Towns and Nature: Chicago, IL: 1831+1896+1905+1921+1997 Post Offices

Tuesday, January 12, 2016

Chicago, IL: 1831+1896+1905+1921+1997 Post Offices

1831: (Satellite)

1896: (Satellite, "Washington and the lake.")

1905: (Satellite, the entire city block.)

1921: (Satellite, it has been converted to multi-use.)

1997: (Satellite)

These notes started with the First Post Office. I've added the additional post offices.

1831 First Post Office

The web's caption:

In the Log Building in the Foreground, at What Today is the Intersection of Lake and South Water Streets, Chicago’s First Post-Office Was Established in 1831. From a Painting Owned by the Chicago Historical Society

Chicagology

It is hard to imagine how important the post office was before the invention of the telegraph and how important the newspaper was before the invention of the radio. An interesting tidbit from the web article quoted from M.H.Putney's "Historical Notes" is:

In 1831, the mail was carried on foot once a monthIn 1832, on horseback once a weekIn 1833, by wagon once a weekIn 1834, by stage semi-weeklyIn 1835 and 1836, by stage tri-weeklyIn 1837, by stage daily: and after that time at increasingly short intervals.

1896 Post Office

Terry Gregory commented on the post below

The building was a mess. “The original suggestions ot the postoffice department as to handling and for the mails were rejected by the architect, who was working not so much for the public convenience as for personal glory.”

The Post Office was using a temporary structure between 1896 and 1905 while this “thing” was being built (photo). It was located at Washington and the lake and was very efficient.

The USPS begged the government to keep using the facility which they refused. This expedited the building of the famous Post Office on Congress.

This building would have been right next to the IC railroad.

1900/00 Chicago !uad @ 62,500

1905 Post Office

Vintage Frames posted, cropped
Government Building and Post Office, Chicago, Illinois, circa 1906.

Jeff Bransky: Where was this located. Federal Plaza property?

Terry Gregory commented on Jeff's comment

Terry Gregory: Jeff Bransky Dearborn Jackson Clark & Adams.

1906 Sanborn map.

.1921

1921,1932,2019 Post Office

Illinois Field Guide posted

Chicago's Old Main Post Office opened in 1921, built by the same architecture firm, Graham, Anderson, Probst and White, behind the Wrigley Building and the Merchandise Mart, and it expanded in 1932 to reach 2.5 million square feet, becoming the largest post office in the entire world at the time. It earned that scale honestly, serving as the sorting hub for the massive mail order traffic generated by Chicago retail giants like Montgomery Ward and Sears, whose catalog businesses had essentially turned the city into the mail distribution center of the whole country.

The building's location came with one genuinely strange architectural consequence. It had been built directly along the path Daniel Burnham's 1909 Plan of Chicago envisioned for extending Congress Parkway, and when that extension actually happened in 1953, engineers didn't reroute around the post office, they built the Eisenhower Expressway straight through the middle of it, leaving a highway physically running underneath part of the building to this day.

The post office kept operating for decades after that until outdated technology and declining mail order volume finally caught up with it. The USPS moved its operations across the street in 1996 and 1997, leaving the building completely vacant, and what followed was nearly twenty years of failed redevelopment attempts. British developer Bill Davies bought it from the city in 2009 for 24 million dollars and floated one unrealized proposal after another, including turning it into micro apartments and building a 1,500 unit tower next door, none of which ever happened. The standoff got serious enough that Mayor Rahm Emanuel eventually threatened to seize the property through eminent domain just to force a sale.

That pressure finally worked. Davies sold the building to New York based developer 601W Companies in 2016, and working with architecture firm Gensler and a team of 17 firms, along with the City of Chicago, the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, and the National Park Service, 601W poured roughly 900 million dollars into a full restoration. The reimagined Old Post Office reopened in November 2019 as modern office space, complete with a riverside deck, a running track, and amenities built into a building that had sat empty for more than two decades. It leased up fast too, reaching 80 percent occupancy within eighteen months, with Ferrara Candy among the companies that moved its headquarters inside. For a building that had been written off as an impossible redevelopment for years, Chicago's Old Post Office ended up proving exactly the opposite, a landmark too massive and too central to the city's skyline to stay abandoned forever.

When I read "rooftop landing area," I thought it meant a helipad. Then I realized that it meant a runway!

