Appointed Rounds

Appointed Rounds. Make No Little Plans. , The imposing Ariel Rios Building opened in 1934 to house the U.S. Post Office Department. Architect William A. Delano, of the New York firm Delano and Aldrich, drew inspiration from Paris and other European cities to design the building's unusual hourglass shape. The building, including a ground-level arcade and a Parisian-inspired slate mansard roof, was intended to face a circular court planned to span 12th Street. The plan, however, required demolition of the Old Post Office. Its destruction was delayed, and eventually the Old Post Office gained landmark status, preventing completion of the circular court., When this building was constructed, the Post Office Department was among the larger non-military employers in the nation. Postal service dates to 1775, when the Continental Congress, representing the 13 colonies, appointed Benjamin Franklin the first postmaster general. The ability of colonial military commanders to communicate by mail helped them defeat the British during the Revolution. In the new nation, postal service furthered democracy and growth by linking elected representatives with their constituents and businesses with their customers., Although the Post Office Department became the U.S. Postal Service in 1971 and moved from the Federal Triangle, the building's plentiful inscriptions, sculptures, bas-reliefs, and evocative interior murals preserve its stories and mission of binding the nation together. The embellishments also remind viewers of the thousands of laborers, artists, and craftsmen who found much-needed work here during the Great Depression (1929-1941)., This building was later occupied by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and renamed to honor Special Agent Ariel Rios, who was killed in the line of duty. It now houses the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency headquarters.