Old Chicago Main Post Office Building

“Graham, Anderson, Probst and White designed many architecturally significant buildings, including the Merchandise Mart, the Civic Opera House Building, the Field Building, the Pittsfield Building, the Shedd Aquarium, and the Chicago Historical Society.”

“Throughout the next century, as the United States expanded to the west and settlers took control of new lands and established pioneering settlements across the North American continent, post offices were established.”

“Then the post office moved to the Ashland Block, also on Clark Street, in 1853. These first years of Chicago's post office "shuffle” from one location to another epitomizes the later history of the United States Post Office Department in Chicago through the next century, as the city's astounding growth from pioneer trading post to the nation's second-largest city constantly outstripped the federal government's ability to manage mail deliveries for the city and surrounding region.”

“Federal government buildings had a long tradition of construction in Classical styles. The Main Post Office Building combines modernized Classical ornamentation with sleek, modern forms and detailing to create a building that is a prominent example of modernized Classical / Art Deco-style architecture in Chicago.”

“The building's striking design is the work of the significant Chicago architectural firm of Graham, Anderson, Probst, and White. A successor firm to D.H. Burnham & Co., Graham, Anderson, Probst & White was the "go-to" firm for large-scale, architecturally-important buildings constructed in Chicago during the 1920s and early 1930s, and they were important in the implementation of aspects of the Plan of Chicago during this period.”

“The Plan of Chicago was commissioned by the Commercial Club, comprised of prominent Chicago businessmen and civic leaders. It was created in the office of D. H. Burnham & Co., a leading architectural firm led by Daniel H. Burnham, the architect in charge of the construction of the World's Columbian Exposition a decade and a half earlier.”

“The Old Chicago Main Post Office Building, through its location above Near West Side rail tracks and adjacent to Union Station, is one of the most significant buildings that resulted directly from the 1909 Plan of Chicago.”

“The exposition's careful arrangement of brilliantly-white buildings, placed in an orderly fashion and interspersed with lagoons, sculptures and other landscape embellishments, encouraged civic leaders to consider how to make the city both more functionally up-to-date and more beautiful.”

“Finally, on May 23, 1932, U.S. Postmaster General Walter Brown laid the cornerstone for what was touted as the largest post office building in the world. Once construction started, it proceeded swiftly, with the building's dedication on February 16, 1934.”

“Graham, Anderson, Probst & White were renowned for their ability to manage the design and construction of large-scale, complex buildings with a rail transportation component, both in Chicago and elsewhere, including Washington, D.C.'s Union Station, the Cleveland Terminal group, and the Pennsylvania Railroad Terminal in Philadelphia.”