US Post Office--Newburyport Main

DATE_ _LOCAL CONTEXT_ Within Newburyport's downtown historic district, the Newburyport Post Office is located at one of the city's main intersections, Pleasant and Green Streets. Adjacent are business offices, storefront retail, two churches (a Baptist Church to the west and the Church of the First Religious Society to the east), Brown Square Park, and Newburyport City Hall (built in 1851 in an Italian Villa style with rusticated quoins, gable roof, and round-headed pediment windows). A new brick sidewalk has been laid throughout the area. _PHYSICAL APPEARANCE_ Overall, the building and corner lot are in good condition.

Its distinctive features include three large arched, marble-trimmed openings with a Palladian motif, symmetrical floorplan and elevation, a hip roof, brick quoins, and a marble belt course and cornice line. The structure is on the front portion of the site, with a paved vehicle maneuvering area occupying most of the east side and all of the back of the property. In plan the building has an original vestibule that leads to a public lobby flanked by the Postmaster's office to the right and service area to the left. Behind theservice screen is theworkroom with mail vestibule and platform beyond. Seven granite steps with brass pipe railings create the main approach. Low wing walls, brick with a marble cap, frame the stairs; on top are cast iron lampposts.

The front (north) elevation is a five-bay structure with a three-bay central projecting entrance. The elevations are of red brick laid in an English bond with corner quoins reminiscent of the adjacent City Hall. The windows are double-hung wood sash, 12/12 lights with marble sills and keystones.

Arnold Shorrick, Architects Repairs: 1975 The Newburyport Main Post Office building is situated in the heart of Newburyport's historic downtown. Built in 1928 it was designed in the Colonial or more specifically, Georgian Revival style. Architecturally it is significant as an example of the U.S. Treasury Department's policy during the 1910's and 1920's to erect "buildings adapted to local conditions and in keeping with the importance of the communities in which they are erected." Compatibility, interiors forms, style and materials with surrounding structures is the Newburyport Post Office building's chief hallmark. The monumentality, expensive building materials and lavish interior treatments, typical of the early 1900's post office design, is no where in evidence.

Its boxey red brick with stone trimmed form complememts the red brick Italianate City Hall (1851) and other buildings in the immediate area. During the mid 1970's, Newburyport was one of 799 towns and cities determined eligible for a Federal building by a U. S. Treasury Department survey. The Newburyport Post Office building owes its existence to the Public Buildings Act of 1926 - a general enabling act which allotted $100,000.00 for buildings outside the District of Columbia. The building falls within Class C of the Secretary of the Treasury's 1915 Classification of Buildings by virtue of its location within a "second class city" and the type of materials employed in its construction. This building!'s.U.S, Treasury Supervising Architect was James A.

Wetmore - born November 10, 1863 in Bath, New York, he was a graduate of Georgetown University. He began work as a law and court stenographer and joined the U.S. Treasury Department in 1885. Over a 45 year period, he held positions within the U.S. Treasury Department ranging from stenographer to Supervising Architect. During his tenure at least 2,000 buildings were designed in his office.