post Office (Delmar, New York)
U.S. Post Office | |
 Front (south) elevation, 2008 | |
   | |
| Location | Delmar,NY |
|---|---|
| Nearest city | Albany |
| Coordinates | 42°37′20″N73°49′57″W/ 42.62222°N 73.83250°W |
| Built | 1939–40[1] |
| Architect | Louis Simon |
| Architectural style | Colonial Revival |
| MPS | US Post Offices in New York State, 1858-1943, TR |
| NRHP referenceNo. | 88002480 |
| Added to NRHP | 1988 |
TheU.S. Post OfficeinDelmar, New Yorkis located on Delaware Avenue (NY 443) in the middle of thehamlet.It serves the 12054ZIP Code,covering Delmar and its surrounding area. It was added to theNational Register of Historic Placesin 1988. To date it is the only current post office inAlbany Countyon the Register.[2]
It is a small brick building constructed in 1939, near the end of theGreat Depression.Louis A. Simon,theTreasury Department's supervisingarchitectat that time, designed 13 total post offices for New York in theColonial Revivalstylesimilar toDelmar's. But that one was the only one from whose design he omitted acupola.The lobby is decorated with amuralauspices, showing a scene of the Indian Ladder at nearbyJohn Boyd Thacher State Park.
Building
[edit]The post office is a one-story, five-baybrick building withstonewater table. Its double-doored main entrance is at the top of a set ofgranitesteps withironrailings. The door is surrounded byflutedDoricpilastersand anentablature;above it is afanlightwith castaluminumeagle.The words "UNITED STATES POST OFFICE" are spelled out inbronzeletters across thefrieze,with "DELMAR 12054 NEW YORK" above the door.[1]
On either side of the door are two original lamps and two windows withlimestonesills and lintels. A wooden dentiledcorniceruns around the roofline. Above it is aslategabledroof.[1]
The side elevations have a pair of windows each. The gable ends are sided inclapboardwith a semicircular opening with radiatingmullions.At the rear are two wings: one three-bay workroom wing where the cornice is replaced with aparapet.A four-bay wing, added later, duplicates the roof detailing on the main building but is not consideredcontributing.[1]
On the inside, the entry leads to a woodenvestibulewithpaneledpilasters. The L-shapedlobbyhas a red-and-blackterrazzofloor, whitemarbledadoand dark marble baseboards. They give way toplaster,which forms a simple cornice at the junction of wall and ceiling. A 1940mural,"The Indian Ladder", byWorks Progress Administrationartist Sol Wilson fills the wall above thepostmaster's office. Many of the original furnishings remain.[1]
History
[edit]Delmar had had a post office since 1840, in spaceleasedin a building on Elsemere Avenue. A single-family house,demolishedafter the new building was authorized in the mid-1930s, stood on the present site.General contractorsLoucks and Clarke ofWallingford, Connecticutwon the bid and broke ground in 1939, opening the new building the following year.[1]
The post office has seen only one significant change since then. The rear wing was built in 1959 to handle increased volume.[1]
Aesthetics
[edit]Louis Simon, Supervising Architect of theTreasury Department,under whose jurisdiction the Post Office was at the time, designed 13 post offices in New York in a variation of the same basic model. Of these, Delmar's is the only one to not include acupolain its original design (Attica's had one when built, but it has since been removed).[1]
References
[edit]- ^abcdefghGobrecht, Larry (February 1988)."National Register of Historic Places nomination, U.S. Post Office-Delmar".New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation.Retrieved2008-10-22.
- ^"NEW YORK — Albany County".nationalregisterofhistoricplaces.Retrieved2008-10-29.
