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Wayne N. Aspinall Federal Building (Post Office)

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Post Office
1915, James A. Wetmore, OSA. 400 Rood Ave. (northeast corner of 4th St.) (NR)
  • (Carol M. Highsmith Archive, Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress)
  • (Carol M. Highsmith Archive, Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress)
  • Harvest (Carol M. Highsmith Archive, Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress)
  • Harvest (Carol M. Highsmith Archive, Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress)

The post office moved to a Modernist edifice across the street in 1965, leaving various other federal agencies in this Beaux-Arts monument named for western Colorado's long-time U.S. representative. The three-story limestone building has an arcaded first floor with round-topped openings and tripartite, square-paned windows. The five arched bays on the east were added in a look-alike 1939 expansion. The cornice is topped by a balustraded parapet. Side elevations echo the main facade in general design, and a rear setback above the first floor helps light upper-level offices.

A 6-by-8-foot mural, Harvest (1940), by Denver artist Louise Emerson Ronnebeck, has recently been reinstalled after being lost for seventeen years in a warehouse. One of 1,100 murals commissioned for post offices by the Federal Works Agency's Section of Fine Arts, it depicts Ute Indians departing as white settlers arrive in western Colorado. It is now in the stairwell at the southwest corner of the building.

Writing Credits

Author: 
Thomas J. Noel
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Data

What's Nearby

Colorado National Bank
Main Street Mall
Grand Junction City Hall
Mesa County Courthouse
Museum of Western Colorado

Citation

Thomas J. Noel, "Wayne N. Aspinall Federal Building (Post Office)", [Grand Junction, Colorado], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/CO-01-ME04.

Print Source

Buildings of Colorado, Thomas J. Noel. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997, 505-505.

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