Edge Rewrite
everything Source code View original
// HTMLRewriter · presentation

This page was redesigned at the edge.

Cloudflare fetched the original article and streamed it through HTMLRewriter to apply an entirely new visual system without rebuilding the source page.

// request.cf · coarse context

A page that knows where it met you.

Only coarse request metadata is shown. This demo does not display or persist visitor IP addresses.

Country
US
Cloudflare location
CMH
Connection
HTTP/2
Language
Not provided

Ray ID: a22d0f195c65376a

Jump to content

// Workers AI · dad joke modeWhy did mail go to therapy at U.S. Post Office-Los Angeles Terminal Annex? It had a lot of "stamp"-ing issues.

Edit links
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from Terminal Annex)

United States Post Office
Los Angeles Terminal Annex
Terminal Annex in 2008
U.S. Post Office-Los Angeles Terminal Annex is located in California
U.S. Post Office-Los Angeles Terminal Annex
Location within California
Location900 N. Alameda St., Los Angeles, California
Coordinates34°3′36″N 118°14′7″W / 34.06000°N 118.23528°W / 34.06000; -118.23528
Area3.8 acres (1.5 ha)
Built1940 (completed)
ArchitectGilbert Stanley Underwood
Architectural styleMission Revival-Spanish Colonial Revival
MPSUS Post Office in California 1900-1941 TR
NRHP reference No.85000131[1]
Added to NRHPJanuary 11, 1985

The United States Post Office – Los Angeles Terminal Annex, also known simply as Terminal Annex, located at 900 North Alameda Street in Los Angeles, California, was the central mail processing facility for Los Angeles from 1940 to 1989.

Across Cesar Chavez Avenue from Union Station, the Mission Revival and Spanish Colonial Revival building of Terminal Annex, which was designed by Gilbert Stanley Underwood, was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1985.

Construction and opening

[edit]
Terminal Annex in 2008

Designed by Gilbert Stanley Underwood, the Terminal Annex was built by the Sarver & Zoss contracting firm from 1939 to 1940. The building was built for the purpose of processing all incoming and outgoing mail in Los Angeles. Though its purpose was principally utilitarian, Underwood sought to keep the building's design in keeping with the city's Union Station, which opened across the street in May 1939. The original building was a three-story structure with two towers and 400,000 square feet (37,000 m2) of floor space.[2][3]

The $3 million postal annex opened in May 1940 with 1,632 postal clerks, carriers and laborers responsible for the processing of 2 million pieces of mail per day.[4] The facility, which was kept open 24 hours a day, was equipped with the latest facilities for rapid handling of mail, including conveyors, chutes, weighing machines, cancelling machines, and sorting and facing tables.[4][5] At the time of its opening, it was considered "the most modern and efficient" post office in the nation.[5] At the formal dedication ceremony in June 1940, the postmaster called the annex a symbol of the achievements of democracy, opening at a time when the monuments of Europe were "being ground in the dust."[6]

Murals

[edit]

The lobby includes twelve Section of Painting and Sculpture murals painted by Boris Deutsch from 1941 to 1944.[7] [8]

1950s expansion

[edit]

Only ten years after its opening, the demands of the city's mail had already outgrown the facility. Accordingly, the Post Office announced plans in 1950 for a $12 million expansion, including an adjoining five-story parcel post building and other structures as well.[9]

1980s South Los Angeles facility

[edit]

By the 1980s, operations had outgrown even the expanded facilities at the Terminal Annex. The facility's volume had grown by the mid-1980s to 14 million pieces of mail per day,[10] and the annex was plagued by inadequate space, overcrowding and inadequate work areas.[11] Accordingly, the Postal Service Board of Governors in 1984 approved the construction of a new $151 million general post office in South Los Angeles.[12] Almost 50 years after Terminal Annex became the city's main mail-processing facility, the new processing facility in South Central opened in 1989.

The Postal Service moved out of the building in 1995.

Filming location

[edit]

The vacant building was used as a film location for the motion picture Dear God in 1995 and for the CBS television series EZ Streets in 1996. Producers used the lobby, decorated with WPA murals, to represent Los Angeles City Hall.[13]

For the 1998 movie City of Angels, it was used as a hospital set, complete with an emergency room entrance.

Data center

[edit]

As of 2015, most of the building has been leased to CoreSite, which uses it as their LA2 data center.[14][15] Like all data centers, it is a secure facility and not open to the public.

