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The Old Post Office Pavilion, also known as Old Post Office and Clock Tower and officially renamed the Nancy Hanks Center in 1983, is a historic building located at 1100 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C. Completed in 1899, it was used as the city's main post office until 1914. Used primarily as an office building afterward, it was nearly torn down during the construction of the Federal Triangle complex in the 1920s. It was nearly demolished again in the 1970s to make way for completion of Federal Triangle. Major renovations occurred in 1976 and 1983. The 1983 renovation added a food court and retail space. An addition was added to the structure in 1991. In 2013, the U. S. General Services Administration leased the property for 60 years to The Trump Organization. The Trump Organization said it would develop the property into a luxury hotel to be named Trump International Hotel Washington, D.C. The food court and stores closed in January 2014, while the remaining offices and the clock tower closed on May 1, 2014, as the renovation began. The Old Post Office Pavilion is a contributing property to the Pennsylvania Avenue National Historic Site. ==Construction and opening== The United States Congress approved construction of a new post office for Washington, D.C., on June 25, 1890.〔"The Post Office Site." ''Washington Post.'' August 30, 1890.〕 The site, at the southwest corner of Pennsylvania Avenue and 12th Street, was chosen by Senator Leland Stanford in 1888〔Struck, Myron. "Old Post Office Revived." ''Washington Post.'' April 16, 1983.〕 in the hope that the building would revitalize the Murder Bay neighborhood between the Capitol building and the White House.〔Benedetto, Donovan, and Du Vall, p. 166.〕 The structure was designed in the Romanesque Revival style〔〔 (some classify it as Richardsonian Romanesque)〔 by Willoughby J. Edbrooke, Supervising Architect of the Treasury Department.〔Moeller and Feldblyum, p. 129.〕 Construction began in 1892, and the building was complete in 1899.〔Evelyn, Dickson, and Ackerman, p. 75-76.〕〔Wentzel, p. 34.〕 The total cost of construction was $3 million.〔"New Post Office Building Is Not a Great Success." ''New York Times.'' January 21, 1900.〕 At the time of its completion, the Post Office Building contained the largest uninterrupted enclosed space in the city.〔 Its clock tower reached into the air.〔 It was also the city's first building to have a steel frame structure,〔 and the first to be built with electrical wiring incorporated into its design.〔 The structure featured elevators with cages of highly intricate wrought iron,〔 a glass covered atrium and mezzanine level, and floors, moldings, railings, and wainscoting made of marble.〔 The atrium was high, and 10 floors of balconies looked out onto the space (which provided interior light in an era when indoor lighting was not common).〔 It boasted more than 39,000 interior electric lights, and its own electrical generator.〔 Girders and catwalks spanned the atrium at the third floor level to allow post office supervisors to look down on the workers.〔 The fifth floor housed executive offices in the corners. Each office had a turret, ornately carved wooden moldings, and red oak paneling.〔 But there were problems with the structure. The ''Washington Star'' newspaper reported that the skylights and windows leaked air and water, the marble floors were poorly laid, and much of the construction was shoddy.〔 The ninth floor was to have served as a file room, but a post-construction inspection showed it could not accommodate the weight.〔 Technological advances in electricity and electrical wiring, mechanical engineering, movement of air, heating, and more made the building out of date as soon as it opened.〔 Unfortunately, the anticipated economic development never occurred.〔 At the 1898 meeting of the American Institute of Architects, the structure was criticized as supremely ugly during a plenary address by New York City architect George B. Post.〔 That same year, Senator Joseph Roswell Hawley called it "a cross between a cathedral and a cotton mill".〔"Congress and the Questions of Expansion and Increased Armaments Confronting It." ''New York Times.'' November 6, 1898.〕 By the time it opened, the building was also too small to accommodate the government agencies which occupied it. The city postmaster had advocated a building with a footprint, but only were purchased.〔 The post office used the main floor and mezzanine,〔 but these were already too crowded by January 1900.〔"Too Crowded for Comfort." ''Washington Post.'' September 15, 1899.〕 Treasury Department offices were to have taken over the eighth floor, but the structure was so overcrowded that this move was suspended.〔 A year after the building opened, an accident there took the life of D.C. Postmaster James P. Willett. On September 30, 1899, Willett fell down an open elevator shaft. Nothing more than a flimsy wooden barrier prevented access to the shaft. Willett died a day later.〔"Fell Down the Shaft." ''Washington Post.'' October 1, 1899; "Died." ''Washington Post.'' October 2, 1899.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Old Post Office Pavilion」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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