One of the latest buildings to be included as a contributing resource in the historic district, this one storey brick building was built in 1946 as the Hillyard Post Office. On the west side of this one time post office, now Biker Church is a full sized mural which depicts what is, or at least was, the Heritage of Hillyard, the railroad.
When
James Jerome Hill, generally known as J.J., brought his
Great Northern Railway to Spokane, the decision was made to set up the railway shops, service center and roundhouse adjacent to what became the town of Hillyard, named, naturally enough, after J.J. himself, literally,
Hill's Yard.
In the early twentieth century the prosperity brought about by the presence of the Great Northern yards gave rise to much new construction, primarily of much more substantial brick and stone buildings, forming the Hillyard business section we see today. Prosperity continued until the closing of the yards in the early 1980s, a culmination of the mergers of the Great Northern into the Burlington Northern Railroad and eventually the BNSF Railway, resulting in the relocation of the railroad yards to Yardley. The loss of their only industry to speak of created instant economic woes for Hillyard, which continue to this day, with its continuing to be the poorest neighborhood in the state of Washington.
Hillyard Post Office Block
The Hillyard Post Office block is a simple, one-story structure clad in buff-colored brick veneer with a three-bay storefront, large windows and transoms, and an entrance at the western-most end of the south facade. A contemporary mural is painted on the west elevation of the building. A paved parking lot designed for post office patrons abuts the building on the west.
The Hillyard Post Office block is one of the latest structures constructed in Hillyard during the District's period of significance from 1892 to 1946. The building served as a post office from 1946 through part of 2001.
From the NRHP Nomination Form