United States Post Office-Punxsutawney

The story

Written by AI from this property's National Register nomination and the record above; every sentence is checked against its sources before it appears here. Corrections: privacy@treealive.com

The United States Post Office-Punxsutawney is a post office at 201 N. Findley St. in Punxsutawney, Jefferson County, built from 1912 to 1914 in the Neo-Classical Revival style. James Knox Taylor was architect, and Edward Henry built it under a 1912 construction contract.

Why it's listed

It was listed under criteria A and C in 2000, with local significance in architecture and politics and government. Its period of significance runs from 1914 to 1950, reflecting the post office's opening in 1914.

Physical character

The foundation is sandstone, the walls are brick, and the roof is flat and covered in asphalt. An Ionic octastyle portico and two-story limestone frontispiece front the building, with a limestone beltcourse around its perimeter. Flat-topped windows sit below a single-step parapet gable trimmed with dentils and a Greek key motif. Inside, the lobby has a coffered ceiling and a built-in curvilinear table of marble and mahogany.

Historical context

Punxsutawney's first post office opened in 1826, and Congress funded it in 1912 under the Sundry Civil Appropriations Bill. It opened for business in 1914 and served as a federal post office through 1998, when the government abandoned it, moved operations to a new building, and left it vacant at the time of its listing.