.gif)
U.S. Post Office (Suffern, New York)
Encyclopedia
The U.S. Post Office
in Suffern
, New York
, is located on Chestnut Street between NY 59
and US 202
, on the northern edge of the village's downtown business district. It serves the ZIP Code
10901, covering the village of Suffern.
It was built during the New Deal
and reflects that era's architectural style
s, combining elements of the Colonial Revival
style preferred by the Treasury Department
for new post offices in the early 20th century with the Streamline Moderne
style predominating in the late 1930s. Its interior features a wall relief
by Elliot Means, one of the many public art
works commissioned by the Works Progress Administration
. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places
in 1989.
steel frame
building with a buff brick exterior. It is square-shaped with a rear wing and flat roof.
The central three bays of the front facade
are done in a symmetrical
, vertical pattern of scalloped limestone
, with some marble
trim. Polished aluminum letters attached to the facade above the main entrance identify the building as a post office and its location. Some aluminum lampposts have been added since the building's construction.
Aluminum is also used for the doors and vestibule
, leading on to the L-shaped lobby
, almost intact from its original design. Ceramic
tile
is used for the flooring and dado
to counter height. Vertical scalloping similar to that in the exterior is used on the plaster
ceiling's molded
cornice
.
On the wall above the entrance to the postmaster
's office is "Communication", a relief
by sculptor Elliot Means. It depicts a partially clothed woman, surrounded by the moon, clouds, stars, mountains and waves, shooting a bow with flaming arrow.
The land was purchased for $20,000 in 1935. The next year, the post office was built for $90,000. Treasury Supervising Architect Louis Simon used an austere Colonial Revival
design, demonstrated by the building's fenestration
, brick facing and multi-paned sash window
s. Variations on this basic design can be found in other New York post offices Simon built during this period.
But to a far greater degree than other post offices he built during this period elsewhere in the state, he incorporated more contemporary, Art Deco
and Streamline Moderne
elements, such as the expansive brick face, the use of aluminum in the transom
, the limestone scalloping and the lack of exterior ornamentation
or cornice
otherwise. Only the post office in the Chemung County
village of Waverly
, almost an exact copy of Suffern's, uses this many modernistic
elements.
Means' relief was added in 1937, and fluorescent lighting was installed in the lobby in 1965. There have been no major changes besides those to the building since it was opened.
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...
in Suffern
Suffern, New York
Suffern is a village in the Town of Ramapo, Rockland County, New York, United States located north of the State of New Jersey; east of Hillburn; south of Montebello and west of Airmont...
, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, is located on Chestnut Street between NY 59
New York State Route 59
New York State Route 59 is an east–west state highway in southern Rockland County, New York, in the United States. The route extends for from NY 17 in Hillburn to U.S. Route 9W in Nyack. In Suffern, it has a concurrency with US 202 for . NY 59 runs parallel to the New...
and US 202
U.S. Route 202 in New York
U.S. Route 202 is a part of the U.S. Highway System that runs from New Castle, Delaware, to Bangor, Maine. In the U.S. state of New York, US 202 extends from the New Jersey state line near Suffern to the Connecticut state line east of Brewster. While most of US 202 is signed...
, on the northern edge of the village's downtown business district. It serves the ZIP Code
ZIP Code
ZIP codes are a system of postal codes used by the United States Postal Service since 1963. The term ZIP, an acronym for Zone Improvement Plan, is properly written in capital letters and was chosen to suggest that the mail travels more efficiently, and therefore more quickly, when senders use the...
10901, covering the village of Suffern.
