Local Post Office Buildings - Part I
Recent news reports have noted that the United States Postal Service will be vacating their facility on South George Street. York City government has expressed an interest to acquire the building and renovate it for use as a new City Hall. But the building on South George Street is not the only one downtown to have housed the Post Office. At the intersection of West Philadelphia and North Beaver streets a prominent red-brick Romanesque building stands on the northeast corner. Today, many people know it as the Lighthouse Youth Center. Others remember when it was a Masonic Temple. The reality, however, is that it was actually constructed by the federal government for use as a Post Office and government office building.
From “Postcard History Series: York”:
Constructed in 1895 on the northeast corner of Philadelphia and Beaver Streets, the “Federal Building” was built for a cost of $80,000. In addition to housing the Post Office, the United States Revenue Department was located on the second floor. Prior to the erection of this building, the York Post Office had been located at nine different sites.
Over the years, John Augustus Dempwolf has become identified as the architect who designed the building, probably because it exhibits a Victorian Romanesque style of architecture found on Dempwolf’s nearby Central Market House and his firm was quite prominent during the time the building was constructed. However, published lists of Dempwolf projects and drawings do not turn up any information on the building. After further research, it became apparent that no local architect was involved with the project. In fact, the architect is actually the Office of the Supervising Architect, United States Treasury Department.
Prior to the creation of the U.S. General Services Administration in 1949, most federal buildings fell under the control of the Treasury Department. The Office of the Supervising Architect was responsible for design of federal buildings, including the old Post Office. The building is actually featured in a 1901 book entitled “A History of Public Buildings under the Control of the Treasury Department.” According to that publication, the building was first occupied in November 1895 but not completed until 1897. From this book we also learn that the cubic contents of the building were 203,000 feet and seven rooms were occupied by the Postal Service and Internal Revenue service.
So who is the real architect of the building? Federal buildings designed by the Office of the Supervising Architect were credited to the appropriately titled Supervising Architect of the United States Treasury. Based upon the various tenures of Supervising Architects, Willoughby J. Edbrooke and Jeremiah O’Rourke were probably both involved with the project.
Edbrooke designed buildings at the University of Notre Dame as well as the Georgia State Capitol, while O’Rourke was best known as a church architect, designing prominent buildings in New York and New Jersey. Edbrooke hailed from the United Kingdom while O’Rourke was born in Ireland.
If you happen to be passing by the building, be sure to stop and look up. On the corner tower you’ll notice several gargoyles. These decorative features also once originally had a function: water drainage. You’ll also find gargoyles on Calvary Methodist Church on West Market Street at Richland Avenue.
In future posts, we’ll look at some of the other local post office buildings.
