Westhampton Beach Post Office, the U.S.
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 ...
in
Westhampton Beach, New York
Westhampton Beach is an incorporated village in the Town of Southampton, in Suffolk County, on the South Shore of Long Island, in New York, United States. As of the 2010 census, the population was 1,721.
History
The village of Westhampto ...
, is located at 170 Main Street between Mill Road and Beach Road. It serves the ZIP code 11978, and is southeast of the Westhampton Post Office on Mill Road.
Westhampton Beach Post Office 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 ...
in conjunction with the
United States Treasury Department
The Department of the Treasury (USDT) is the Treasury, national treasury and finance department of the federal government of the United States, where it serves as an United States federal executive departments, executive department. The departme ...
. Simon also designed the Post Office buildings in
Bay Shore
Bay Shore is a hamlet and census-designated place (CDP) in the Town of Islip, New York, United States. It is situated on the South Shore of Long Island, adjoining the Great South Bay. The population of the CDP was 29,244 at the time of the 2020 ...
,
Northport, and
Riverhead. His public buildings were in the
Colonial Revival
The Colonial Revival architectural style seeks to revive elements of American colonial architecture.
The beginnings of the Colonial Revival style are often attributed to the Centennial Exhibition of 1876, which reawakened Americans to the archi ...
style.
The Section
A large mural on one wall was typical of work commissioned by the
Section of Fine Arts
The Treasury Section of Painting and Sculpture was a New Deal art project established on October 16, 1934, and administered by the Procurement Division of the United States Department of the Treasury.
Commonly known as the Section, it was rena ...
, which Simon was in charge of as supervising architect under the control of the United States Department of the Treasury. As a
New Deal
The New Deal was a series of programs, public work projects, financial reforms, and regulations enacted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the United States between 1933 and 1939. Major federal programs agencies included the Civilian Cons ...
office from its origination in 1933 it employed out of work artists to produce art for public buildings. It was referred to simply as “the Section.” Many of the New Deal organizations roles was to create jobs for the many unemployed of the depression, in this case, artists. It was given the task of placing works of art in public places, such as post offices and libraries, for the appreciation of art. Simon was removed from the position in 1939 and the production of public art was removed from the treasury department in 1943. The building was added to 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 1989,
Suffolk County Listings at the National Register of Historic Places.COM, a private website
/ref> along with two other Simon-built post offices.[ ''See also:'' ]
References
External links
USPS Site
Westhampton Beach, New York
Westhampton Beach is an incorporated village in the Town of Southampton, in Suffolk County, on the South Shore of Long Island, in New York, United States. As of the 2010 census, the population was 1,721.
History
The village of Westhampto ...
Colonial Revival architecture in New York (state)
National Register of Historic Places in Suffolk County, New York
Buildings and structures in Suffolk County, New York
Westhampton Beach, New York
{{SuffolkCountyNY-NRHP-stub