United States Post Office–Palmer Main facts for kids
Quick facts for kids |
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US Post Office–Palmer Main
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Palmer Main Post Office
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 Location in Massachusetts
Location in the United States
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| Location | 1057 Park St., Palmer, Massachusetts |
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| Area | less than one acre |
| Built | 1931 |
| Architect | Simon, Louis A.; Et al. |
| Architectural style | Classical Revival |
| NRHP reference No. | 85003336 |
| Added to NRHP | December 12, 1985 |
The US Post Office—Palmer Main is a special old building in Palmer, Massachusetts. It's a post office, which is where people send and receive mail. This building was built in 1931 and looks like a grand, old-fashioned structure. It's a great example of a style called Classical Revival architecture. Because it's so important and historic, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1985. This list helps protect important places in the United States.
Contents
What Does the Palmer Post Office Look Like?
The main post office in Palmer is located near the edge of its downtown area. You can find it at the corner of Park and Central Streets. It's a single-story building, meaning it has one main floor. It's shaped like a rectangle.
Building Materials and Design
The outside of the building is made from brick and a light-colored stone called limestone. It has a strong frame made of steel. The main door is in the middle of the longest side, which faces the street. This entrance has big, tall columns. These columns are called Ionic columns because of their special swirly tops. They are set back into the wall, which is a style called in antis.
The columns hold up a decorative band called a frieze, which is also made of brick and limestone. Above that is a cornice, which is a fancy molding. There's also a low fence-like structure called a balustrade around the edge of the roof. The roof is a "truncated hip roof," which means it slopes on all sides but has a flat top.
Special Features and Inside the Building
When you walk up to the entrance, you'll see original lampposts on either side of the steps. These lampposts are in the Art Deco style, which was popular in the 1920s and 1930s. Inside the post office, the lobby floor is made of terrazzo marble, which is a mix of marble chips and cement. The lower part of the walls has marble wainscoting, which is a decorative paneling. You can also see original wooden details inside.
History of the Palmer Post Office
This post office building was finished in 1931. It was designed by a special group called the Office of the Supervising Architect for the U.S. Treasury. At that time, a person named Louis A. Simon was in charge of this office.
The building cost a lot of money to build for that time period. It was quite an expense! Even though it's a grand building, it's located in an area that is mostly homes, rather than right in the busy center of downtown.
