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U.S. Post Office (Delmar, New York)
Encyclopedia
The U.S. Post Office in Delmar, New York is located on Delaware Avenue (NY 443
) in the middle of the hamlet. It serves the 12054 ZIP Code
, covering Delmar and its surrounding area. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places
in 1988. To date it is the only current post office in Albany County
on the Register.
It is a small brick building constructed in 1939, near the end of the Great Depression
. Louis A. Simon
, the Treasury Department's supervising architect
at that time, designed 13 total post offices for New York in the Colonial Revival
style
similar to Delmar
's. But that one was the only one from whose design he omitted a cupola
. The lobby is decorated with a mural
, painted under Works Progress Administration
auspices, showing a scene of the Indian Ladder at nearby John Boyd Thacher State Park
.
brick building with stone
water table. Its double-doored main entrance is at the top of a set of granite
steps with iron
railings. The door is surrounded by fluted
Doric
pilaster
s and an entablature
; above it is a fanlight
with cast aluminum eagle
. The words "UNITED STATES POST OFFICE" are spelled out in bronze
letters across the frieze
, with "DELMAR 12054 NEW YORK" above the door.
On either side of the door are two original lamps and two windows with limestone
sills and lintels. A wooden dentiled cornice
runs around the roofline. Above it is a slate
gable
d roof.
The side elevations have a pair of windows each. The gable ends are sided in clapboard
with a semicircular opening with radiating mullion
s. At the rear are two wings: one three-bay workroom wing where the cornice is replaced with a parapet
. A four-bay wing, added later, duplicates the roof detailing on the main building but is not considered contributing
.
On the inside, the entry leads to a wooden vestibule
with paneled pilasters. The L-shaped lobby
has a red-and-black terrazzo
floor, white marble
dado
and dark marble baseboards. They give way to plaster
, which forms a simple cornice at the junction of wall and ceiling. A 1940 mural
, "The Indian Ladder", by Works Progress Administration
artist Sol Wilson fills the wall above the postmaster
's office. Many of the original furnishings remain.
d in a building on Elsemere Avenue. A single-family house, demolished
after the new building was authorized in the mid-1930s, stood on the present site. General contractor
s Loucks and Clarke of Wallingford, Connecticut
won the bid and broke ground in 1939, opening the new building the following year.
The post office has seen only one significant change since then. The rear wing was built in 1959 to handle increased volume.
in its original design (Attica
's had one when built, but it has since been removed).
New York State Route 443
New York State Route 443 is an east–west state highway in the Capital District of New York in the United States. The route begins at an intersection with NY 30 in the town of Schoharie and ends later at a junction with U.S. Route 9W and US 20 in the city of Albany...
) in the middle of the hamlet. It serves the 12054 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...
, covering Delmar and its surrounding area. 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 1988. To date it is the only current post office in Albany County
Albany County, New York
Albany County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York, and is part of the Albany-Schenectady-Troy Metropolitan Statistical Area. The name is from the title of the Duke of York and Albany, who became James II of England . As of the 2010 census, the population was 304,204...
on the Register.
It is a small brick building constructed in 1939, near the end of the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
. Louis A. Simon
Louis A. Simon
Louis A. Simon was an American architect.Simon was educated at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Following a tour of Europe, he opened an architectural office in Baltimore, Maryland in 1894....
, the Treasury Department's supervising architect
Architecture
Architecture is both the process and product of planning, designing and construction. Architectural works, in the material form of buildings, are often perceived as cultural and political symbols and as works of art...
at that time, designed 13 total post offices for New York in 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
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...
similar to Delmar
Delmar, New York
Delmar is a hamlet in the town of Bethlehem, Albany County, New York. A census-designated place has been established since 1980 by the US Bureau of Census for tabulating the population of what the census has defined as the boundaries of the urbanized area in and around Delmar. The population was...
's. But that one was the only one from whose design he omitted a cupola
Cupola
In architecture, a cupola is a small, most-often dome-like, structure on top of a building. Often used to provide a lookout or to admit light and air, it usually crowns a larger roof or dome....
. The lobby is decorated with a mural
Mural
A mural is any piece of artwork painted or applied directly on a wall, ceiling or other large permanent surface. A particularly distinguishing characteristic of mural painting is that the architectural elements of the given space are harmoniously incorporated into the picture.-History:Murals of...
, painted under 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...
auspices, showing a scene of the Indian Ladder at nearby John Boyd Thacher State Park
John Boyd Thacher State Park
John Boyd Thacher State Park is a state park located 15 miles southwest of Albany, New York near Voorheesville, in Albany County on State Route 157...
.
Building
The post office is a one-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:...
brick building with stone
Stonemasonry
The craft of stonemasonry has existed since the dawn of civilization - creating buildings, structures, and sculpture using stone from the earth. These materials have been used to construct many of the long-lasting, ancient monuments, artifacts, cathedrals, and cities in a wide variety of cultures...
water table. Its double-doored main entrance is at the top of a set of granite
Granite
Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...
steps with iron
Iron
Iron is a chemical element with the symbol Fe and atomic number 26. It is a metal in the first transition series. It is the most common element forming the planet Earth as a whole, forming much of Earth's outer and inner core. It is the fourth most common element in the Earth's crust...
railings. The door is surrounded by fluted
Fluting (architecture)
Fluting in architecture refers to the shallow grooves running vertically along a surface.It typically refers to the grooves running on a column shaft or a pilaster, but need not necessarily be restricted to those two applications...
