Jackson Heights Post Office
78-02 37th Avenue | Jackson Heights | built 1937
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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.
- 1937
Benjamin C. Flournoy's neo-Georgian post office opens as a Depression public works project
Built in 1936-37 as the Flushing Post Office's Jackson Heights Station, the building was designed by Benjamin C. Flournoy, a consultant to the Treasury's Office of the Supervising Architect, as part of federal public works during the Depression. Its red brick and white trim echo the district's neo-Georgian apartment houses. Four granite steps rise to a temple front of brick pilasters and a limestone pediment, with a metal eagle perched before the arched fanlight.
“Built as the Jackson Heights Station of the Flushing Post Office, this post office building was constructed in 1936-37 to designs by Benjamin C. Flournoy…”
- 1940
Peppino Mangravite's mural of Jackson Heights history goes up inside the post office
Peppino Mangravite's 1940 mural inside the post office shows scenes from the history of Jackson Heights. It decorates the interior of the one-story Colonial Revival building that Benjamin C. Flournoy had designed only a few years earlier, in 1936-37.
“The interior features a 1940 mural by Peppino Mangravite depicting scenes from the history of Jackson Heights.”
Source: Wikipedia
- 1964
The post office grows by four bays to the east and adds most of its rear wing
In 1964 the post office was enlarged: a new section added the four easternmost bays of the 37th Avenue front, and most of the back of the building also dates from that work. The addition copied the design of the original 1936-37 section and brought a second entrance with a paneled door set in a classical frame.
“An addition to the east side, encompassing the four easternmost bays on the main (37th Avenue) facade, and most of the rear portions of the building are additions of 1964.”
- 1988
The Jackson Heights post office joins the National Register of Historic Places
In 1988 the post office was added to the National Register of Historic Places. The listing covered a one-story brick building with a nine-bay Colonial Revival front, whose three-bay entrance pavilion has four brick Doric pilasters carrying a limestone pediment; the building had been extended four bays to the east in 1964.
“It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1988.”
Source: Wikipedia
- 2021
The Jackson Heights post office appears in an episode of Sesame Street
In 2021 this post office was featured in an episode of the children's television show Sesame Street. The building, put up in 1936-37 and placed on the National Register in 1988, still holds Peppino Mangravite's 1940 mural of scenes from the neighborhood's past.
“In 2021 the post office was featured in an episode of Sesame Street.”
Source: Wikipedia
Further reading
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