The Minneapolis Post Office is the central post office

Post office

A post office is a facility forming part of a postal system for the posting, receipt, sorting, handling, transmission or delivery of mail.Post offices offer mail-related services such as post office boxes, postage and packaging supplies...

 for the city of Minneapolis

Minneapolis, Minnesota

Minneapolis , nicknamed "City of Lakes" and the "Mill City," is the county seat of Hennepin County, the largest city in the U.S. state of Minnesota, and the 48th largest in the United States...

, Minnesota

Minnesota

Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...

 in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. Located on the west bank of the Mississippi River

Mississippi River

The Mississippi River is the largest river system in North America. Flowing entirely in the United States, this river rises in western Minnesota and meanders slowly southwards for to the Mississippi River Delta at the Gulf of Mexico. With its many tributaries, the Mississippi's watershed drains...

, the facility extends west to east from Hennepin Avenue Bridge

Hennepin Avenue Bridge

The Hennepin Avenue Bridge is the structure that carries Hennepin County State Aid Highway 52, Hennepin Avenue, across the Mississippi River in Minneapolis, Minnesota at Nicollet Island. Officially, it is the Father Louis Hennepin Bridge, in honor of the 17th-century explorer Louis Hennepin, who...

 to the Third Avenue Bridge

Third Avenue Bridge (Minneapolis)

The Third Avenue Bridge is a landmark structure of the city of Minneapolis, Minnesota, originally known as the St. Anthony Falls Bridge. It carries road traffic across the Mississippi River and right over the upper fringes of Saint Anthony Falls...

 and north to south from the West River Parkway on the Grand Rounds Scenic Byway

Grand Rounds Scenic Byway

The Grand Rounds Scenic Byway is a linked series of park areas in Minneapolis, Minnesota that takes a roughly circular path through the city. The corridors include roads for automobile traffic plus paths for pedestrians and bicycles, and extend slightly into neighboring cities...

 to First Street. Its ZIP code is 55401.

History

Ard Godfrey operated the area's first post office in the village of Saint Anthony on the Mississippi's east bank during the early 1850s. At first unpredictably, deliveries came by messenger from Fort Snelling through Saint Paul, Minnesota

Saint Paul, Minnesota

Saint Paul is the capital and second-most populous city of the U.S. state of Minnesota. The city lies mostly on the east bank of the Mississippi River in the area surrounding its point of confluence with the Minnesota River, and adjoins Minneapolis, the state's largest city...

. Later, mail arrived by stagecoach

Stagecoach

A stagecoach is a type of covered wagon for passengers and goods, strongly sprung and drawn by four horses, usually four-in-hand. Widely used before the introduction of railway transport, it made regular trips between stages or stations, which were places of rest provided for stagecoach travelers...

 every ten to fourteen days. The first post office in Minneapolis was built on the west bank on High Street in 1854 and operated by postmaster Hezekiah Fletcher.

The present day post office was completed in 1933 and occupies nearly the same site. A seven-level parking ramp and loading dock for bulk mail were added to the west in 1976.

Structure and interior

The post office was built of granite and stone in the PWA Moderne

Streamline Moderne

Streamline Moderne, sometimes referred to by either name alone or as Art Moderne, was a late type of the Art Deco design style which emerged during the 1930s...

 Art Deco

Art Deco

Art deco , or deco, is an eclectic artistic and design style that began in Paris in the 1920s and flourished internationally throughout the 1930s, into the World War II era. The style influenced all areas of design, including architecture and interior design, industrial design, fashion and...

 style at the cost of $4.5 million or about $64 million in 2006 USD. The main building is 540 feet (165 m) long. Its interior is unchanged and postal customers still utilize its original bronze

Bronze

Bronze is a metal alloy consisting primarily of copper, usually with tin as the main additive. It is hard and brittle, and it was particularly significant in antiquity, so much so that the Bronze Age was named after the metal...

