James Farley Post Office
- Architect
- McKim, Mead & White
- Year
- 1914
- Style
- Beaux-Arts
- City
- Manhattan, NY
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The James A. Farley Building at 421 Eighth Avenue, between 31st and 33rd streets, served as New York's main U.S. Postal Service branch and once housed Pennsylvania Terminal. Designed by McKim, Mead & White in the Beaux-Arts style and built between 1911 and 1914 with an annex added in 1932-35, it was constructed to face the original Pennsylvania Station and match its imposing design.
the building
The postal creed. An entablature above the Eighth Avenue colonnade bears the USPS creed: 'Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.'
Corinthian colonnade. The main facade is fronted by a Corinthian colonnade ending in a pavilion at each end, a design meant to visually match the original Pennsylvania Station directly across the street.
National emblems overhead. The ceiling inside the colonnade is decorated with the crests or emblems of ten major nations that existed at the time of the building's completion.
the style
McKim, Mead & White worked in the Beaux-Arts style, using a monumental Corinthian colonnade to give a postal facility the civic grandeur of the Pennsylvania Station it was built to complement.
More on Beaux-Artsthe architect
McKim, Mead & White, one of the era's most prominent architecture firms, designed the Farley Building as a companion piece to their original Pennsylvania Station.
significance
The building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and the New York State Register of Historic Places, and is a New York City Landmark.
nearby
- Nelson Tower
- Church of the Holy Apostles
- 130 West 30th Street Building
- Macy's Herald Square
- 520 West 28th Street
- Martinique New York on Broadway