Federal Building and Post Office

Built in 1891 (Romanesque Revival architecture). Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974. 16 historic topographic surveys show this location, the earliest from 1889.

From the record

“The Federal Building and Post Office is a historic main post office, courthouse, and Federal office building at 271-301 Cadman Plaza East in the Downtown Brooklyn neighborhood of Brooklyn in New York City. The original building was the Brooklyn General Post Office, and is now the Downtown Brooklyn Station, and the north addition is the courthouse for the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of New York, and is across the street from and in the jurisdiction of the main courthouse of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York, the Theodore Roosevelt United States Courthouse.”
Wikipedia article Federal Building and Post Office (Brooklyn), CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 207 National Register listings published here for Kings County · listed in 1974 · category: Building · built in 1891, Romanesque Revival architecture, by Mifflin E. Bell.

Sources: the Wikipedia article · the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service

The listing

What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 1 building as contributing to the listing.
Address. 271 Cadman Plaza, E., New York, 11201
When was it listed? October 1974
Category. building
Borough. Brooklyn
When was it built? 1891
Architectural style. Romanesque Revival architecture
Architect. Mifflin E. Bell
National Register reference number. 74001250 - the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.

Then and now

1889 to 1995

The ground this property stands on, surveyed 106 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet covering Federal Building and Post Office, surveyed 1995

Topographic sheet covering Federal Building and Post Office, surveyed 1889

Fires near this property

1,438 since 2002

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 1,438 fires within 5 miles of Federal Building and Post Office between 2002 and 2020, burning about 406 acres in total. 91 started naturally. 122 were recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause	Fires
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	938
Arson/incendiarism	122
Natural	91
Smoking	87
Debris and open burning	62
Equipment and vehicle use	55
Misuse of fire by a minor	33
Fireworks	27
Recreation and ceremony	10
Railroad operations and maintenance	8
Power generation/transmission/distribution	3
Other causes	2

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

Date	Cause	Size	Reported by	Name on the report
9 September 2015	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	NA
9 September 2014	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named
9 September 2010	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named
9 September 2005	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named
9 September 2005	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named
9 September 2005	Smoking	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named
8 September 2014	Smoking	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named
8 September 2011	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named

Every fire recorded in Kings County

Mines and quarries near this property

9 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 9 workings within 5 miles of Federal Building and Post Office: 5 unknowns, 4 occurrences. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Iron, Lead, Graphite, Manganese. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Site	Commodity	Status
49th St & 1st Ave Beryl Deposit	Beryllium	Occurrence
Dixon Crucible/ Jersey City, N.J.	Graphite	Unknown
General Metallic Oxides/Jersey City	Manganese	Unknown
Manhattan Island Occurrence	Molybdenum	Occurrence
N L Industries/ Brooklyn. N.Y.	Lead	Unknown
Roosevelt Metal/ Brooklyn, N.Y.	Lead	Unknown
2nd St & 4th Ave Siderite Deposit	Iron	Occurrence
55th/56th Sts & 3rd Ave Deposit	Iron	Occurrence
D Smith Steel/ Brooklyn, N.Y.	Iron	Unknown

Every working recorded in Kings County

Maps showing this location

16 surveys

United States Geological Survey topographic sheets whose coverage includes this point. Matched by taking the coordinate the National Park Service records for this property, then testing that coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet.

1889 USGS Brooklyn quadrangle1:62500
1891 USGS Brooklyn quadrangle1:62500
1897 USGS Brooklyn quadrangle1:62500 - 3 printings
1898 USGS Brooklyn quadrangle1:62500
1900 USGS Brooklyn quadrangle1:62500 - 11 printings
1947 USGS Brooklyn quadrangle1:24000
1949 USGS New York quadrangle1:250000
1954 USGS New York quadrangle1:250000 - 2 printings
1956 USGS Brooklyn quadrangle1:24000 - 2 printings
1957 USGS New York quadrangle1:250000
1958 USGS New York quadrangle1:250000 - 3 printings
1960 USGS New York quadrangle1:250000 - 2 printings
1967 USGS Brooklyn quadrangle1:24000 - 4 printings
1969 USGS New York quadrangle1:250000
1984 USGS Long Island West quadrangle1:100000 - 2 printings
1995 USGS Brooklyn quadrangle1:24000

Listed places nearby

6 within 8 miles

Other National Register properties close enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties to their map sheets.

Property	Distance	Listed
Brooklyn Trust Company Building	0.1 miles	2009
Brooklyn Historical Society	0.2 miles	1991
Holy Trinity Church (Protestant Episcopal)	0.2 miles	1987
Brooklyn Borough Hall	0.2 miles	1980
Borough Hall Subway Station (IRT)	0.2 miles	2004
Old Brooklyn Fire Headquarters	0.2 miles	1972

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 74001250 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Kings County	All 207 listed properties in this county.

Provenance

Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.