Pueblo Federal Building and Post Office 421 North Main Street Southwest Corner of North Main Street and West Fifth Street City O
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Pueblo Federal Building and Post Office HABS No. C0-186 421 North Main Street Southwest corner of North Main Street and West Fifth Street City of Pueblo Pueblo County Co 1orado PHOTOGRAPHS WRITTEN HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE DATA HISTORIC AMERICAN BUILDINGS SURVEY Rocky Mountain Regional Office National Park Service P.O. Box 25287 Denver, Colorado 80225-0287 Pueblo Federal Building and Post Off ice Pueblo, Colorado HABS No. C0-186 Page 1 HISTORIC AMERICAN BUILDINGS SURVEY ~AB.> PUEBLO FEDERAL BUILDING AND POST OFFICE c.01...0 PUEBLO, COLORADO ~J-P\Ae~ l- Location: 421 North Main Street, Pueblo, Colorado, the southwest corner of North Main Street and West Fifth Street, on Lots 1 through 6, Block 34, Pueblo. Quadrangle Map: Pueblo Northeast, Colorado (1961, photorevised 1970 and 1974). UTM Coordinates, 13/534260/4235770 Date of Construction: 1896-98 (addition, 1935-36) Present Owner: U.S. Postal Service, 421 N. Main Street, Pueblo, Colorado. Present Use: U.S. Post Office and federal offices occupy first floor; upper floors are vacant. Significance: The Pueblo Federal Building and Post Off ice was the first federal building erected in the city and the second constructed in Colorado. The building housed the main post office, United States courts, and federal agencies for almost a century. Designed by William Martin Aiken, Supervising Architect for the Treasury Department, the Federal Building was one of the most architecturally influential edifices in the city, setting construction and design standards for subsequent development. The building continues to serve as one of Pueblo's most significant downtown landmarks. Historians: Thomas H. Simmons and R. Laurie Simmons, Front Range Research Associates, Inc. , Denver, Colorado, January 1996 Pueblo Federal Building and Post Off ice Pueblo, Colorado HABS No. C0-186 Page 2 Three-fold fortunate then is Pueblo in its government building. It has been completed in a remarkably short time, it is architecturally beautiful, finished most magnificently, with conveniences of the most advanced type and it will result in an improvement in the character and class of buildings to be put up for all time to come. 1 Historical Background Introduction As the number of government employees expanded dramatically during the late nineteenth century, federal buildings proliferated in America and flourishing towns across the country sought their erection as an indication of municipal importance. 2 Federal buildings reflected "the latest in architectural style and technology and, symbolically, membership in the Union. 113 These buildings, serving often as focal points of the urban environment, were viewed by local residents as important additions to the architectural heritage of the city. Congress had established the position of Supervising Architect in 1864 to manage the burgeoning roster of Treasury Department construction projects. By 1893, the Office of Supervising Architect was responsible for 297 completed buildings and another ninety-five in the process of construction. 4 The first Pueblo post office was established on 13 December 1860, with W.S. Catterson as postmaster. 5 In 1861, when Pueblo became a territorial county seat, the office was located in a small wooden building on Santa Fe Avenue. The post office remained in the Santa Fe Avenue facility until growth of the community prompted the construction of the Pueblo Federal Building and Post Off ice in 1898. The new building at the southwest corner of North Main Street and West 5th Street was the second federal building erected in Colorado (See Location Map) . 6 1Pueblo Chieftain, 29 May 1898. 2Robert Peck, "US Property Keep Off," Progressive Architecture (July 1976): 46-51. 3Lois A. Craig, The Federal Presence: Architecture, Politics, and National Design (Cambridge, Mass.: The M.I.T. Press, 1984). 4c raig,. 99. 5Maxine Benson, 1001 Colorado Place Names (Lawrence, Kan. : University of Kansas Press, 1994), 173. 6Denver had received its federal building in 1892. H. James Kolva, "Neither Sleet Nor Snow ... The U.S. Postal Service Comes to Colorado, " Colorado Heritage 1 ( 19 8 7) : 2; and The Pueblo Star- Pueblo Federal Building and Post Off ice Pueblo, Colorado HABS No. C0-186 Page 3 An Act of Congress on 7 February 1891 authorized the acquisition of a site and erection of a building to house a United States post off ice and other government offices in Pueblo at a cost not to exceed $225, 000. The Act failed to appropriate any funds for construction. In the typical piecemeal appropriation pattern for federal buildings of the day, an Act on 3 March 1891 allocated an initial $100,000 for the site acquisition and construction of the building, with subsequent appropriations on 2 March 1895 and 4 June 1897 providing funding for a total amount not to exceed $300,000. 7 Site Selection Proposals for the site of the new building were submitted to the Secretary of the Treasury on 9 April 1891. 