The US Post Office—Somerville Main 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 ...
at 237 Washington Street in
Union Square,
Somerville, Massachusetts
Somerville ( ) is a city located directly to the northwest of Boston, and north of Cambridge, Massachusetts, Cambridge, in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, the city had a total population of 81, ...
. The -story building was constructed in 1935-36 as part of a
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 United States Secretary of the Interior, Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes. It was ...
initiative during the
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...
. The building has a steel frame, and is clad in brick laid in
Flemish bond
Flemish bond is a pattern of brickwork that is a common feature in Georgian architecture. The pattern features bricks laid lengthwise (''stretchers'') alternating with bricks laid with their shorter ends exposed (''headers'') within the same cou ...
, with limestone trim elements, and topped by a truncated hip roof. It is five bays wide, with a slightly projecting central section that is topped by a gable. The main entry, slightly recessed in this section, consists of a pair of modern glass-and-aluminum doors topped by an extended round-arch fanlight window. There is a small oriel window in the gable section.
The interior of the main floor consists of the public lobby area, which includes an enclosed vestibule area at the main entrance, with small offices on either side, and a work area to the rear. The vestibule is set one-half floor below the main lobby area, with stairs rising from the main entrance to the left and right, and is framed in stained wood that matches other woodwork in the lobby area. The floors of the lobby and vestibule are finished in multiple colors of marble, as is the wainscoting on the walls.
[
The upper portion of the east lobby wall contains a mural entitled ''A Skirmish between British and Colonists near Somerville in Revolutionary Times'', painted by Ross Moffett in 1937 and commissioned by the Treasury Department's ]Section of Fine Arts
Section, Sectioning, or Sectioned may refer to:
Arts, entertainment and media
* Section (music), a complete, but not independent, musical idea
* Section (typography), a subdivision, especially of a chapter, in books and documents
** Section sig ...
. The mural depicts skirmishing that took place in the Union Square area in the later phases of the 1775 Battles of Lexington and Concord
The Battles of Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775 were the first major military actions of the American Revolutionary War between the Kingdom of Great Britain and Patriot (American Revolution), Patriot militias from America's Thirteen Co ...
that began the American Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was the armed conflict that comprised the final eight years of the broader American Revolution, in which Am ...
.[
The building 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 ...
in 1986.
See also
*
*List of United States post offices
Several United States post offices are individually notable and have operated under the authority of the United States Post Office Department (1792–1971) or the United States Postal Service (since 1971). Notable U.S. post offices include indivi ...
References
External links
{{DEFAULTSORT:Us Post Office-Somerville Main
Somerville
Somerville may refer to:
Places
Australia
*Somerville, Victoria, a town
**Somerville railway station
* Somerville, Western Australia, a suburb of Kalgoorlie, Australia
New Zealand
* Somerville, New Zealand, a suburb of Manukau City, New Zea ...
Buildings and structures in Somerville, Massachusetts
National Register of Historic Places in Somerville, Massachusetts