The Post Office

The Post Office. . , Thanks largely to the work of United States Senator Charles Dietrich of Hastings, the Hastings Post Office, also known as the Federal Building, was constructed at the corner of Hastings Avenue and Third Street in 1905. This structure cost $125,000 and culminated twenty years of lobbying Congress for a govern- ment building in the Queen City. The Italian styled limestone and brick facade had a frontage of 100 feet on Hastings Avenue and 60 feet on Third Street. Terrazzo floors with marble borders and basswood wainscoting graced the halls and lobbies. , The post office itself was located on the first floor; a U.S. district court courtroom and offices for a federal judge, U.S. district attorney and a U.S. marshal were on the second floor; the third floor housed personnel of the Internal Revenue Service. But the court and IRS office had little activity in Hastings, and it was soon apparent that no resident federal judge would be assigned to the city. The best known federal case to be tried in Hastings was a 1939 antitrust suit involving area lumber yards. , In its early years, post office windows operated from 6:30 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., and mail was dispatched by train twenty times per day. Until 1913 the facility was directed by Postmaster Jacob Fisher, the former mayor for whom Fisher Rainbow Fountain was named. Postal operations at the site ceased in 1963, and the building was demolished in 1971.