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U.S. Post Office

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1933, Wyatt C. Hedrick. 251 W. Lancaster St.

Opening two years after the Texas and Pacific structures to either side, the post office was designed by the Hedrick office in a Beaux-Arts institutional manner rather than the modern commercial vocabulary of the railroad buildings. Tempering this formality is the contextual ornament, notably heads of both longhorns and Hereford steers sprouting from column capitals, and lions’ heads are along the cornice. The use of Texas fossilated limestone and the sixteen monumental Corinthian columns (with shorthorn cattle instead of volutes) along the Lancaster Avenue facade give the three-story structure a significant presence now more easily appreciated with the 2002 demolition of the I-30 overhead freeway that ran above Lancaster. The coffered lobby runs the entire east–west length of the building and is a refined example of the civic grandeur that such a public space was intended to manifest. In 2014 the U.S. Post Office considered selling the property as it relocated services to north Fort Worth but decided to retain it as a post office.

Writing Credits

Author: 
Gerald Moorhead et al.
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Citation

Gerald Moorhead et al., "U.S. Post Office", [Fort Worth, Texas], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/TX-02-FW18.

Print Source

Buildings of Texas

Buildings of Texas: East, North Central, Panhandle and South Plains, and West, Gerald Moorhead and contributors. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2019, 207-207.

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