![]() ![]() The interior has been altered only by the addition of modern heating systems and lockboxes. If those were ever completed and installed, they have since been removed. He had planned for them to cover all walls and be complemented by a series of smaller panels above the tellers' booths. Neoclassical touches were often combined with modernist forms for post offices in larger cities (such as Troy's). After World War I, the Treasury, which oversaw the design and construction of post offices and many other government buildings, began preferring the newer Colonial Revival style for its post offices, particularly those in small towns like Nyack. The choice of a building so firmly in the Classical Revival style is an unusual one for the time. Simon, who became Supervising Architect himself in 1935. Wetmore was primarily a lawyer, and the actual artistic direction of the Treasury at the time was set by Louis A. It was designed under the leadership of James Wetmore, then Acting Supervising Architect of the Treasury Department. In 1926 it was reauthorized and, as the Great Depression started, construction finally began in 1931. Ĭongress authorized a permanent post office for the village in 1910, but it was never built. When the Erie Railroad was completed through the area in 1870, it was put within commuting distance of New York City, and grew as residents who had previously come for the summer built large houses overlooking the Hudson River to the east and lived there year-round. The first post office in the Nyacks was established as part of a store at a landing now in Upper Nyack, in 1835. Two original circular bronze-and-glass customer tables remain. ![]() The north and east murals have decorative grilles as well. On all sides but the west, there are murals by Jacob Getlar Smith of scenes from local history: Native Americans watching Henry Hudson sailing upriver in the Halve Maen, Dutch settlers building a log cabin and John André meeting Benedict Arnold. After passing through a wooden vestibule and small foyer, they open onto a lobby floored with terrazzo in a checkerboard pattern and grey-veined white marble wainscoting to a height of seven feet (2.3 m) on the plaster walls, which have a decorative cornice. They lead to a single metal and glass door, with transom of similar material, recessed between two fluted Doric pilasters with a full Doric entablature. Ī set of stairs with neoclassical bronze railings and low stone walls with claw-footed tripod lamps leads up to the centrally located main entrance. The four-bay rear ends in a loading dock. The three-bay side wings have similar limestone decorations save the cornice and recessed panels. "UNITED STATES POST OFFICE NYACK NEW YORK 10960" is set in gilded metallic letters on the frieze. A cornice of that material with blocks and parapet marks the roofline. Limestone is also used for its quoins and window trim, including recessed panels above and below each one. The east (front) elevation is a central pavilion five bays wide with single-bay wings on either end. It is a one-story building of buff-colored brick in Flemish bond on a raised limestone-clad basement. A house is located on the north side of its driveway. A row of three-story brick buildings faces it from the south side of Hudson. The neighborhood is a mix of commercial, residential and institutional properties. The post office is situated near the northwest corner of the intersection of Broadway and Hudson Avenue. ![]()
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