(former) Anamosa, Iowa 52205 - U.S. Post Offices on Waymarking.com

The Post Office was here from 1904 until 1945 when it moved to its current location on West Ford. This would make this building the third Post Office. This town has done a remarkable job of identifying its former Post Offices.

This is a 2-story, brown-colored brick, commercial building constructed in 1904 under the influence of Classical Revival styling. George L. Schoonover, an Anamosa banker, built this block as an investment property, a portion of it under a contract with the United States Post Office to provide a facility for that federal department. The building features two facades, one facing East Main Street and one facing Booth Street. The Booth Street facade has a large, storefront window, now converted into an inset porch, surmounted by a broad arch. The Main Street storefront repeats this design, with the central window narrower than the two that flank it. The two storefront windows on the northeast corner of the building have been removed to convert the space into a covered porch. Limestone provides extensive detailing to the building, including keystones in the arches, the arches themselves, the plate on which the building rests, plinths under the brick pilasters, a belt course between the first and second floor, and sills. Replacement windows on the second floor are recent and inappropriate. Elaborate brick hoodmolds with limestone keystones surmount the second floor windows. A deep, brickworked frieze features large panels, surmounted by a copper cornice capped by a brick parapet with heavy brick finials. One local historian has noted, "The building was built of Twin City pressed brick and trimmed with blue Bedford stone. The Post Office occupied the street level story of this 2-story structure. 500 lock boxes were installed in the east half of the building on ground floor. The west half was originally occupied by A. S. Gibbons & Co., Cash Pharmacy. Judge Davis McCarn (McCarn Abstract founder) and Park Chamberlain occupied the second story along with Dr. H. W. Sigworth & Sons. The Welch Factory, or school desk factory of Anamosa, built the Post Office furnishings." Leah D. Rogers has described the building as follows: "Similar to the Dubuque Malting building and built the same year, the Post Office building exhibits some Neo-Classical stylistic influence in the brick corbelled entablature with copper cornice mold, stone-capped parapet, and brick pilasters of the second floor. However, the first floor design differs from that of the Dubuque Malting in the arcaded facade and round-arched [sic] and Palladian window and door treatments on the east side. This two-story brick building exhibits a pressed brick veneer of one color, with a polychrome effect imparted by the contrasting use of dressed stone for the belt course, window keystones, and archivolt molding of the first floor arcade. Further decorative effect is imparted by geometric brick corbelling, which includes circular medallions above the arcade and the spiraled finials, which cap the pilasters. As with the Dubuque Malting Building, the Post Office is also situated on a corner lot and has an open, arcaded corner entry with a recessed, central entry. The corner entry, however is a modification, with the recessed, central entry being the original building entrance."

-National Registry Entry

Type of structure:: stand alone re-enter Zip Code here:: 52205 Current Status:: Former Historic Location

Visit Instructions:
To post a log to an existing U.S. Post Office waymark, you will need to post a picture of the front of the building, with the name of the post office in the background if that is possible.

A description of your Post Office is required, such as when it was built, history, outstanding or unique features, population of the city or town, just do a quick internet search and find an interesting bit of information about the city or town and add it to the long description, to make it more interesting. Even just adding in the population of the area can give others an idea of how many people this post office serves. This description should be at least three sentences.

If your Post Office has any unusual or unique features that you feel others would enjoy viewing, additional pictures are always welcome.
Including your gps device in the picture is not necessary, but wouldn't be cause for disapproval, as long as all other details of your log are acceptable.

Recent Visits/Logs:

There are no logs for this waymark yet.