The United States Post Office in downtown

Racine, Wisconsin Racine ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Racine County, Wisconsin, United States. It is located on the shore of Lake Michigan at the mouth of the Root River. Racine is situated 22 miles (35 km) south of Milwaukee and approximately 60 ...

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 ...

operated by the

United States Postal Service The United States Postal Service (USPS), also known as the Post Office, U.S. Mail, or Postal Service, is an independent agency of the executive branch of the United States federal government responsible for providing postal service in the U ...

. It is located at 603 Main Street, in a

classical revival Neoclassical architecture is an architectural style produced by the Neoclassical movement that began in the mid-18th century in Italy and France. It became one of the most prominent architectural styles in the Western world. The prevailing style ...

-style building designed by the

Office of the Supervising Architect 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 ...

under

James A. Wetmore James Alfonso Wetmore (November 1863 – March 14, 1940) was an American lawyer and administrator, best known as the Acting Supervising Architect of the U.S. Office of the Supervising Architect of the Treasury Department from 1915 through 1933 ...

, and completed in July 1931. The building 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 1985.

Description

The Racine Main Post Office is a three-story rectangular building, located two blocks from the shore of

Lake Michigan Lake Michigan is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is the second-largest of the Great Lakes by volume () and the third-largest by surface area (), after Lake Superior and Lake Huron. To the east, its basin is conjoined with that o ...

. The dimensions of the lot are 89 feet by 160 feet. The building is faced primarily with Bedford limestone from Indiana, except for parts of the obscured south facade which are covered with red brick. Built on a slope, the main entrance is located on the second floor, on the west facade facing Main Street. This side of the building is adorned with six

Corinthian column The Corinthian order (Greek: Κορινθιακός ρυθμός, Latin: ''Ordo Corinthius'') is the last developed of the three principal classical orders of Ancient Greek architecture and Roman architecture. The other two are the Doric order ...

s, reaching 22 feet up from the top of the front steps to the portico. On the frieze, the words "United States Post Office" and an eagle are engraved. The building's north facade, along Sixth Street, features a row of Corinthian

pilaster In classical architecture Classical architecture usually denotes architecture which is more or less consciously derived from the principles of Greek and Roman architecture of classical antiquity, or sometimes even more specifically, from the ...

s between each set of windows. The east facade faces Lake Street, and the ground floor features the loading dock and faces the building's parking lot. The south side is obscured by the McMynn Towers apartment building and an attached public parking structure. At the west end of this side, a wheelchair ramp offers handicap access to the office's front counter. At the east end, facing the parking lot, a retaining wall has been painted with a mural that features a

bald eagle The bald eagle (''Haliaeetus leucocephalus'') is a bird of prey found in North America. A sea eagle, it has two known subspecies and forms a species pair with the white-tailed eagle (''Haliaeetus albicilla''), which occupies the same niche as ...

in front of the rising sun, labeled "Racine - A Nice Place to Live". The interior of the building is supported by an inner framework of reinforced concrete around steel. Aside from the front counter and mailbox area, the majority of the building consists of large open spaces where mail is processed. The second-story workroom is lit by two large skylights, which occupy a square area of the roof where the top floor is cut out of the rectangular structure. A short chimney stands in the center of the roof.

History

Regular federal mail service to the town of Racine began in 1836, when a post office was established at the rapids of the Root River, although it was moved into the town itself later that year. Being the area's first post office, it served areas as distant as

Lake Geneva , image = Lake Geneva by Sentinel-2.jpg , caption = Satellite image , image_bathymetry = , caption_bathymetry = , location = Switzerland, France , coords = , lake_type = Glacial lak ...

. For much of the town's early history, the office would be located at the house of the elected postmaster, thus moving every time elections were held. In 1891, the Treasury Department began planning for the city's first designated post office building, and its first federal building,Fennell, George D. and the Racine Heritage Museum
''Racine''
Arcadia Publishing, 2014. purchasing the site where the current building stands. The location was purchased from Robert Baker, an executive at the J.I. Case Company. Adam H. Harcus and his firm were awarded a $44,347 contract to construct a stone building for a "custom-house and post-office" in September 1896. The building was criticized by some for looking church-like, leading the post office to chisel its name above the front door.Karwowski, Gerald L
''Racine''
Arcadia Publishing, 2007. Congress appropriated $329,000 in funding for the new post office building on October 18, 1928. With During the demolition of the old building and construction of the new building, mail operations temporarily moved to the

Shoop Building The Shoop Building is a historic office building in downtown Racine, Wisconsin, U.S. Located next to the Root River at 215 State Street and 222 Main Street, its six-story height and contrast of Cream City brick and red sandstone make it a distinct ...

on State Street. The Racine Main Post Office was dedicated July 25, 1931, and opened the following Monday, during a citywide "Dedication Week" that also saw the completion of a new City Hall and

county 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 ...

in Racine.Wilford, Jeff
"Racine's building boom"

Racine Journal Times The ''Racine Journal Times'' (since 1972 officially styled ''The Journal Times'') is an American daily newspaper published in Racine, Wisconsin. The paper serves the entire Racine County area. History The ''Journal Times'' traces its roots to t ...

, August 2, 1998. The building was called a monument to Congressman

Henry Allen Cooper Henry Allen Cooper (September 8, 1850 – March 1, 1931) was a U.S. Representative from Wisconsin. Early life Cooper was born in Spring Prairie, Wisconsin, son of former Free Soil Party State Representative Joel H. Cooper, a physician. In ...

, the representative of Racine's district, who sought to bring public works projects to his constituency and died before the building's dedication. A proposal in 1991 would have moved the city's main post office to a triangular lot along State Street, but this plan was never put in place and that site is now home to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Plaza. The post office suffered an anthrax scare during the U.S. anthrax attacks of 2001, when a postal worker discovered brown powder in a sorting bin. Another closing plan was announced in 2009, where the building would be sold and its operations consolidated with the other three existing offices in Racine. Since then, the downtown office's staff and open hours have both been reduced,Jones, Stephanie
"Front counter staff reduced at Downtown Racine post office, other workers becoming carriers"

, December 1, 2011. but it remains open as of May 2017.

References

{{National Register of Historic Places Post office buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Wisconsin National Register of Historic Places in Racine County, Wisconsin Neoclassical architecture in Wisconsin Government buildings completed in 1931 Buildings and structures in Racine, Wisconsin

Description

History

See also

References