James Farley Post Office
(U.S. National Register of Historic Places)
A carefully-detailed Corinthian colonnade under the inspirational inscription
Location:	Manhattan, New York City, New York  United States
Coordinates:	40°45′4.4″N, 73°59′42.64″W
Built/Founded:	1912
Architect:	McKim, Mead, and White
Architectural style(s):	Beaux-Arts
Added to NRHP:	January 29, 1973
Reference #:	73002257[1]

The James A. Farley Post Office, New York City's General Post Office, is located at 421 Eighth Avenue, between 31st Street and 33rd Street in the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the street from Pennsylvania Station and Madison Square Garden. The building, bearing the inscription: Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds, is a National Historic Landmark, and occupies two full city blocks, an eight-acre footprint straddling the tracks of the Northeast Corridor in the heart of Midtown Manhattan. Motto: (Out Of Many, One) (traditional) In God We Trust (1956 to date) Anthem: The Star-Spangled Banner Capital Washington D.C. Largest city New York City None at federal level (English de facto) Government Federal constitutional republic  - President George Walker Bush (R)  - Vice President Dick Cheney (R) Independence from... A typical plaque showing entry on the National Register of Historic Places. ... ImageMetadata File history File links Download high resolution version (1400x1050, 608 KB) File links The following pages link to this file: Corinthian order McKim, Mead, and White User:Tysto James Farley Post Office ... The Corinthian order as used for the portico of the Pantheon, Rome provided a prominent model for Renaissance and later architects, through the medium of engravings. ... The Borough of Manhattan, highlighted in yellow, lies between the East River and the Hudson River. ... New York, New York redirects here. ... NY redirects here. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_the_United_States. ... From left to right: Will Mead, Charles McKim and Stan White McKim, Mead, and White was the premier architectural firm in the eastern United States at the turn of the twentieth century. ... Beaux-Arts architecture[1] denotes the academic classical architectural style that was taught at the École des Beaux Arts in Paris. ... A typical plaque showing entry on the National Register of Historic Places. ... January 29 is the 29th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1973 (MCMLXXIII) was a common year starting on Monday. ... Nickname: Big Apple, Gotham, NYC, City That Never Sleeps, The Concrete Jungle, The City So Nice They Named It Twice Location in the state of New York Coordinates: Country United States State New York Boroughs The Bronx Brooklyn Manhattan Queens Staten Island Settled 1613  - Mayor Michael Bloomberg (R) Area    - City... The term General Post Office is or has been used by a number of postal and telecommunications governmental administrations worldwide, including: United Kingdom until 1969, see Post Office UK. After 1981 see Royal Mail for a continuing history of the British Post Office. ... Eighth Avenue is a north-south avenue on the West Side of Manhattan in New York City, carrying northbound traffic. ... This article covers streets in Manhattan, New York City, USA between and including 23rd Street and 42nd Street. ... This article covers streets in Manhattan, New York City, USA between and including 23rd Street and 42nd Street. ... Nickname: Big Apple, Gotham, NYC, City That Never Sleeps, The Concrete Jungle, The City So Nice They Named It Twice Location in the state of New York Coordinates: Country United States State New York Boroughs The Bronx Brooklyn Manhattan Queens Staten Island Settled 1613  - Mayor Michael Bloomberg (R) Area    - City... The Five Boroughs of New York City: 1: Manhattan 2: Brooklyn 3: Queens 4: Bronx 5: Staten Island In New York City, a borough is a unique form of government used to administer the five constituent counties that make up the city; it differs significantly from other borough forms of... The Borough of Manhattan, highlighted in yellow, lies between the East River and the Hudson River. ... For the Pennsylvania Station in Newark, New Jersey or Baltimore, Maryland, see Pennsylvania Station (Newark) or Pennsylvania Station (Baltimore). ... Madison Square Garden, often abbreviated as MSG, known colloquially simply as The Garden, has been the name of four arenas in New York City, United States. ... USS Constitution. ... Most of the NEC (those sections shown in red, except Boston to the Rhode Island state line) is owned by Amtrak. ... View of Midtown from Empire State Building. ...

The inscription, which is frequently mistaken as an official motto of the United States Postal Service, actually was supplied by William Mitchell Kendall of the firm of McKim, Mead & White, the architects who designed the Farley Building and the original Pennsylvania Station in the same Beaux-Arts style. The sentence is a paraphrase of an excerpt from the works of Herodotus (Wikiquote) and describes the expedition of the Greeks against the Persians under Cyrus the Great, about 500 BCE. The Persians operated a system of mounted postal couriers, and the sentence describes the fidelity with which their work was done. The USPS does not actually have an official motto or creed. The United States Postal Service has no official creed or motto. ... The United States Postal Service (USPS) is an independent establishment of the executive branch of the United States Government (see 39 U.S.C. Â§ 201) responsible for providing postal service in the United States. ... McKim, Mead, and White was the premier architectural firm in the eastern United States at the turn of the twentieth century. ... Beaux-Arts architecture[1] denotes the academic classical architectural style that was taught at the École des Beaux Arts in Paris. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... The Persian Empire was a series of historical empires that ruled over the Iranian plateau, the old Persian homeland, and at times extending into central and mid-east Asia. ... Cyrus the Great (Old Persian: KuruÅ¡, modern Persian: کوروش بزرگ, Kurosh-e Bozorg) (ca. ...