Terry Gregory commented on the above post

The original plans called for a rooftop landing area. However aviators generally did not believe the roof to be of sufficient area for landing in flying’s present stage but numerous manufacturers were experimenting with devices intended to stop a plane soon after it comes down.

The proposed landing field then shifted toward building a 6 acre field on a land fill island east of the Field museum.

The airfield was delayed due to the Great Depression and WWII. Construction finally began in 1946 and was renamed Meigs Field in 1950.

The attached illustration from 1927 depicts airplanes landing on the roof of the proposed post office.

This photo is before the expansion that was built in 1932. It expanded over those railroad tracks south of Van Buren Street.

Frank Piha posted
The old main post office before it was enlarged to handle the catalog orders for Wards and Sears. And this picture was taken long before the Congress/Eisenhower Expressway was built through the building.
David Daruszka shared

A better copy of this photo.

Growing up in Chicago posted
1921 - The old Chicago main post office was built in 1921 by Graham, Anderson, Probst & White. A major expansion in 1932 added nine floors and more than 60 acres of floorspace. When it was expanded, a hole was reserved at its base for the planned Congress Parkway extension to run through it. The post office vacated the building in 1996. The building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. This photo shows the view looking south from Van Buren and Canal streets. Undated photo.

Mike McCurdy: Great and amazing building! I clerked here in the early 70's, several times, as an 18 year old and then when I was 22. There was a vendor (magazines, candy , cigarettes, etc) in the main lobby who was blind. Very good pay with no experience, by just doing well enough on the civil service exam. Strong Union with inexpensive dues. I was a sub/temp and offered a permanent position in 75' but wasn't motivated enough/too high to do the required memorization of "the address cards." Idiot. Discovered that many of my black co-workers carried handguns (that they put in their lockers) to protect themselves in their neighborhoods in the off hours. They moved us around to different mail sections/tasks; my favorite was tossing the big mail sacks onto moving belts. That was the strongest this skinny guy ever was. We were on a punch clock, including for meals, where we had 30 minutes. Do not be late! We had a liberal break policy, think it was 15 minutes per hour. Some of the work was taxing or monotonous. Used to watch the people who processed the letters and zip codes on machines that spat a letter out every several seconds; that looked tough. Found out that several guys thought I was a postal inspector, working undercover. Only thing I could think of was that I had long hair but acted fairly "straight" and worked hard. Had a supervisor with a germ fetish who always put a handkerchief up to his mouth when you spoke to him. Had some freakish shifts - 11PM - 7Am was one. 3PM - 11PM. Also did a 3AM - 11AM (I think). Okay, now you know.

This is not only a good view of the 1921 post office, it shows the Concourse of the Union Station a couple blocks north.

Patrick McNamara commented on a post via Dennis DeBruler
William Shapotkin The photo was probably taken 1925-28. The present-day Union Station opened May 16, 1925, but construction of the Mart (construction began August 16, 1928) has not yet started.

Jack Bobby Lou Mulreavy posted via Dennis DeBruler

Dennis DeBruler: What is the building on the right? My first reaction was the Pennsy Freight Warehouse. But it doesn't have the arches. And then I noticed the platforms. I doubt the CUS platforms came south of Polk Street. The old post office is not yet built.

David Daruszka commented on Dennis' comment
I'm going to posit another possible candidate... the US Mail terminal built around 1922.

Dennis DeBruler commented on David's comment
I think this is the building in the photo. This 1922 structure became the east side of the 1934 building that we now know as the "Old Post Office." Photo from Page 14 of https://www.cityofchicago.org/.../Old_Chicago_Main_Post...

David Daruszka: Dennis DeBruler Indeed, this is the same building in my post. Mystery solved.

Patrick McNamara commented on David's comment with the diagram
In this city photograph from 1953 (Congress Expwy clearing in the background) you can see how the old building was incorporated into the 'new' Post Office.....

These photos show before and after the expansion. The bottom photo should have a date less than 2024 because it was remodeled into offices by then. The top photo is the river (east) side while the bottom photo is of the opposite side.

Alejandro Nunez posted

Alexander Golman commented on Alejandro's post
That original 6 story building was integrated in the 1930s art deco expansion. You can see the difference between the buildings from the eastern side.

This photo is closer to 2024.