Madison Square Station

149 East 23rd Street | Gramercy | built 1936

Open on the map4 entries

The lot about 1940
About 1940. Via 1940s.nyc
The lot about 1985
About 1985. Via 80s.nyc

The city photographed every building for its tax records around 1940 and again in the 1980s. NYC Municipal Archives.

Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.

  1. 1937

    September 20

    Lorimer Rich's Madison Square Station post office opens

    The federal government erects a new post office at 149-153 East 23rd Street, marked by an October 1936 cornerstone-laying ceremony attended by Postmaster General James Farley. Architect Lorimer Rich, working under Treasury supervising architect Louis A. Simon, completes the granite-faced Art Moderne building, which opens on September 20, 1937.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  2. 1937

    Bronze reliefs trace the history of communication across the facade

    Sculptors Edmond Amateis and Louis Slobodkin create gilded bronze relief panels for the spandrels between the post office's pilasters, depicting Mercury, signal drums, letter carriers, carrier pigeons, and Native American smoke signals. The panels narrate the evolution of message-sending across the building's granite facade.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  3. 1939

    Kindred McLeary completes eight murals inside the post office

    Painter Kindred McLeary finishes a set of eight interior murals in 1939, two years after the building opened, adding to its ensemble of Depression-era public art. The murals join the exterior's Art Moderne granite facade and bronze reliefs in a building whose design recalls ancient Egyptian mortuary architecture.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  4. 1989

    May 11

    The post office joins the National Register of Historic Places

    The Madison Square Station post office is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and the New York State Register on May 11, 1989, recognizing its Art Moderne design and public art program. In 2025, preservation groups asked the city's Landmarks Preservation Commission to also consider it for individual New York City landmark status.

    Source: Wikipedia

Further reading

Nearby

All 40 buildings with stories in Gramercy