Old Chicago Main Post Office Building
- Architect
- Graham, Anderson, Probst and White
- Year
- 1921
- Style
- Art Deco
- City
- Chicago, IL
- Collection
- chicago deco
The Old Chicago Main Post Office, designed by Graham, Anderson, Probst & White and completed in 1921 for the U.S. Postal Service, was sized to handle the enormous mail volume generated by Chicago's mail-order giants, Montgomery Ward and Sears. A 1932 expansion added nine floors and pushed the building to 2.5 million square feet, large enough to span the Eisenhower Expressway. The Postal Service moved out in 1997, and after the building was sold in 2009 and restored, it reopened with offices for Ferrara Candy, PepsiCo, Cisco Systems, Uber, CBOE, and other companies.
the building
Spanning the expressway. The building's mass literally straddles the Eisenhower Expressway as it becomes Ida B. Wells Drive, a footprint that resulted from the 1932 expansion, which added nine floors and more than 60 acres of floor space.
the style
The building combines Neoclassical massing with Art Deco-era detailing, styles typical of Graham, Anderson, Probst & White's large civic and commercial commissions of the 1920s.
More on Art Decothe architect
Graham, Anderson, Probst and White designed the building, one of the major architecture firms working in Chicago in the early twentieth century.
significance
Designated a Chicago Landmark (L-347) in 2018 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places, recognition that followed the building's transformation from postal facility to corporate campus after the Postal Service sold it in 2009.
nearby
- Union Station
- Willis Tower
- Brooks Building
- 300 West Adams Street Office Building
- Chicago Board of Trade Building
- Old St. Patrick's Church