Photograph of United States Post Office — Photograph by ALT55 - Victor M, CC BY-SA 3.0. Via Wikimedia Commons.

US Post Office-Metropolitan Station

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1988. 16 historic topographic surveys show this location, the earliest from 1889.

From the record

“US Post Office-Metropolitan Station, originally known as Station "A," is a historic post office building located at Williamsburg in Brooklyn, New York, United States. It was built in 1936, and is one of a number of post offices in New York designed by the Office of the Supervising Architect under Louis A.”
Wikipedia article United States Post Office (Williamsburg, Brooklyn), CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 207 National Register listings published here for Kings County · listed in 1988 · category: Building.

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

The listing

What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 1 building as contributing to the listing.
Listed as. US Post Office--Metropolitan Station - the National Register files a house under its owner's surname.
Address. 47 Debevoise St., New York, 11206
When was it listed? November 1988
Category. building
Also known as. US Post Offices in New York State, 1858-1943, TR
Borough. Brooklyn
Architectural style. Colonial Revival architecture
National Register reference number. 88002462 - 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 US Post Office-Metropolitan Station, surveyed 1995

Topographic sheet covering US Post Office-Metropolitan Station, surveyed 1889

Fires near this property

2,272 since 2002

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 2,272 fires within 5 miles of US Post Office-Metropolitan Station between 2002 and 2020, burning about 637 acres in total. 134 started naturally. 157 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	1562
Arson/incendiarism	157
Natural	134
Smoking	131
Equipment and vehicle use	82
Misuse of fire by a minor	78
Debris and open burning	75
Fireworks	24
Recreation and ceremony	14
Power generation/transmission/distribution	8
Railroad operations and maintenance	7

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	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	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

8 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 8 workings within 5 miles of US Post Office-Metropolitan Station: 5 occurrences, 3 unknowns. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Iron, Lead, Molybdenum, Beryllium. 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
69th/70th Sts & 2nd Ave Deposit	Iron, Garnet, Titanium	Occurrence
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
William Ulmer Brewery Complex	0.3 miles	2024
Industrial Complex at 221 McKibbin Street	0.4 miles	2009
Williamsburg Houses	0.6 miles	2021
German Evangelical Lutheran St. John's Church	0.7 miles	2019
Moslem Mosque	0.8 miles	2021
Public School 71K	0.8 miles	1982

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 88002462 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.