8 The selection of a location for the building was delayed for several months by a bitter dispute between residents living on the north side of Pueblo and those living on the south. J.B. Gordon, who had erected a five-story building at Broadway and Abriendo in 1891, had almost completed an agreement to sell the edifice to the government as a federal building when north side political leaders learned of the plans. The northsiders immediately began a campaign to convince the government to accept a building site on the north. Mass meetings of citizens representing the rival groups culminated in torchlight parades. Attorneys for both sides were dispatched to Washington to present information to government officials. In August 1891, the Treasury Department instructed an agent from Washington to travel to Pueblo and personally examine the proposed sites, meet with the disputing parties, and formulate a recommendation. 9 The northsiders selected a location at the corner of Fifth and Main owned by O.H.P. Baxter as the best available site to offer the government. Baxter had torn down a mill on the property when the Grand Opera House was erected and agreed to donate his land to the government as an added incentive for selection of the site. The Journal, undated clipping in the files of McClelland Public Library, Pueblo, Colo., "Postal System Clippings." 7U.S. Department of the Treasury, Annual Report of the Supervising Architect to the Secretary of the Treasury for the Year Ending September 30, 1891 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1891), 131-132. 8Annual Report of the Supervising Architect to the Secretary of the Treasury for the Year Ending September 30, 1891, 131-132. 9 "Six-year Political Fight Delayed Building of Federal Building Here, " undated clipping in files of McClelland Public Library, Pueblo, Colo., "Postal System Clippings." Pueblo Federal Building and Post Off ice Pueblo, Colorado HABS No. C0-186 Page 4 LOCATION MAP SOURCE: Extract of U.S. Geological Survey, "Northeast Pueblo, Colorado," 7.5 minute quadrangle map, 1:24,000 scale (Reston, Virginia: U.S. Geological Survey, 1960, photorevised 1970 and 1974). The circle indicates the location of the Pueblo Federal Building and Post Office. Pueblo Federal Building and Post Off ice Pueblo, Colorado HABS No. C0-186 Page 5 southsiders offered J.B. Gordon's completed building to the Treasury Department . 10 The Treasury agent spent several days inspecting the sites, listening to representatives of both groups, and documenting the two locations for his report. In October 1891, the Treasury Department appointed a commission to settle the site question. In November, the commissioners recommended that the new federal building be erected on the B2xter property at Fifth and Main. The Treasury Department paid $1 for the land on 19 August 1892 and requested proposals for survey of the site on 30 August in preparation for beginning the design of the building. 11 Architect William Martin Aiken The final drawings for the Federal Building were completed under the direction of William Martin Aiken, the Supervising Architect of the U.S. Treasury Department. 12 Aiken made a personal visit to Pueblo to examine the building site in order to insure that the structure was appropriate for the local setting. Born in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1835, Aiken was educated in local schools and graduated from the University of the South. His architectural training was obtained from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, from which he graduated in 1879. Aiken subsequently worked for H.H. Richardson in Brookline, Massachusetts, William Ralph Emerson in Boston, and James McLaughlin in Cincinnati, Ohio. In 1886, he set up his own practice in New York City. 13 In April 1895, President Grover Cleveland appointed Aiken Supervising Architect of the Treasury Department. The Office of Supervising Architect was frequently criticized in the nineteenth century for the length of time required for completion of buildings, political partisanship, excessive costs, and failure to employ outside architects in its projects. Western Architect 10Gordon' s building was eventually completed as a hotel. Before it formally opened, the building was demolished by fire. 11 "Six-Year Poli ti cal Fight Delayed Building of Federal Building Here;" and U.S. , Department of the Treasury, Annual Report of the Supervising Architect to the Secretary of the Treasury for the Year Ending September 30, 1892 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1892), 123-124. uAiken's name appears on the front of drawings of the Pueblo Federal Building maintained by the Postal Service in Denver. 13Henry F. Withey and Elsie R. Withey, Biographical Dictionary of American Architects (Deceased) (Los Angeles, California: New Age Publishing Company, 1956), 11-12; and New York Times, 8 December 1908. Pueblo Federal Building and Post Off ice Pueblo, Colorado HABS No. C0-186 Page 6 observed that "a change came in the off ice of the Supervising Architect when William Martin Aiken was appointed.