The United States Post Office in

Lima Lima ( ; ), founded in 1535 as the Ciudad de los Reyes (, Spanish for "City of Biblical Magi, Kings"), is the capital and largest city of Peru. It is located in the valleys of the Chillón River, Chillón, Rímac River, Rímac and Lurín Rive ...

Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...

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is a historic Neoclassical building erected in 1930. Located along High Street west of the center of the city, the

post office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letter (message), letters and parcel (package), parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post o ...

is one of the newest major buildings in the city's downtown.Hopkins, Phyllis G. '.

National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an List of federal agencies in the United States, agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government, within the US Department of the Interior. The service manages all List ...

, 1980-05-15. Accessed 2010-04-24.

History

Lima's first post office was built at the intersection of High and Elizabeth Streets.Owen, Lorrie K., ed. ''Dictionary of Ohio Historic Places''. Vol. 1. St. Clair Shores: Somerset, 1999, 19-20. When officials decided to replace this structure with a newer building, the lot chosen was two blocks to the west. Lima reached its height during the early years of the twentieth century. As the city became a major center for

Standard Oil Standard Oil Company was a Trust (business), corporate trust in the petroleum industry that existed from 1882 to 1911. The origins of the trust lay in the operations of the Standard Oil of Ohio, Standard Oil Company (Ohio), which had been founde ...

and as the hometown

Lima Locomotive Works Lima Locomotive Works (LLW) was an American firm that manufactured railroad locomotives from the 1870s through the 1950s. The company's name is derived from the location of its main manufacturing plant in Lima, Ohio ( ). The shops were located be ...

became a major player in the manufacturing of

locomotive A locomotive is a rail transport, rail vehicle that provides the motive power for a train. Traditionally, locomotives pulled trains from the front. However, Push–pull train, push–pull operation has become common, and in the pursuit for ...

s, the economy boomed, and many large buildings were erected in and around downtown. Although the 1930 post office was built near the end of this boom period, its architecture greatly resembles that of many buildings constructed during the boom.

Architecture

Completed in 1931, the current post office is a single-story concrete building. Each end of the building features

pilaster In architecture, a pilaster is both a load-bearing section of thickened wall or column integrated into a wall, and a purely decorative element in classical architecture which gives the appearance of a supporting column and articulates an ext ...

s, doubly

fluted Fluting may refer to: *Fluting (architecture) *Fluting (firearms) *Fluting (geology) * Fluting (glacial) *Fluting (paper) *Playing a flute (musical instrument) Arts, entertainment, and media *Fluting on the Hump ''Fluting on the Hump'' is the ...

, and a large triple

casement window A casement window is a window that is attached to its frame by one or more hinges at the side. They are used singly or in pairs within a common frame, in which case they are hinged on the outside. Casement windows are often held open using a c ...

with a

balustrade A baluster () is an upright support, often a vertical moulded shaft, square, or lathe-turned form found in stairways, parapets, and other architectural features. In furniture construction it is known as a spindle. Common materials used in its ...

beneath. Elsewhere in the building, the casement windows are three panels tall and two panels wide; many windows feature a prominent transom. Customers can enter the building through any of three double doors, which are located between pairs of pilasters carven to resemble

column A column or pillar in architecture and structural engineering is a structural element that transmits, through compression, the weight of the structure above to other structural elements below. In other words, a column is a compression member ...

Interior

The interior of the post office is built primarily of marble and of hardwoods. Its ceiling is constructed primarily of heavily contrasting marble

coffer A coffer (or coffering) in architecture is a series of sunken panels in the shape of a square, rectangle, or octagon in a ceiling, soffit or vault. A series of these sunken panels was often used as decoration for a ceiling or a vault, al ...

ing.

Recognition

In 1982, the post office was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

because of its well-preserved architecture. It was one of seventeen buildings listed on the National Register as part of the "Lima Multiple Resource Area."

References

{{National Register of Historic Places Government buildings completed in 1930 Buildings and structures in Lima, Ohio National Register of Historic Places in Allen County, Ohio Neoclassical architecture in Ohio