Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in
1986. A historic map-sheet match is not published yet. The record needs a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary.
From the record
“The US Post Office-South Hadley Main is a historic post office at 1 Hadley Street in South Hadley, Massachusetts. Built in 1940 as part of a federal government jobs program, it is a prominent local example of simplified Classical Revival architecture.”
Wikipedia article United States Post Office-South Hadley Main, CC BY-SA 4.0.
one of 32 National Register listings in Hampshire County · listed in 1986 · category: Building.
National Register reference number.86001188- 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.
Fires near this property
175 since 2001
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The
federal wildfire occurrence database
lists 175 fires within 5 miles of US Post Office--South Hadley Main between
2001 and 2020, burning about 366 acres in total. 21 started naturally. 2 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
65
Equipment and vehicle use
58
Natural
21
Debris and open burning
15
Recreation and ceremony
13
Arson/incendiarism
2
Smoking
1
The most recent of
them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service
that recorded it.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. Museums hold 5,832 specimens
collected within 10 miles of US Post Office--South Hadley Main between 1781 and
1975: 2,846 Plantae, 1,519 Fungi, 1,260 Animalia, 133 Chromista, 64 Protozoa, 9 Unrecorded, 1 Bacteria. 12 distinct Species records are shown.
Collected by A. Albee, A. Allen, A. B. Seymour and others. Each is a
physical object with a catalogue
number, and each entry opens the museum's record. This is what was
collected and kept, not a survey of what lives here - nothing can be
concluded from a species being absent.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists
17 workings within 5 miles of US Post Office--South Hadley Main: 10 producers, 6 past producers, 1 unknown.
10 still produce. What was taken out: Stone, Crushed/Broken, Brick Clay, Clay, Stone, Dimension. Distance is straight-line from the
map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring
settlement's page as well.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The National Weather Service names
South Hadley, the town this property stands in, in 14 storm reports between 1996 and 2025: 6 thunderstorm wind, 6 hail, 2 flash flood.
No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office
filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date
opens the federal record of that event.
In Northampton, Route 9 near the VA hospital was flooded with a foot of water. Portions of Market and State Streets were flooded. King Street was flooded in front of the McDonald's. Multiple basements along Church Street were flooded with 6 to 8 feet of water. Portions of route 202 in South Hadley were flooded with at least a foot of water.
No historic map-sheet match is published
for this property yet. That does not mean no map exists. This record needs
a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary.
Browse the county's mapped places while that work is
pending.
From the nomination file
5,003 words on record
When this property was proposed for the
National Register, someone wrote the case for it: what the building is,
and why it matters. That document is a federal record in the public domain.
It is quoted below word for word, never summarised. The text was read off the scanned case file by machine, so the
occasional stray character is the recogniser's and the 1970s
typewriter's.
Description of the property
Situated on a pleasant, tree shaded conmon of a small. New England town, this Poat Offiee 1a a struature that reinforces the importance of this town center. Other budldinga located around the connon inelude & church and aoadente buildings oiroa 1880, two attractive frame houses of the early 1800 sy whioh have been converted to restaurantuse, a bank and small conmereial bulldings. The Post Office situated to naximize its corner loeation is designed in a stmplified claasioal style ofsymetrioal masssing and unornamented surfacea. Asense of dignity and government strength is evident in the three bay entrance portieo whieh fronts the connon. Massive columns are sheathed in 1ight Iimestone which support an entablature of THE sane material which ia carried around the building.
The extertor is red briek laid in English bond with a granite basey granite stepa (with wrought fron railings) provide access to the portico which has a floor of bluestone. Large scale window with wood double hung sash of 12/12 1ights flood the Interior with light; the roof is flat with a projecting monitor seation in the center. The lobby ia not a particularly distinguished space, but contains many elements of the original design. The floor is terrazzo and there is a seven foot marble wainsoot with plaster walls above; original mouldings, open grill work and the wood and glass entrance vestibule are intact. The building was substantially enlarged and remodelled in 1968 to accommodate increased activity in postal services.
This resulted in modernization of the lobby; partial acoustic ceiling, glass and aluminum partition and fluorescent light fixtures which detract from the original design of the interior. The exterior of the addition blends well with the original buflding and is not detrimental to the influential position of this public buiding.
Statement of significance
BUILDER/ARCHITECT Leon Pernice, Architect J.D. Hedia Construction Co. Builder Ihta property ia of prime importanoe 1n the enbancement of a small town common. The only bullding in the vioinity of this architeotural style and vith its strong presence it neasures the progresston of arohiteotural derelopment along with neighboring struatures surrounding the green. The unusual ourved colonade,boldand severein deatga gives ritality and meaning to thia publio space which is a genter of aotivity for the adjacent college community and surrounding area. The South Hadley Post Office, designed by Arehtteot Leon Pernice who practtoed in West Springfleld, Massachusetts, is typioal of the pertod when federal buildinga were built to designs that originated within the Publie BuiIdings Administration.
Speedy and effioient construetion was emphasized to reliere umemployment and stimulate the economy. The design reflects the polioy of the administration during this period which stipulated standardized plans, simplified classical design and a movement toward modernisn. A one-of-a-kind property resulted when Architect Pernice enclosed the standardized building requirement with an exterior that incorporates regional expression along with the design prerequisites of the administration.
Quoted from the National Register nomination
for reference 86001188, 30 pages, held by the National Archives in Record
Group 79. See the
catalogue record.
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.
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.
Specimens. Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), https://www.gbif.org/. Only records licensed CC0 or CC BY are used. Records licensed CC BY-NC are excluded because this site carries advertising. Images are checked individually and any whose licence is non-commercial, no-derivatives or unreadable is refused.
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.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.
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