The James A. Farley Building is the main post office building in New York City. Its zip code designation is 10001. Built in 1912, the building is famous for bearing the inscription: Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.

Overview

The building fronts on the west side of Eighth Avenue, across from Pennsylvania Station and Madison Square Garden. It is located at 421 Eighth Avenue, between 31st Street and 33rd Street in the New York City borough of Manhattan.

The Post Office was officially renamed "The James A. Farley Building" and consists of the old general post office building and its western annex. The Farley building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and occupies two full city blocks, an footprint straddling the tracks of the Northeast Corridor and the Farley Corridor (sub-district B) in western Midtown Manhattan. The building was designated in 1982 as a monument to the political career of former Postmaster General and supreme Democratic Boss of New York State James Farley. Farley was responsible for Franklin D. Roosevelt's rise to the presidency.

The Farley Post Office once held the distinction of being the only Post Office in New York City open to the public 24 hours 7 days a week but in 2009 due to the economic situation its windows close at 10 PM.
thumb|left|Eighth Avenue facade
The James A. Farley Building in New York boasts the longest giant order Corinthian colonnade in the world.

History

thumb|A carefully-detailed [[Corinthian order|Corinthian colonnade under the inspirational inscription]]

The James A. Farley Building 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 the then Postmaster General, James A. Farley, and replaced the 1878 Post Office at Park Row and Broadway. 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's building supply firm General Builders Supply Corporation had received a federal contract under the Hoover Administration to provide building materials for the construction of the Post Office Annex. Farley was accused by then Senator Huey Long of Louisiana for receiving preferential treatment from the Roosevelt Administration, a statement that would be proved false as Farley would be cleared by the Senate of any wrong doing in what would be known as "The Long-Farley Affair of 1935".

The building was one of the last built under the Tarsney Act. Up until 1893 all federal non-military structures were designed by in-house government architects in the Office of the Supervising Architect in the United States Treasury Department. The 1893 act introduced by a Missouri Congressman permitted the Supervisory Architect to pick private architects following a competition. Supervisory architect James Knox Taylor picked McKim for the New York post office. In 1913 the act was repealed partially in light of a scandal in which Taylor had picked his former Minnesota partner Cass Gilbert for design of the Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House.

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. The north end of the gallery houses a small Museum of Postal History.
The building prominently bears the inscription: Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds, which is frequently mistaken as the official motto of the United States Postal Service. It was actually 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 taken from Herodotus' Histories (Book 8, Ch. 98) and describes the faithful service of the Persian system of mounted postal messengers under Xerxes I of Persia. The USPS does not actually have an official motto or creed, but nonetheless the inscription on the building is often cited as such. The inscription was carved by Ira Schnapp, who later designed the Action Comics logo and many other iconic logos for DC Comics.Reed, Robby. Retrieved July 21, 2008.
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. (97th Congress, H.Res. 368 3/2/1982). James Farley was the nation's 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). He was a candidate for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States in 1940, the New York Athletic Commissioner/Boxing Commissioner.

The building was designated a New York City Landmark in 1966.

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.

The post office stopped 24 hour service beginning on May 9, 2009 due to decreasing mail traffic.

Future plans

The 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. 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.

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.

U.S. Senator Charles Schumer said "Throughout his career, Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan has always recognized that transportation infrastructure was the key to New York remaining the capital of the world. And he knew it meant more than just bricks and mortar, it meant grand architecture that inspires our citizens and enobles our City. And nowhere was Pat Moynihan more wise than on the subject of Penn Station, once the most grand and beautiful of public works, now little more than a squalid basement. The new Farley Station will be a magnificent addition to our City. It is a great day for New York and we owe our thanks to Pat Moynihan's tireless efforts."

When Moynihan Station opens, Amtrak passengers will be able to board and exit trains from either The Farley Post Office or the previously existing part of Penn Station which will include a newly designed Madison Square Garden.

See also

• James Farley

• United States Postal Service creed