Photos • Location


United_States_Post_Office-Port_Townsend_Main Latitude and Longitude:
48°6′49″N 122°45′39″W / 48.11361°N 122.76083°W / 48.11361; -122.76083
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U.S. Post Office – Port Townsend Main
United States Post Office – Port Townsend Main is located in Washington (state)
United States Post Office – Port Townsend Main
Location1322 Washington, Port Townsend, Washington
Coordinates 48°6′49″N 122°45′39″W / 48.11361°N 122.76083°W / 48.11361; -122.76083
Area1.1 acres (0.45 ha)
Built1889-93
Architect Bell, M.E.; Edbrooke, W.J.
Architectural styleRomanesque, Richardsonian Romanesque
MPS Historic US Post Offices in Washington MPS
NRHP reference  No. 91000652 [1]
Added to NRHPMay 30, 1991

United States Post Office – Port Townsend Main is a Richardsonian Romanesque building completed in 1893 on a bluff above Port Townsend's waterfront. It was intended to serve as a Federal building that would include a customhouse serving Port Townsend's incipient role in world trade. It was locally reported to be a very fine building for the Northwest, and even in fact that "'for that matter, size considered there is nothing better in the United States.'" [2] But by its completion there was deeper disappointment in Port Townsend about the city not becoming the trade center that it had hoped to become.

Architects M.E. Bell and W.J. Edbrooke have association in designing and/or supervising roles. It was listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places in 1991. [1]

U.S. Congress appropriated $9,000 to purchase its land in March 1885. Construction of its basement began in 1889. It was completed in February 1893. This period spanned the time during which Port Townsend hoped to beat out Tacoma and Seattle to become the major port city on Puget Sound. [2] Construction of this customhouse was part of furthering that goal. However the hopes foundered, with a major setback being the November 1890 failure of the bank financing construction of a railroad from Portland to Port Townsend. [2]

References

  1. ^ a b "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
  2. ^ a b c H.J. "Jim" Kolva and Steve Franks (March 1989). "National Register of Historic Places Registration: Port Townsend U.S. Custom House and Post Office / Port Townsend Main Post Office". National Park Service. Retrieved November 14, 2016. with three photos


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