The former United States Post Office-Main Branch is a historic

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 ...

building that is located in the University City neighborhood of

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

. It is situated across from

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, Trade name, doing business as Amtrak (; ), is the national Passenger train, passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates intercity rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous United Stat ...

30th Street Station 30th Street Station, officially William H. Gray III 30th Street Station, is a major intermodal passenger transport, intermodal transit station in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. The station opened in 1933 as Pennsylvania Station– ...

. It operated as the main postal processing facility for Philadelphia from 1933 until its closure in 2008. It was added to 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 ...

in 2006.

History

20th century

Built between 1931 and 1935, this historic structure is a six-story, steel frame building that was clad in

limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...

and designed in the

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French (), is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design that first Art Deco in Paris, appeared in Paris in the 1910s just before World War I and flourished in the United States and Europe during the 1920 ...

-style. It measures wide and long. ''Note:'' This includes The world's first scheduled rotorcraft airmail service served the Post Office. The building had been designed with a flat roof with underfloor heating to prevent snow and ice. It also had take-off ramps, radio and weather reporting equipment, and fuelling and maintenance facilities. The operation, flown by Kellett KD-1B

autogyro An autogyro (from Greek and , "self-turning"), gyroscope, gyrocopter or gyroplane, is a class of rotorcraft that uses an unpowered rotor in free autorotation to develop lift. A gyroplane "means a rotorcraft whose rotors are not engine-d ...

s of

Eastern Air Lines Eastern Air Lines (also colloquially known as Eastern) was a major airline in the United States that operated from 1926 to 1991. Before its dissolution, it was headquartered at Miami International Airport in an unincorporated area of Miami-Dade ...

, started on July 6, 1939. The contract for the route, AM2001, involved five flights per day, six days a week, between the Post Office and

Camden Central Airport Camden Central Airport (sometimes called Central Airport, Camden, New Jersey, Camden) was an airport in Pennsauken Township, New Jersey, Pennsauken Township, Camden County, New Jersey, United States. It had its peak of activity in the 1930s, se ...

, away in

Camden, New Jersey Camden is a City (New Jersey), city in Camden County, New Jersey, Camden County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is part of the Delaware Valley metropolitan region. The city was incorporated on February 13, 1828.Snyder, John P''The Story of ...

. The main pilot was

Johnny Miller John Laurence Miller (born April 29, 1947) is an American former professional golfer. He was one of the top players in the world during the mid-1970s. He was the first to shoot 63 in a major championship to win the 1973 U.S. Open, and he ran ...

. The contract ended a year later, with 2,634 flights completed, representing 85% of all scheduled flights – a very impressive statistic for the time; however, the contract was not renewed.

21st century

The facility closed on September 29, 2008. when main distribution center activities moved to a new facility adjacent to the

Philadelphia International Airport Philadelphia International Airport is the primary international airport serving Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. It served 30.8 million passengers annually in 2024, making it the busiest airport in Pennsylvania and the 21st-busies ...

. A new retail location was opened nearby at 3000 Chestnut Street. Ownership of the original complex was transferred to the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...

. The building has been converted into office space, including the regional headquarters of the

Internal Revenue Service The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is the revenue service for the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government, which is responsible for collecting Taxation in the United States, U.S. federal taxes and administerin ...

. The site immediately south, across Chestnut St, was developed into a complex including an apartment tower, a parking garage, the Cira Green rooftop park, and the FMC Tower. The final part of land, south of Walnut St, became Penn Park. It was added to the

in 2005.

References

{{National Register of Historic Places in Pennsylvania Post office buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Pennsylvania Government buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Philadelphia Art Deco architecture in Pennsylvania Government buildings completed in 1935 University City, Philadelphia Market Street (Philadelphia)