William Jefferson Clinton Federal Building, Washington, DC - Philatelic Photographs on Waymarking.com

The Universal Postal Union was established in 1874 to standardize international postal rates and to establish a uniform approach to the handling of international mail. Prior to its formation each country had to enter into an agreement with every other country with which mail was exchanged. This led to a variety of international postage rates and service was inconsistent at best. In 1949, the U.S. issued a set of three airmail stamps to honor the U.P.U. on its 75th birthday. These represented the three prevailing international airmail rates at that time. The lowest value in the set pictured the Post Office Department building in Washington DC.

This Neoclassical building was part of a massive construction effort carried out in the early 1930s in Washington DC between Pennsylvania and Constitution Aves. Also included were buildings for the National Archives, the Internal Revenue Service, Interstate Commerce Commission and the Department of Justice among others. The building complex was dubbed the “Federal Triangle” by newspapers due to the shape (more or less) of the plot of land. (“Federal Right Trapezoid”, though more geometrically correct, has a far less appealing ring to it.) The buildings were not given specific names but rather were known simply by the federal agencies they housed.

The Post Office Department was abolished as a Cabinet-level agency in 1971 and reorganized as the U.S. Postal Service. With the departure of the Post Office Dept., the building was taken over by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, now known more simply as the ATF. During their tenure, they managed to get the building named in honor of Ariel Rios, one of their agents who had been killed in the line of duty.

The ATF moved out of the building in the early 1990s and into a new facility a short distance away. After some renovation, the Ariel Rios building became the new home of the Environmental Protection Agency. In 2012, Congress passed legislation renaming this building and the connected building to the south (also used by the EPA) after the 42nd President: William Jefferson Clinton. Ariel Rios was not short-changed however, as a pool at the new ATF headquarters (and eventually the new building itself) was named in his honor.

Stamp Issuing Country: United States Date of Issue: 18-Nov-1949 Denomination: 10c Color: violet Stamp Type: Single Stamp Relevant Web Site: [Web Link]

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Date Logged Log User Rating   09/08/2018 bluesnote visited it