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P L A N N I N G
<br /> 4 R A C T I C E
<br /> cal concerns serioiusly.Laura managers that they have "a Philip Langdon is a writer and editor in New Haven.
<br /> Skaggs,in the National Trust's public responsibility" that Connecticut. He is the author of A Better Place to Live:
<br /> public policy department, must be balanced against cost Reshaping the American Suburb,published by the University
<br /> would remind the agency's objectives. of Massachusetts Press in 1994.
<br /> Community Crossroads
<br /> Why do old post offices so buildings with gigantic clock became the dominant archi- local historian in Madiso:.sa s
<br /> often become community ral- towers. "They were totally tectural style. But it was the of the interior. "It says his is
<br /> lying points? In part because impractical,"Bruns says of the interior that received the great- an old place."
<br /> they are among the few sur- Whether a reserved,most
<br /> viving crossroads of commu-
<br /> - somber atmosphere csur-
<br /> nity in a time of sprawl and w.-�-,� _ . , , " o vive the advent of Bugs snny
<br /> segmentation. 'Ir- v
<br /> g054°" posters and other PostEi` UttiOS S ORE >
<br /> Ser-
<br /> "Their greatness comes from tit 5 ,' - J-', vice attempts to profit :rom
<br /> what they do:they tie the corn- sib "— , ; �` u 44144 -.-,,AX a pop-culture tie-ins rem s to
<br /> munity together," says James r .. i b i s \I�,,,I'- ` 4 " be seen.Dignity on Mair Street
<br /> Bruns, director of the National I M , s * . -�``k-+w11ii. .�n ; , 4-'-'"
<br /> eses r k o is admirable, but it &'esn't
<br /> Postal Museum at the ,-sEe
<br /> Smithsonian Institution and ' i!� _ i
<br /> ' " necessarily move mercha-disc•
<br /> .01111.
<br /> hor of a highly entertain R^ f t
<br /> .�
<br /> fit
<br /> amply researched book, k Sh,J 1 , .•4.• Resources
<br /> �� , �«�;� � ��� Postal Service. The
<br /> ;,, "Community Relations
<br /> '"""` a' -{;k ., inimiliGuide for U.S.Postal Ser
<br /> 4 vice Facilities Projects'
<br /> A relic of the old days.Left:A
<br /> tiny beauty in Crane, Oregon, was published by the
<br /> �k � ltl�;, agency in June 1997.For
<br /> l ral, : 1�a towers . The main post office est attention,Bruns notes.Art a copy, contact John
<br /> i
<br /> in Washington, D.C., a Ro- ists commissioned by the Trea Sorenson,USPS,4301 WI
<br /> manesque pile once nicknamed sury Department's Section of son Blvd., Suite 300, Ar
<br /> "Old Tooth" because of its Painting and Sculpture embel lington,VA.22203-186 1;
<br /> tower, featured 12-foot-long lished post office lobbies all 70 3 5 2 6 2 7 82;e-mail:
<br /> Great American Post Offices. minute hands that were so over the country with sculp J S O R E N S O @ e m a i 1.
<br /> "The earliest post offices in heavy that they would "lose ture and murals. usps.gov.
<br /> the colonial period were typi- time on the upswing and gain The results include hundreds Action Guide.The Red
<br /> inprinters' shops or tav- time on the downswing." Book:An Action Guide for
<br /> cally p of small-town post offices like Preventing the Closing. or
<br /> o
<br /> ems or coffeehouses—gather- The last of the Victorian su- the one built in 1939 on the Consolidation of to ng st
<br /> or
<br /> ing places like that," Bruns pervising architects,James Knox Boston Post Road in Madison,
<br /> points out. "It was not until Taylor,preferred Beaux Arts and Connecticut. Though hardly Office is published by the
<br /> about the 1840s that we started Georgian styling. Many build- grand, the Georgian building National Association of
<br /> to get government-owned build- ings from his tenure have iden- conveys a dignity that's ab- Postmasters of the United
<br /> ings," he says. Even then, he tical designs—standardization sent from most new postal fa States, a private organi
<br /> says,post offices tended to be being an objective that has been cilities.The strips of brass em-
<br /> lex at 8 Herbert St.,
<br /> integrated into customs houses pursued with uneven zeal dur- bedded in the floor,the gold-leaf Alexandria, VA. 22305;
<br /> or federal courthouses. ing a century and a half of post lettering over the service win- 703-683-9027.Copies are
<br /> ilftethe Civil War,the fed- office construction. down, the handsome oak free.
<br /> r
<br /> government's During the Depression, around the postal boxes all History. Great rn
<br /> ambitions became far more money for exterior embellish- engender an atmosphere that can Post Offices,by James
<br /> lofty.Massive Second Empire- ment was scarce, and in any inspires people to treasure old Bruns,published this year
<br /> style buildings rose in the case, the leading edge of de- post offices,despite functional by John Wiley&Sons,is
<br /> 1870s, followed in the 1880s sign was turning toward sim- flaws."It's not bright and mod- $24.95 in a 274 page pa
<br /> and 1890s by Romanesque plification.Stripped classicism ern looking," Warner Lord, a perbound edition.
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