 teller cages and fixtures, marble terrazzo

Terrazzo

Terrazzo is a composite material poured in place or precast, which is used for floor and wall treatments. It consists of marble, quartz, granite, glass or other suitable chips, sprinkled or unsprinkled, and poured with a binder that is cementitious, chemical or a combination of both...

 floor and sandstone walls. Perhaps the longest light fixture in the world, a 350 foot (107 m), 16 ton (16256.8 kg) bronze chandelier runs the length of the lobby

Lobby (room)

A lobby is a room in a building which is used for entry from the outside. Sometimes referred to as a foyer or an entrance hall.Many office buildings, hotels and skyscrapers go to great lengths to decorate their lobbies to create the right impression....

, originally designed to regulate temperature.

Peepholes were installed in the corridors so that inspectors could protect the mail and observe employees. The main building contained a three-room suite paneled in walnut

Walnut

Juglans is a plant genus of the family Juglandaceae, the seeds of which are known as walnuts. They are deciduous trees, 10–40 meters tall , with pinnate leaves 200–900 millimetres long , with 5–25 leaflets; the shoots have chambered pith, a character shared with the wingnuts , but not the hickories...

 for the postmaster, recreation room

Recreation room

A recreation room is a room used for a variety of purposes, such as parties, games and other everyday or casual use. The term is common in the United States and Canada, but is less common in the United Kingdom where the preferred term is games room...

s and a hospital unit for employees as well as a rifle range in the basement.

Unbuilt

What is today Delta Airlines made the first air delivery between Minneapolis and Chicago in 1929. A rooftop hangar

Hangar

A hangar is a closed structure to hold aircraft or spacecraft in protective storage. Most hangars are built of metal, but other materials such as wood and concrete are also sometimes used...

 for air mail planes was planned for the main building but never added. The main building faced Pioneer Square park, which is now occupied by an apartment tower. A companion federal office building at a right angle to the post office on the park's western perimeter was suggested in 1934 but not built.

Magney & Tusler

Léon Eugène Arnal, the chief designer for the architects Magney & Tusler, designed the building. Between 1885 and 1946, Magney & Tusler designed the post office, and designed or co-designed the Foshay Tower

Foshay Tower

The Foshay Tower, now the W Minneapolis – The Foshay hotel, is a skyscraper in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Modeled after the Washington Monument, the building was completed in 1929, months before the stock market crash in October of that year. It has 32 floors and stands high, plus an antenna mast...

 downtown, the Calhoun Beach Club

Calhoun Beach Club

The Calhoun Beach Club is an apartment community, health club, and commercial center in Minneapolis, Minnesota, just across Lake Street from its namesake Lake Calhoun. Its founders intended the club to meet their residential, recreational, and entertainment needs in one building...

 on Lake Calhoun

Lake Calhoun

Lake Calhoun is the biggest lake in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and part of the city's Chain of Lakes. Surrounded by city park land and circled by bike and walking trails, it is popular for many outdoor activities...

, the Lehmann Center on Lake Street

Lake Street (Minneapolis)

Lake Street is a major east-west thoroughfare in Minneapolis, Minnesota which is located between 29th and 31st Streets in south Minneapolis. It was named such because it runs through the Chain of Lakes area on the west side of town and passes over a small channel linking Lake Calhoun and Lake of...

, the Young-Quinlan Department Store on the Nicollet Mall

Nicollet Mall

Nicollet Mall is a portion of Nicollet Avenue running through downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. Working as a pedestrian and transit mall, it is also an upscale shopping and dining district...

 and the former home of Teener's Theatrical costume and props store on Hennepin Avenue

Hennepin Avenue

Hennepin Avenue is a major street in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. It runs from Lakewood Cemetery , north through the Uptown District of Southwest Minneapolis, through the former "Bottleneck" area west of Loring Park, through the North Loop in the city center, to Northeast Minneapolis and...

among other buildings in Minneapolis. The firm was later known as Setter, Leach & Lindstrom, acquired by Leo A. Daly in 2003.

External links