Round-the-clock service

The James A. Farley Station Post Office holds the distinction of being the only station in New York City that is open to the public 24 hours and 7 days a week -- with the exception of certain holidays. Nickname: Big Apple, Gotham, NYC, City That Never Sleeps, The Concrete Jungle, The City So Nice They Named It Twice Location in the state of New York Coordinates: Country United States State New York Boroughs The Bronx Brooklyn Manhattan Queens Staten Island Settled 1613  - Mayor Michael Bloomberg (R) Area    - City...

Future plans

The Landmark Farley Building is planned to be used as a new entrance and concourse for Penn Station by the Pennsylvania Station Redevelopment Corporation, which is a subsidiary of the Empire State Development Corporation. The expansion, supported in part by new retail space, is estimated to cost over $750 million and is intended to restore some of the grandeur lost when the original Penn Station was demolished in 1964. The new "station" (that is, a new part of Penn Station) to be constructed within the Historic James A. Farley Building is to be named after the late Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan. The Urban Development Corporation (doing business as the Empire State Development Corporation) is a public authority of the state of New York in the United States. ... Daniel Patrick Pat Moynihan (March 16, 1927 – March 26, 2003) was a United States Senator, Ambassador, and eminent sociologist. ...

New Jersey Transit announced on November 21, 2005 that it would become the anchor tenant of the new Moynihan Station, slated to open to passengers in 2010. Moynihan Station will encompass 350,000 square feet of the historic James A. Farley Building while the United States Postal Service will retain approximately 250,000 square feet of the 1.5 million square-foot National Historic Landmark . Beyond retail lobby services, other postal operations remaining in the building will include Express Mail, mail delivery, truck platforms, and a stamp depository. Administrative offices for the Postal Service's New York District will also be headquartered within Farley. The New Jersey Transit Corporation (NJ Transit) is a statewide public transportation system serving the state of New Jersey, and Orange and Rockland counties in New York. ... November 21 is the 325th day of the year (326th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The United States Postal Service (USPS) is an independent establishment of the executive branch of the United States Government (see 39 U.S.C. Â§ 201) responsible for providing postal service in the United States. ... In most postal systems Express mail refers to an accelerated delivery service for which the customer pays a surcharge and receives faster delivery. ...

All mail processing operations will be relocated one block away to the Morgan Processing and Distribution Center. All other administrative functions now in the Farley Building will be moved to the Church Street Processing and Distribution Center in Manhattan. Approximately 2,500 postal employees worked in the Farley Building as of 2002. Once operations and administrative offices are moved, approximately 900 employees will remain in their current location.

When Moynihan Station opens, Amtrak and NJ Transit passengers will be able to board and exit trains from either Moynihan Station (the large flight of steps of the Farley Post Office) or the previously existing part of Penn Station.

In additions, plans are being drawn up for a new version of Madison Square Garden in Farley's western Annex. This building, which would face Ninth Avenue, would replace the current Garden located a half-block away. This version of the Garden would be placed atop the extension of the Farley Building known as the "Farley Annex" which was erected in 1934 by Farley when he served as Post Master General of the United States. The current proposals call for the state to purchase the historic Farley Complex, buillding Madison Square Garden within the Farley Annex while constructing a mixed use post office/entrance to Moynihan Station within the historic Farley Post Office. Moynihan Station will mainly encompass the superblock directly across the street from the historic Farley Post Office, on the site where the current Madison Square Garden has stood for over 40 years. [see external links]

Handicapped access

Handicapped access is extremely poor in the current building. Patrons who require access to the building must call to request access, wait on hold, then ask for someone to let them in the back of the building or locate a police officer on the perimeter of the large block, and ask the police officer to contact someone inside the post office building to help them.

