U.S. Post Office and Mine Rescue Station | |
Location | Main and 2nd Sts., Jellico, Tennessee |
---|---|
Coordinates | 36°35′23″N 84°7′34″W / 36.58972°N 84.12611°W |
Area | 0.5 acres (0.20 ha) |
Architect | Oscar Wenderoth, W. H. Fissell |
Architectural style | Beaux Arts |
NRHP reference No. | 84003467 [1] |
Added to NRHP | February 10, 1984 |
The U.S. Post Office and Mine Rescue Station in Jellico, Tennessee, is a historic building built in 1915 to house two U.S. federal government functions. [2] It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984.
The first floor of the two-story Beaux Arts-style building was a post office and the second floor was devoted to the activities of the U.S. Bureau of Mines and a local mine rescue organization serving the coal mining region around Jellico. [2] Mine rescue stations were outfitted with equipment needed to respond to underground mining accidents and served as sites for conducting training of local mining personnel. [3] [4] Congressman Richard Wilson Austin, who represented the area in the U.S. House of Representatives, was credited with obtaining authorization for the building's construction, which cost about $80,000 (equivalent to about $2,400,000 today). [2] Design of the building was by the Office of the Supervising Architect; design work was started by James Knox Taylor and completed by Oscar Wenderoth. [5] It was built in 1915 and dedicated the following year. [3] [4] The building was considered to be unusually fine for a small town like Jellico. [2] A contemporary account suggested that it might be characterized as " government pork". [2] The facilities for the Bureau of Mines were described as the "best ... hitherto given to this organization". In addition to offices, a lecture hall, and electrical connections for a "motion-picture machine", [2] these facilities included a smoke room, equipped with an exhaust fan, which was used in training miners in the use of breathing apparatus for mine rescues. [2] [4]
A similar combination post office and mine-rescue station was later built in Norton, Virginia. Norton is the only other U.S. community ever to have had a combined post office and mine-rescue station, [3] [5] although one was proposed for Hazard, Kentucky. [4]