US Post Office--Beverly Main

_LOCAL CONTEXT_ The Beverly Post Office is located several blocks southwest of the city's commercial district on Rantoul Street, between Broadway Street and Railroad Avenue. Its site gently slopes down from the front elevation towards Odell Park, a landscaped city block across the street. On the park's opposite side, facing the post office, is the railroad station. Adjacent to the building are small retail and variety shops, two car dealerships, and an apartment block. It appears that urban development projected in 1910 did not materialize, leaving the office within this low-grade commercial area. _PHYSICAL APPREARANCE_ This Ohio sandstone building and its corner lot are in very good condition.

The Post Office is centered on the front portion of the site with sided vehicle maneuvering areas accessible to the side streets. The site is landscaped with lawn and shrubs; the back half is surrounded by a chain-link fence. In plan, the building has a public lobby flanked by the Assistant Postmaster's office to the right and a secondary entry to the left, leading to the Postmaster's office. Behind is the workroom with the mail vestibule and platform off to the left. Thirteen wide granite steps, with granite wing walls featuring iron lampposts, mark the main entry. The front (northwest) elevation is a nine-bay structure with a seven-bay centered lobby pavilion.

Six Tuscan columns support the loggia's unornamented entablature with denticulated cornice, which surround the entire original structure. The portico's soffit consists of a series of sandstone beams with recessed infill plaster panels; each panel contains a spherical fixture while the center panel supports an oversized cylindrical brass and glass lantern. The recessed lobby wall employs careful alignment of large casement windows separated by sandstone pilasters. The replacement aluminum doors are set below a bowed wood lintel.

/ARCHITECTHenry Merritt Wallis - Builder STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE Overlooking 0dell Park and the railroad station, the Beverly Main Post Office building is an important landmark in Beverly. Built in 1910-1911, it is architecturally significant as a Federal Government building representative of the early 20th Century construction and design tenents of the U.S. Treasury Department. In addition, it is significant as one of the later works of James Knox Taylor's tenure as U.S. Supervising Architect (1897-1912). Individualism of design, high quality materials and symbolic content were the hallmarks of Post Offices built during the Taylor years. James Knox Taylor (1857-?) was born in Knoxville, Illinois. He attended M.I.T. from 1877-1879.

During the 1880's and 1890's he was employed in private practice in New York, St. Paul and Philadelphia. In 1895 he began work as a draftsman in the office of the U.S. Supervising Architect in Washington, D.C. He was appointed Supervisory Architect in 1897. During his tenure the number of buildings under Treasury Department control increased from 399 in 1899 to 1,126 in 1912. Most of the Post Offices outside major cities after 1904 were designed within the Treasury Department. Examples of Taylor's works included U.S. Government buildings at the Trans Mississippi Exhibition (1897) and Louisiana Purchase Exposition (1904-05). Taylor's Boston area post offices included buildings at Brockton, Ma (1898), Fitchburg, MA (1901), Lawrence, MA (1905), and Chelsea, MA (1912).

After 1912, Taylor became the Director of the Department of Architecture at M.I.T. Stylistically, the Beverly Main Post Office is an unusual,highly successful marriage of Classical tradition with the Colonial Revival (Georgian) style. Its main facade is dominated by a monumental Turcan columned loggia. The cupola topped gable roof with its three Colonial Revival dormers strikes a domestic note which contrasts with the formation of the main facade.