The lobby level houses a postal counter with stamp sales and provides mail pick-up for customers who rent mail boxes.

Scandals and tragedies

[edit]

During nearly 50 years as the city's central postal processing facility, the Terminal Annex suffered a number of scandals and tragedies, including the following:

  • In 1954, two veteran postal employees were charged with being the ringleaders of two large bookmaking operations operating out of the Terminal Annex. Investigators alleged that 10-15 other employees were involved in the operations.[16]
  • In 1970, a postal supervisor was shot and killed at the Terminal Annex by a disgruntled postal clerk. After the supervisor ordered the clerk to leave work for intoxication, the clerk waited outside the annex and shot the supervisor in the back three times as the supervisor ran toward the security desk, calling for help.[17]
  • In 1978, a pipe bomb, wrapped in a package, exploded in a sorting room at the Terminal Annex, slightly injuring six postal workers.[18]
  • In 1985, a malfunctioning voltage line in the basement of the Terminal Annex caused an 8+1⁄2-hour power blackout that halted operations at the facility. The power outage resulted in a one-day delay in the delivery of 1.5 million pieces of mail and was front-page news in the Los Angeles Times.[12]
  • In 1986, 12 postal workers employed at the Terminal Annex were charged as alleged pushers of both powder and rock cocaine.[19]

Historic designation

[edit]

The Terminal Annex building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985 based on its architectural style.[20][1][8]

See also

[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. 1 2 "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
  2. ↑ "Postoffice Annex Costing $2,000,000 Making Progress". Los Angeles Times. May 15, 1939.
  3. ↑ "Near Union Station". Los Angeles Times. December 10, 1939.
  4. 1 2 "New Postal Annex Opens: Washington Officials Inspect $3,000,000 Structure". Los Angeles Times. May 28, 1940.
  5. 1 2 "Opening of New Postoffice Set: Operation of New Terminal Annex to Begin at 8 a.m. Tomorrow". Los Angeles Times. May 26, 1940.
  6. ↑ "Postal Annex Dedicated: Building Called Finest of Type in Country; 500 Attended Observance". Los Angeles Times. June 23, 1940.
  7. ↑ "Boris Deutsch". LACMA Collections. Retrieved June 10, 2020.
  8. 1 2 Doug Robertson (April 27, 1984). "National Register of Historic Places Inventory/Nomination: U.S. Post Office / Los Angeles Terminal Annex Post Office". National Park Service. Retrieved March 17, 2017. with photos
  9. ↑ "Postal Annex Expansion to Cost $12,000,000: Government Buys Five Acres of Land for Parcel Post and Other Buildings". Los Angeles Times. February 14, 1950.
  10. ↑ Leo F. Buscaglia (May 12, 1985). "Living and Loving: Sending a Love Letter to the Post Office". Los Angeles Times.
  11. ↑ George Ramos (May 25, 1985). "Terminal Annex Power Blackout Delays L.A. Mail". Los Angeles Times.
  12. 1 2 George Ramos (May 24, 1985). "1.5 Million Pieces of Mail Undelivered in Power Loss: Delivery Promised Saturday". Los Angeles Times.
  13. ↑ Bob Pool (October 14, 1996). "The Mail Lead: Terminal Annex Becomes the Backdrop for a TV Series". Los Angeles Times.
  14. ↑ "LA2 Data Center and Colocatio". CoreSite. Archived from the original on July 2, 2015.
  15. ↑ "900 North Alameda Street". The Center for Land Use Interpretation. Retrieved February 21, 2018.
  16. ↑ "Post Office Suspends Two as Bookmakers: Veteran Mail Clerks Accused as Ringleaders With 10 or 15 More Working for Them". Los Angeles Times. January 25, 1954.
  17. ↑ "Post Office Supervisor Shot to Death; Co-Worker Arrested". Los Angeles Times. August 14, 1970.
  18. ↑ "Bomb in Parcel Explodes at Post Office, Injures Six". Los Angeles Times. February 3, 1978.
  19. ↑ "12 Named as Cocaine Pushers After 5-Month Probe at L.A. Post Office". Los Angeles Times. June 27, 1986.
  20. ↑ "2 Post Office Buildings Declared Landmarks". Los Angeles Times. May 14, 1985.
[edit]
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=U.S._Post_Office-Los_Angeles_Terminal_Annex&oldid=1364143370"