It was built during the New Deal
New Deal
The New Deal was a series of economic programs implemented in the United States between 1933 and 1936. They were passed by the U.S. Congress during the first term of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The programs were Roosevelt's responses to the Great Depression, and focused on what historians call...
and reflects that era's architectural style
Architectural style
Architectural styles classify architecture in terms of the use of form, techniques, materials, time period, region and other stylistic influences. It overlaps with, and emerges from the study of the evolution and history of architecture...
s, combining elements of the Colonial Revival
Colonial Revival architecture
The Colonial Revival was a nationalistic architectural style, garden design, and interior design movement in the United States which sought to revive elements of Georgian architecture, part of a broader Colonial Revival Movement in the arts. In the early 1890s Americans began to value their own...
style preferred by the Treasury Department
United States Department of the Treasury
The Department of the Treasury is an executive department and the treasury of the United States federal government. It was established by an Act of Congress in 1789 to manage government revenue...
for new post offices in the early 20th century with the Streamline 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...
style predominating in the late 1930s. Its interior features a wall relief
Relief
Relief is a sculptural technique. The term relief is from the Latin verb levo, to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is thus to give the impression that the sculpted material has been raised above the background plane...
by Elliot Means, one of the many public art
Public art
The term public art properly refers to works of art in any media that have been planned and executed with the specific intention of being sited or staged in the physical public domain, usually outside and accessible to all...
works commissioned by the Works Progress Administration
Works Progress Administration
The Works Progress Administration was the largest and most ambitious New Deal agency, employing millions of unskilled workers to carry out public works projects, including the construction of public buildings and roads, and operated large arts, drama, media, and literacy projects...
. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
in 1989.
Building
The post office is a single-story, five-bayBay (architecture)
A bay is a unit of form in architecture. This unit is defined as the zone between the outer edges of an engaged column, pilaster, or post; or within a window frame, doorframe, or vertical 'bas relief' wall form.-Defining elements:...
steel frame
Steel frame
Steel frame usually refers to a building technique with a "skeleton frame" of vertical steel columns and horizontal -beams, constructed in a rectangular grid to support the floors, roof and walls of a building which are all attached to the frame...
building with a buff brick exterior. It is square-shaped with a rear wing and flat roof.
The central three bays of the front facade
Facade
A facade or façade is generally one exterior side of a building, usually, but not always, the front. The word comes from the French language, literally meaning "frontage" or "face"....
are done in a symmetrical
Symmetry
Symmetry generally conveys two primary meanings. The first is an imprecise sense of harmonious or aesthetically pleasing proportionality and balance; such that it reflects beauty or perfection...
, vertical pattern of scalloped limestone
Limestone
Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate . Many limestones are composed from skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral or foraminifera....
, with some marble
Marble
Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or dolomite.Geologists use the term "marble" to refer to metamorphosed limestone; however stonemasons use the term more broadly to encompass unmetamorphosed limestone.Marble is commonly used for...
trim. Polished aluminum letters attached to the facade above the main entrance identify the building as a post office and its location. Some aluminum lampposts have been added since the building's construction.
Aluminum is also used for the doors and vestibule
Vestibule (architecture)
A vestibule is a lobby, entrance hall, or passage between the entrance and the interior of a building.The same term can apply to structures in modern or ancient roman architecture. In modern architecture vestibule typically refers to a small room or hall between an entrance and the interior of...
, leading on to the L-shaped 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....
, almost intact from its original design. Ceramic
Ceramic
A ceramic is an inorganic, nonmetallic solid prepared by the action of heat and subsequent cooling. Ceramic materials may have a crystalline or partly crystalline structure, or may be amorphous...
tile
Tile
A tile is a manufactured piece of hard-wearing material such as ceramic, stone, metal, or even glass. Tiles are generally used for covering roofs, floors, walls, showers, or other objects such as tabletops...
is used for the flooring and dado
Dado (architecture)
In architectural terminology, the dado, borrowed from Italian meaning die or plinth, is the lower part of a wall, below the dado rail and above the skirting board....
to counter height. Vertical scalloping similar to that in the exterior is used on the plaster
Plaster
Plaster is a building material used for coating walls and ceilings. Plaster starts as a dry powder similar to mortar or cement and like those materials it is mixed with water to form a paste which liberates heat and then hardens. Unlike mortar and cement, plaster remains quite soft after setting,...
ceiling's molded
Molding (decorative)
Molding or moulding is a strip of material with various profiles used to cover transitions between surfaces or for decoration. It is traditionally made from solid milled wood or plaster but may be made from plastic or reformed wood...
cornice
Cornice
Cornice molding is generally any horizontal decorative molding that crowns any building or furniture element: the cornice over a door or window, for instance, or the cornice around the edge of a pedestal. A simple cornice may be formed just with a crown molding.The function of the projecting...
