The Miguel Angel Garcia Mendez Post Office Building in

Mayagüez, Puerto Rico Mayagüez (, ) is a city and the eighth-largest municipality in Puerto Rico. It was founded as Nuestra Señora de la Candelaria de Mayagüez, and is also known as ''La Sultana del Oeste'' (The Sultaness of the West), ''Ciudad de las Aguas Pura ...

, previously known as the United States Post Office and Courthouse, and also known as Correo Central de Mayagüez is a

post office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letters and parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post offices may offer additional serv ...

and

courthouse A courthouse or court house is a building that is home to a local court of law and often the regional county government as well, although this is not the case in some larger cities. The term is common in North America. In most other English-spe ...

facility of the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, housing operations of the United States District Court for the District of Puerto Rico. It was designed by

Louis A. Simon Louis Adolphe Simon (1867–1958) was an American architect. He was born in Baltimore, Maryland. Simon was educated at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Following a tour of Europe, he opened an architectural office in Baltimore, M ...

Supervising Architect of the Treasury The Office of the Supervising Architect was an agency of the United States Treasury Department that designed federal government buildings from 1852 to 1939. The office handled some of the most important architectural commissions of the nineteenth ...

, and was built in 1935. It was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 1986 as U.S. Post Office and Courthouse. In 2007, the U.S. Congress passed a bill renaming the building for statesman and local government figure

Miguel A. García Méndez Miguel Angel García Méndez (November 17, 1902 – November 17, 1998) was a Puerto Rican politician and businessman. García Méndez served as the 11th Speaker of the House of Representatives of Puerto Rico and later served in the Puerto Ric ...

Overview

In this same lot stood, since the times of Spanish rule, first the Barracks of the Alfonso XII Regiment until 1898, then the district court and jail until the October 11, 1918 earthquake when the old brick building was destroyed."Genealogias Biografias e Historia del Mayagüez de Ayer y Hoy y Antologia de Puerto Rico"; by Martin Gaudier (Author); Pages: 54-56; Publisher: Imprenta "El Aguila", San German (1959); Language: Spanish The barracks were built in 1848; they were large and had two floors. They could house a battalion of 800 men and its officers. The building's brick roof had 30 lightning rods."Historia de Mayagüez 1760-1960"; by Subcomite de la Historia de Mayaüez (Author); Page: 71; Publisher: Talleres Graficos Interamericanos (1960); Language: Spanish

Gallery

Mayaguez---Infantry-Barracks.jpg, Infantry Barracks in 1898 Cuartel mayaguez.jpg, Barracks, circa 1906 Luis Fortuño in Mayagüez 2.jpg, Official designation of the post office with Luis Fortuño and García Méndez family

References

External links

Historic Federal Courthouses
page from the

Federal Judicial Center The Federal Judicial Center is the education and research agency of the United States federal courts. It was established by in 1967, at the recommendation of the Judicial Conference of the United States. According to , the main areas of respo ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Miguel Angel Garcia Mendez Post Office Building Government buildings completed in 1935 Post office buildings on the National Register of Historic Places Courthouses on the National Register of Historic Places in Puerto Rico National Register of Historic Places in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico 1935 establishments in Puerto Rico Government buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Puerto Rico

Overview

Gallery

See also

References

External links