Doric
Doric order
The Doric order was one of the three orders or organizational systems of ancient Greek or classical architecture; the other two canonical orders were the Ionic and the Corinthian.-History:...
pilaster
Pilaster
A pilaster is a slightly-projecting column built into or applied to the face of a wall. Most commonly flattened or rectangular in form, pilasters can also take a half-round form or the shape of any type of column, including tortile....
s and an entablature
Entablature
An entablature refers to the superstructure of moldings and bands which lie horizontally above columns, resting on their capitals. Entablatures are major elements of classical architecture, and are commonly divided into the architrave , the frieze ,...
; above it is a fanlight
Fanlight
A fanlight is a window, semicircular or semi-elliptical in shape, with glazing bars or tracery sets radiating out like an open fan, It is placed over another window or a doorway. and is sometimes hinged to a transom. The bars in the fixed glazed window spread out in the manner a sunburst...
with cast aluminum eagle
Eagle
Eagles are members of the bird family Accipitridae, and belong to several genera which are not necessarily closely related to each other. Most of the more than 60 species occur in Eurasia and Africa. Outside this area, just two species can be found in the United States and Canada, nine more in...
. The words "UNITED STATES POST OFFICE" are spelled out in 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...
letters across the frieze
Frieze
thumb|267px|Frieze of the [[Tower of the Winds]], AthensIn architecture the frieze is the wide central section part of an entablature and may be plain in the Ionic or Doric order, or decorated with bas-reliefs. Even when neither columns nor pilasters are expressed, on an astylar wall it lies upon...
, with "DELMAR 12054 NEW YORK" above the door.
On either side of the door are two original lamps and two windows with 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....
sills and lintels. A wooden dentiled 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...
runs around the roofline. Above it is a slate
Slate
Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. The result is a foliated rock in which the foliation may not correspond to the original sedimentary layering...
gable
Gable
A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of a sloping roof. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system being used and aesthetic concerns. Thus the type of roof enclosing the volume dictates the shape of the gable...
d roof.
The side elevations have a pair of windows each. The gable ends are sided in clapboard
Clapboard (architecture)
Clapboard, also known as bevel siding or lap siding or weather-board , is a board used typically for exterior horizontal siding that has one edge thicker than the other and where the board above laps over the one below...
with a semicircular opening with radiating mullion
Mullion
A mullion is a vertical structural element which divides adjacent window units. The primary purpose of the mullion is as a structural support to an arch or lintel above the window opening. Its secondary purpose may be as a rigid support to the glazing of the window...
s. At the rear are two wings: one three-bay workroom wing where the cornice is replaced with a parapet
Parapet
A parapet is a wall-like barrier at the edge of a roof, terrace, balcony or other structure. Where extending above a roof, it may simply be the portion of an exterior wall that continues above the line of the roof surface, or may be a continuation of a vertical feature beneath the roof such as a...
. A four-bay wing, added later, duplicates the roof detailing on the main building but is not considered contributing
Contributing property
In the law regulating historic districts in the United States, a contributing resource or contributing property is any building, structure, or object which adds to the historical integrity or architectural qualities that make the historic district, listed locally or federally, significant...
.
On the inside, the entry leads to a wooden 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...
with paneled pilasters. 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....
has a red-and-black 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, white 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...
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....
and dark marble baseboards. They give way to 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,...
, which forms a simple cornice at the junction of wall and ceiling. A 1940 mural
Mural
A mural is any piece of artwork painted or applied directly on a wall, ceiling or other large permanent surface. A particularly distinguishing characteristic of mural painting is that the architectural elements of the given space are harmoniously incorporated into the picture.-History:Murals of...
, "The Indian Ladder", by 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...
artist Sol Wilson fills the wall above 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. Many of the original furnishings remain.
History
Delmar had had a post office since 1840, in space leaseLease
A lease is a contractual arrangement calling for the lessee to pay the lessor for use of an asset. A rental agreement is a lease in which the asset is tangible property...
d in a building on Elsemere Avenue. A single-family house, demolished
Demolition
Demolition is the tearing-down of buildings and other structures, the opposite of construction. Demolition contrasts with deconstruction, which involves taking a building apart while carefully preserving valuable elements for re-use....
after the new building was authorized in the mid-1930s, stood on the present site. General contractor
General contractor
A general contractor is responsible for the day-to-day oversight of a construction site, management of vendors and trades, and communication of information to involved parties throughout the course of a building project.-Description:...
s Loucks and Clarke of Wallingford, Connecticut
Wallingford, Connecticut
Wallingford is a town in New Haven County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 43,026 at the 2000 census.- History :Wallingford was established on October 10, 1667, when the Connecticut General Assembly authorized the "making of a village on the east river" to 38 planters and freemen...
won the bid and broke ground in 1939, opening the new building the following year.
The post office has seen only one significant change since then. The rear wing was built in 1959 to handle increased volume.
Aesthetics
Louis Simon, Supervising Architect of the Treasury 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 a cupolaCupola
In architecture, a cupola is a small, most-often dome-like, structure on top of a building. Often used to provide a lookout or to admit light and air, it usually crowns a larger roof or dome....
in its original design (Attica
Attica (village), New York
Attica is a village in Wyoming County, New York in the USA. The population was 2,597 at the 2000 census. It is named after a region in Greece.The Village of Attica is on the northern border of Wyoming County...
's had one when built, but it has since been removed).