History

The interior of the post office

The Farley Post Office was constructed in two stages. The original monumental front half was built in 1912 and opened for postal business in 1914; the building was doubled in 1934 by James A.Farley as Postmaster General where it backs up to Ninth Avenue: along the side streets, McKim, Mead, and White's range, which continues its Corinthian giant order as pilasters between the window bays, was simply repeated in order to carry the facade to Ninth Avenue. Farley, as Post Master General, oversaw the hiring of McKim, Mead, and White to construct the "Farley Annex", as not to disturb the continuity of the original monumental architecture of the structure. This practice of the federal government hiring private firms to provide the architecture of the countries post offices was put to a halt in 1934, a decision that was repealed in 1939. The monumental façade on Eighth Avenue was conceived as a Corinthian colonnade braced at the end by two pavilions. The imposing design was meant to match in strength the colonnade of Pennsylvania Station (McKim, Mead, and White, 1910) that originally faced it across the avenue. An unbroken flight of steps the full length of the colonnade provides access, for the main floor devoted to customer services is above a functional basement level that rises out of a dry moat giving light and air to workspaces below. Each of the square end pavilions is capped with a low saucer dome, expressed on the exterior as a low stepped pyramid. Inside, the visitor finds an unbroken vista down a long gallery that parallels the colonnaded front. Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (1536x2048, 1430 KB) interior of the James Farley Post Office, my own photograph I, the creator of this work, hereby release it into the public domain. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (1536x2048, 1430 KB) interior of the James Farley Post Office, my own photograph I, the creator of this work, hereby release it into the public domain. ... Eighth Avenue is a north-south avenue on the West Side of Manhattan in New York City, carrying northbound traffic. ... The Corinthian order as used for the portico of the Pantheon, Rome provided a prominent model for Renaissance and later architects, through the medium of engravings. ... For the Pennsylvania Station in Newark, New Jersey or Baltimore, Maryland, see Pennsylvania Station (Newark) or Pennsylvania Station (Baltimore). ...

Upon opening in 1914 it was named the Pennsylvania Terminal. In July 1918, the building was renamed the General Post Office Building, and in 1982, renamed once more as the James A. Farley Building as a congressional act. James Farley was the 53rd Postmaster General and served from 1933 to 1940. Farley,(a native New Yorker) was instrumental in the political careers of Alfred E. Smith and Franklin D. Roosevelt, (serving as campaign manager to both) and was most responsible for installing Roosevelt into the Presidency in 1932 via the Roman Catholic voting block (garnishing Farley the title "Kingmaker"). James A. Farley is the only man to serve as Chairman of the National Democratic Committee, Chairman of the NYS Democratic Committee, Post Master General, and chief dispenser of the administrations patronage machine, simultaneously. James A. Farley was a candidate for the Democratic nomination of President of the United States in 1940,(only the second Roman Catholic to receive delegates towards such a nomination behind Alfred E. Smith and before J.F.K.) and is considered a patriot for publicly standing against the third term nominee (F.D.R. is the only President to serve 4 consecutive terms.) Farley is considered by historians as one of the chief architects of the "New Deal", and its programs, via his position in Roosevelt's cabinet dubbed the "Brain Trust". Farley is also considered the finest Athletic Commissioner/Boxing Commissioner in NYS history. The James A. Farley award is given by the Boxing Writers Association for honesty and integrity in the sport of Boxing. James A. Farley is the first nationally successful (Roman Catholic) Irish American Politician. James (Jim) Aloysius Farley (May 30, 1888–June 9, 1976) was an American politician who served as head of the Democratic National Committee and Postmaster General. ... The United States Postmaster General is the executive head of the United States Postal Service. ...

The Farley Building was instrumental to maintaining service levels in the New York City area following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks when it served as a back up to operations for the Church Street Station Post Office located across the street from the World Trade Center complex. Advances in automated mail processing technology, coupled with adjustments to postal distribution and transportation networks now make it feasible to absorb associated mail volumes at the Morgan Center. Nickname: Big Apple, Gotham, NYC, City That Never Sleeps, The Concrete Jungle, The City So Nice They Named It Twice Location in the state of New York Coordinates: Country United States State New York Boroughs The Bronx Brooklyn Manhattan Queens Staten Island Settled 1613  - Mayor Michael Bloomberg (R) Area    - City... The World Trade Center on fire The September 11, 2001 attacks were a series of coordinated terrorist attacks against the United States on September 11, 2001. ... 10048 is the zip code assigned to the former World Trade Center twin towers in New York City. ... WTC redirects here. ...

See also

• James Farley
• United States Postal Service creed

James (Jim) Aloysius Farley (May 30, 1888–June 9, 1976) was an American politician who served as head of the Democratic National Committee and Postmaster General. ... The United States Postal Service has no official creed or motto. ...

References

External links

• Farley Post Office/MoynihanStation/MSG Model
• USPS James A. Farley Bio.
• Farley building architecture
• Madison Square Garden plans
• New York City Weekly Yelp review of Farley station
• Bill designating Landmark General Post Office the "James A. Farley Building"
• Bill designating Amtrak Station in the James A. Farley Building "Daniel Patrick Moynihan Station"

• Maps and aerial photos Coordinates: 40.751223° -73.995178°
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  • Topographic map from TopoZone
  • Aerial image from TerraServer-USA