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[Map]
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FORMER
POST OFFICE DEPARTMENT |
Pennsylvania
Avenue at Twelfth Street NW. Downtown cars and busses. Taxi, first
zone. Open daily 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Saturdays 9 a.m. to 12 m. Library
open 9 a.m. to 12 m. and 1 to 4 p.m. Benjamin Franklin Postal Station
on ground floor open 24 hours a day, except Christmas Day.
(from
Washington City and Capital, Federal Writers' Project, WPA
American Guide Series, Washington DC, 1937)
Adolph
A. Weinman (1870-1952) was a most favored artist among the designers
of the Federal Triangle in the 1930's. In addition to "Destiny,"
the pediment he sculpted for the north side of the National
Archives building at Pennsylvania Avenue and 8th Street NW,
Weinman's architectural sculpture covers many significant spaces on
the Post Office Department's 1934 neo-classical headquarters, now the
Ariel J. Rios Federal Building, located at 12th Street and Pennsylvania
Avenue.
The
idea for a group of monumental governmental buildings in the Federal
Triangle started to become reality with the Public Buildings Act of
1926. Before the plan's substantial completion in the mid-1930's, however,
the realities of the Great Depression had almost led to its demise.
Certainly, the radically changed economic and social conditions of the
nation led many citizens to question the validity of selecting such
a grandiose style to represent a democratic society's government. Younger
generations of Washingtonians have learned to take the grandly monumental
style of the Federal Triangle buildings for granted; they scarcely even
notice it. But in 1937, when the Federal Writers' Project published
its guide, Washington: City and Capital, Weinman's work for the
then new Post Office Department is described in awesome detail. The
solidity made palpable in the Beaux-Arts classical art style--along
with its ties to ancient European tradition--were perhaps evidence that
the country, its economy, society, and political institutions were durable,
despite the unrest, insecurity, poverty, and human suffering so visible
to Depression-era Americans:
The
architectural sculpture . . . portrays the development of the postal
service in relation to the process of civilization. The earlier forms
of communication are depicted in the Doric frieze on the western façade
by bas-relief panels which are repeated along the pavilions and within
the semicircle. These are smoke and blanket signals of the American
Indian, the ancient helio signal, the carrier pigeons of antiquity,
the drum message of the savage, and finally the Security of the Mail.
The corner bas-reliefs show two genii supporting the fasces of united
government.
The
figures in the two pediments of the pavilions represent the four continents
and symbolize the transfer of human knowledge. The central motif in
each case is a hemisphere, flanked by heroic seated figures and genii.
The north pediment portrays Europe as a Thor-like male figure offering
the Lamp of Knowledge to Africa, a beautiful and exotic female figure.
The genii of Europe and Africa are represented by male children of
those continents. The reclining end figures are a Grecian woman with
the sibylline sphere, and an inscrutable Egyptian figure with urn
and crocodile. The south pediment shows America, a vigorous nude male,
handing the Winged Sphere of Speed to a semidraped woman, the Orient.
Each figure is accompanied by an appropriate genius. The end figures
are a nude man and hooded nude woman, both reclining on beasts native
to the continents represented. On each pediment are two corner eagles,
symbolic of speedy communication.
Just within the semicircle, on the attic parapet near the two pediments,
are bas-reliefs on Night on the north, and Day on the south, with
an inscription covering the parapet wall between them. [Actually,
it's the other way around: The Delivery of the Mail by Day is on the
north and The Delivery of the Mail by Night is on the south.]
Above the central portico of the east façade there is an elaborately
sculptured pediment depicting the Spirit of Progress and Civilization,
holding aloft a torch and winged sphere; at her right stands a youth
with scroll and book, the bearer of the Written and Printed Word;
at her left, Mercury, messenger of the gods, is fastening his sandal,
symbolic of the post as Quickener of Commerce. To the left of the
central group are two impatient steeds, held in check by a powerful
male figure, symbolizing Transmission of Post by Land, and on the
right, a balanced group of seahorses guided by a Triton, and accompanied
by dolphins, denoting Transmission of Mail by Sea. The end group on
the right is a virile male figure and winged genii guiding and controlling
the wires of Electrical Communication; that on the left portrays a
reclining winged figure with eagles, emblematic of Transmission of
Mail by Air. Here again are corner eagles.
Similar in design to the pediments of the west façade, the
pediment on the Pennsylvania Avenue façade also has the central
motif of a hemisphere encircled by a band and supported by two youths,
one handing the other the Torch of Knowledge. The end figure, left,
is a Triton with dolphins, and right, an aviator with eagle. The pediment
symbolizes the bond of postal union.
Artists
and citizens today certainly squirm at some of Weinman's allegories,
but these artworks are at the contradictory heart of the monumental
Washington created in the Federal Triangle in the late 1920's and 1930's.
Standing in the large open courtyard between the west side of the former
Post Office Department and the east side of the Ronald Reagan Building
and International Trade Center, dedicated in 1998 (completing the Federal
Triangle), the visitor has an opportunity to contemplate seventy years
of monumental art and architecture and think about the links between
art and power in a democracy.
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Clickable image map of the former Post Office Department
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