The United States Post Office—Beverly Main is a historic

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 ...

Beverly, Massachusetts Beverly is a city in Essex County, Massachusetts, and a suburb of Boston. The population was 42,670 at the time of the 2020 United States Census. A resort, residential, and manufacturing community on the Massachusetts North Shore, Beverly incl ...

. Built in 1910, it is a prominent local example of Colonial and Classical Revival architecture, and a significant work late in the career of architect James Knox Taylor. 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, and continues to serve as Beverly's main post office.

Description and history

Beverly's main post office is located west of downtown Beverly, at the eastern end of Odell Park, which separates it from the historic

Beverly Depot Beverly Depot is an MBTA Commuter Rail station in Beverly, Massachusetts. Located in Downtown Beverly, it serves the Newburyport/Rockport Line. It is the junction of the line's two branches to Newburyport and Rockport and is served by every t ...

. It is a single story building built out of sandstone in a Classical Revival style. The front facade has a projecting portico supported by six Doric columns on a granite base, with granite steps leading up to a recessed entrance. The lobby area occupies the front of the main block, and is styled with terrazzo marble. There are one-bay wings on either side of the main block, which house offices. The roofline has an extended overhanging eave, above which is a parapet and a smaller gabled section topped by an octagonal cupola. The interior lobby areas retain original multicolored marble terrazzo flooring as well as period woodwork. The post office was begun in 1910 and opened in 1912, to a design by Treasury architect James Knox Taylor. Taylor retired in 1912, so this building represents one of his later designs. It is in part unusual because most buildings of this type have flat roofs, while this one is gabled. A rear addition, in buff brick, was made to the building in 1935 with funding from the

Public Works Administration The Public Works Administration (PWA), part of the New Deal of 1933, was a large-scale public works construction agency in the United States headed by Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes. It was created by the National Industrial Recove ...

. It was built as part of a projected urban renewal project in the neighborhood that was never fully realized.

References

{{National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts Beverly Buildings and structures in Beverly, Massachusetts Government buildings completed in 1910 National Register of Historic Places in Essex County, Massachusetts Historic district contributing properties in Massachusetts

Description and history

See also

References