US Post Office--Woburn Center Station

Constructed in 1911, the Woburn Post Office was sited on the northern perimeter of Woburn Common and faced the Old City Hall, razed in 1931 for the construction of the new city government offices. The Post Office was also placed adjacent to the Lowell Branch of the Boston and Maine Railroad, since removed to satisfy the needs of city parking. The public Library, a Richardsonian Romanesque ediface listed in the National Register in 1976, several colonial churches and wood framed homesteads also ringed the loosely formed Common at that time. Unfortunately, the open area immediately in front of the Post Office was privately owned and built upon in the 1950's, blocking the view of, and separating the Post Office from the frontage on the Common.

Several commercial banks and a new courthouse have since been built around the Common. The Woburn Post Office is of formal Neo-Classic design, with a nine bay front entrance facade featuring a projected, center entrance bay. The entrance is flanked by Doric columns supporting a stern, flat entablature carrying a minute pediment. All cut facade details are very straightforward and simple, but unified into a singular bold statement. The finely striated sandstone veneer of all facades rests on a shaped watertable of the same material, supported by a granite veneered foundation. Each delineated transomed window bay is interrupted by a fine frieze which runs continually under the cut blind panels located over each window.

cornice enhanced with an ornate and fully ballustraded cap parapet that provides an aesthetic and visual barrier against the low sloped, standing seam roof. The sandstone chimney is centered on the flat termination roof in the form of a functional cupola.

BUILDER/ARCHITECT James Knox Taylor, Sup. Arch't. Louis A. Simon/W.G. No11 Dedicated in 1912, the Woburn Post Office possesses integrity of location, .design, setting, materials and workmanship as well as significant association with the development of the Woburn Commons section of the city. Additionally, it exemplifies the high standard set by Treasury Architect Taylor and his return of governmental buildings to the classical interpretation and design. It is also significant locally for the symbolic power and dignity of the Federal Presence. Woburn Post Office meets the National Register criteria A and C. The City of Woburn was founded in 1642, becoming the twenty-ninth town of the combined Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay Colonies, and opted for City Government in 1889.

Situated one day's ride on the stage route between Boston and Amherst, New Hampshire, this locale gained importance as an overnight stage stop and, with the passing of the Congressional Act of March 3, 1797 creating a mail stage route on that line, the first Postmaster, Icabod Parker, was commissioned on October 3, 1797. Mr. Parker also operated Fowles Tavern, the stage stop, and conducted post office business in a corner of the main tavern room. In 1803, with the opening of the Middlesex Canal, this agricultural community on the Aberjona River grew to become a primary leather and tanning center in Massachusetts.

By the time the Canal closed in 1853, due in large part do the advent of the railroads, the Post Office had moved some six times, at the discretion of the six appointed Post- masters during those fifty years, and was to move three more times prior to the construction of the present Post Office in 1911.