USPS Morgan General Mail Facility (New York City, New York)

 post office, Art Deco (architecture), historical building, New Deal Depression Relief Project [1933-1945]

10-story Art-Deco mail processing center completed in 1933. The Morgan was built with funds and labor from the New Deal’s WPA program. It was designed to connect with the High Line and create a seamless path for the more than 8,000 mail trains that crossed the country each year on an intricate network of rail lines. James A. Wetmore, who was Acting Supervising Architect of the Public Works Branch of the U.S. Treasury Department at the time of the building’s construction, is credited with its design.

Set on a limestone base, the upper portion of the building is faced in tan brick and articulated with alternating piers and window bays. Art Deco details embellish the taller 10-story Ninth Avenue portion of the building. The rest of the building over to 10th Avenue is 6 floors tall. A frieze with a geometric relief pattern runs above the base, a belt course with a similar pattern runs above the 8th floor, and a cornice projects above the 9th floor.

On the Ninth Avenue façade, the brick piers take the form of fluted pilasters. Sculpted eagles and carved floral blocks embellish the base. Over the main door is an ornamental bronze screen above a fixed transom window. There is a broken connection to a rail spur from the High Line at the Tenth Avenue façade. The bricked-in space where the trains used to enter the building is visible at the corner.

A 3-story 1992 annex across 29th Street is connected by a 2-story skywalk above the street, which is lined with loading docks on both sides. The annex is clad in concrete, brick and glass, and occupies the entire block.

Named for Edward M. Morgan, the postmaster of New York from 1907 to 1917, this building is the main processing and distribution center for the city of New York. At 2.2 million square feet, it takes up an entire city block. Nearly 4,000 employees handle up to 12 million pieces of New York City’s mail every day, sped along by a 5-mile system of conveyor belts called Barney after the cartoon character because it’s huge and lavender.

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