National Register of Historic Places
United States Post Office
Kalamazoo, Kalamazoo County, Michigan
The record
- Listed
- December 29, 2017
- Type
- Building
- Address
- 410 W. Michigan Ave., Kalamazoo
- County
- Kalamazoo
- State
- Michigan
- Coordinates
- 42.29186, -85.58779
- Reference number
- 100001930
USGS Historical Topographic Map CollectionUSGS Historical Topographic Map CollectionDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesBarry Lawrence Ruderman Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries
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 is a building at 410 West Michigan Avenue in Kalamazoo. It was built in 1938 and 1939 in the Classical Moderne style.
Why it's listed
It was listed in the National Register in 2017 under criteria A and C, with local significance in architecture and politics and government. The nomination gives its period of significance as 1939, the year the post office was dedicated.
Physical character
The exterior walls are Kasota limestone on a reinforced concrete bearing wall structure, with granite, brick and metal elsewhere, under a flat roof and parapet wall. Fluted piers, lintel moldings, transoms, and bas-relief eagles and stars decorate the building, and in 1968 the façade name was changed to Federal Building United States Post Office and Courthouse.
Historical context
Postal service in Kalamazoo began in 1830, and the office moved to South Burdick and West South Streets in 1892. Plans for the new post office were suspended in 1933, reversed in 1934, and the property was acquired in 1936 before the building was dedicated in 1939. It was the main post office from 1939 to 1959, then the Court Station postal substation until 1994, and at its listing it held a federal office and a courthouse.