The U.S. Postal Service plans to end all retail operations at its flagship Downtown Houston post office next Friday, May 15th. And that’ll be it for the Barbara Jordan Post Office in the 5-story 1962 building with concrete fins at 401 Franklin St. All P.O. box and caller services at that location have already ended; they stopped on May 1st. And the post office boxes themselves have been gently extricated as well, leaving this scene inside:
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The building was designed in the early sixties by Wilson, Morris, Crain & Anderson, shortly before the iconic Houston architecture firm turned its attention to its most famous project: the Astrodome. P.O. box service has already been relocated to the Sam Houston Station in Midtown, at 1500 Hadley St.
The USPS has placed the entire 16-acre property surrounding the building up for sale, but has not yet announced a buyer. The postal service has also indicated that it “anticipates demolition” of the structure.
- Previously on Swamplot: USPS Moving P.O. Boxes to Midtown Ahead of Sale and Demolition of Downtown Post Office
Photos: CBRE (exterior); Ayn Morgan (interior)
Best post office in Houston. Sad to see it go. It’s new location is not that much farther but the amount of traffic increases exponentially.
The 4th largest city in the country with no downtown post office…sounds about right.
ugh! depressing. this is such a beautiful building :(
To me it’s kinda sad to see it close. I’ve been going there every year for decades to send off my Christmas cards. I visit other times for other reasons, but I’ll miss that tradition the most.
Lol….uh yeah, this will be demolished. This is awful, tho not nearly as hideous as Staub’s building downtown. Hopefully Hines will by the 16 acres and build something spectacular.
Buy*
I am waiting for Sheila Jackson Lee and company to come picket this racist post office closure.
There was an employee who always took great pains to care for the garden out front. It was a little ray of sunshine in the otherwise concrete jungle. Hate to see that garden go and that must break that employees’ heart too. Dang.
I hope the site is developed through an LP consisting of mattress stores, tree huggers, and fast food restaurateurs so that we may be able to fully feel, live and reverberate every inch of drama this site has to offer.
This would make a great high speed rail station.
This is a pretty isolated patch of downtown north of the bayou. It isn’t really walk-able to good parts of downtown without going across some major streets.
When we were growing up, I remember riding with my dad downtown to the post office so he could drop off his mail. Didn’t matter that there was a post office off on Braeswood, because in his mind the mail would go out faster if he made the trip there. Dad doesn’t drive these days and he’ll be shocked to hear that this landmark building is closing and worse yet that it will be probably be torn down.
We got our passports renewed there one Saturday morning – no line, in and out in 15 minutes. Of course it will be demolished–because, well, HOUSTON. RIP
i know it’d never happen but it would be awesome if they rebuilt Grand Central Station there. It could be a station for the high speed rail, Amtrak, and have all sorts cool retail on the downtown facing side. Maybe even a Bork store.
Sheila Jackson Lee probably had it closed. She couldn’t stand that Barbara Jordan had her name on a post office, but not her.
Re: Rex
The irony, of course, is that Republicans have been the exclusive force behind the push to run our USPS like it was a publicly-offered company and not a taxpayer-funded service. Small minded, tea-drinking morons can look in the mirror next time they realize that they can’t go buy postage or use a PO box. You really screwed yourselves and the rest of us. Thanks.
Luz Rivera, my husband still does the exact same thing. And we all think he’s nuts. He’s going to be so upset when he hears the PO is closing.
this place hasn’t made economic sense in a very long time and the city will be much better off with new development on this block. it is what it is.
I completely agree with GL high speed rail station to and from Dallas partnered w/ a Gerald Hines building the most iconic building in Houston perfect location like A diamond in the rough spectacular structure would be Wow