Preserving the Past

Preserving the Past. Make No Little Plans. , This massive granite building was completed in 1899 to house the U.S. Post Office Department and the busy city post office. Designed by the U.S. Treasury Department architects under Willoughby J. Edbrooke, it was Washington’s first steel-frame building. , Three decades after opening, this building almost fell to the wrecking ball. Its Romanesque Revival architecture did not match the Beaux-Arts style planned for the Federal Triangle, and it blocked construction of a wing of the IRS building and grand circular court on 12th Street. Demolition was delayed, however, after the 1929 world economic crash. In 1934 the Post Office Department moved across 12th Street, and other federal agencies relocated here. , Another attempt to raze the building, in 1971, was stopped by local citizens united as “Don’t Tear It Down” (later the DC Preservation League). Their protests resulted in the building’s listing in the National Register of Historic Places in 1973. This also persuaded Washington’s city council to adopt the DC Historic Landmark Preservation Act of 1978, one of the stronger preservation laws in the nation. , In Washington, only the Washington Monument and the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception are taller than the Old Post Office tower. , The statue of Benjamin Franklin, behind you, originally faced the Washington Post building at Tenth and D Streets (replaced by the FBI Building). But this is a fitting spot for the tribute because, although Post founder Stilson Hutchins commissioned the statue to honor Franklin as a publisher and printer, Franklin also served as America’s first postmaster general.