Main Post Office - Reno, NV
N 39° 31.478 W 119° 48.712
11S E 258304 N 4378774
This former post office was built with funds from the Civil Works Administration (CWA), a predecessor to the PWA, in 1932 and is located along S Virginia Street and just south of the Truckee River in downtown Reno, NV.
Waymark Code: WMJRP5
Location: Nevada, United States
Date Posted: 12/25/2013
Views: 6
The Main Post Office, a building erected in 1932, is currently closed while it undergoes renovation to reopen again as a retail and office building. A description of this building from the npr.gov website reads:
Designed by Frederick DeLongchamps in 1932, this post office is one of the best examples of Art Deco design, specifically Zig-Zag Moderne, in Nevada. MacDonald Engineering constructed the building, with the assistance of the Civil Works Administration (CWA), one of President Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal programs. The post office, which also housed a variety of Federal agencies, opened for business in 1934. The land for the post office was acquired in 1931 from Katherine Kincart Coughlin, Riverside Realty Company, and the Board of Washoe County Commissioners. A portion of the site was occupied by a Carnegie Library, demolished to make way for the post office.
Although standard building plans had been developed for post offices, commissioned architects were allowed, where practicable, to give individual treatment to the exterior details. DeLongchamps achieved this with exceptional skill and artistry. The exterior is pale green terra cotta incised to resemble quarried stone. The aluminum panels over the entrances salute transportation and are integrated with patriotic and American Indian motifs in the interior. The first-floor lobby has spectacular highly ornamented, dark marble walls highlighted with cast aluminum. Until the area was enclosed in order to house the HVAC units, the central portion of the ceiling was a large skylight. A fourth floor was originally planned but never built. The two upper floors of offices opened onto the open area created by the skylight. Situated along the Truckee River, with a large park-like lawn in front, the post office in downtown Reno is one of the most attractive buildings in Nevada. The Postal Service still occupies this building.
I also located an online article highlighting the current renovation of this former post office here and was pleasantly surprised to read that the rehabilitation of this historic building will bring back architect Frederick DeLongchamps' original vision of this building to include re-landscaping the original look of the grounds around the building as well as removing 1960s-era air conditioning elements to raise the ceiling and the open courtyard on the 2nd and 3rd floors that was original to the building.
This building is also listed in the National Register of Historic Places here.