.
On the wall above the entrance to the postmaster
Postmaster
A postmaster is the head of an individual post office. Postmistress is not used anymore in the United States, as the "master" component of the word refers to a person of authority and has no gender quality...
's office is "Communication", a relief
Relief
Relief is a sculptural technique. The term relief is from the Latin verb levo, to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is thus to give the impression that the sculpted material has been raised above the background plane...
by sculptor Elliot Means. It depicts a partially clothed woman, surrounded by the moon, clouds, stars, mountains and waves, shooting a bow with flaming arrow.
History
Suffern's first post office was established in 1797 by founding settler John Suffern, but fell into disuse a decade later. A village post office was formally reestablished in 1858 and used several rented spaces over the years. In 1931, the Treasury Department, which was then the Post Office's parent agency, got Congress to appropriate money for a standalone post office building in several New York communities, Suffern included.The land was purchased for $20,000 in 1935. The next year, the post office was built for $90,000. Treasury Supervising Architect Louis Simon used an austere Colonial Revival
Colonial Revival architecture
The Colonial Revival was a nationalistic architectural style, garden design, and interior design movement in the United States which sought to revive elements of Georgian architecture, part of a broader Colonial Revival Movement in the arts. In the early 1890s Americans began to value their own...
design, demonstrated by the building's fenestration
Window
A window is a transparent or translucent opening in a wall or door that allows the passage of light and, if not closed or sealed, air and sound. Windows are usually glazed or covered in some other transparent or translucent material like float glass. Windows are held in place by frames, which...
, brick facing and multi-paned sash window
Sash window
A sash window or hung sash window is made of one or more movable panels or "sashes" that form a frame to hold panes of glass, which are often separated from other panes by narrow muntins...
s. Variations on this basic design can be found in other New York post offices Simon built during this period.
But to a far greater degree than other post offices he built during this period elsewhere in the state, he incorporated more contemporary, 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...
and Streamline 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...
elements, such as the expansive brick face, the use of aluminum in the transom
Transom (architectural)
In architecture, a transom is the term given to a transverse beam or bar in a frame, or to the crosspiece separating a door or the like from a window or fanlight above it. Transom is also the customary U.S. word used for a transom light, the window over this crosspiece...
, the limestone scalloping and the lack of exterior ornamentation
Ornament (architecture)
In architecture and decorative art, ornament is a decoration used to embellish parts of a building or object. Large figurative elements such as monumental sculpture and their equivalents in decorative art are excluded from the term; most ornament does not include human figures, and if present they...
or cornice
Cornice
Cornice molding is generally any horizontal decorative molding that crowns any building or furniture element: the cornice over a door or window, for instance, or the cornice around the edge of a pedestal. A simple cornice may be formed just with a crown molding.The function of the projecting...
otherwise. Only the post office in the Chemung County
Chemung County, New York
Chemung County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York. It is part of the 'Elmira, New York Metropolitan Statistical Area' which encompasses all of Chemung County. As of the 2010 census, the population was 88,830. Its name is derived from the name of a Delaware Indian village . Its...
village of Waverly
Waverly
Waverly is an English unisex given name meaning "quaking aspen". It can also be a last name.Waverly may also refer to:-Places:United States*Waverly, Alabama*Waverly, California*Waverly, Colorado*Waverly, Florida*Waverly, Georgia...
, almost an exact copy of Suffern's, uses this many modernistic
Modern architecture
Modern architecture is generally characterized by simplification of form and creation of ornament from the structure and theme of the building. It is a term applied to an overarching movement, with its exact definition and scope varying widely...
elements.
Means' relief was added in 1937, and fluorescent lighting was installed in the lobby in 1965. There have been no major changes besides those to the building since it was opened.