We generally associate “historical” with”old,” yet not all old buildings are historic and not all historic buildings are very old.
A good example of the latter is the Columbus Main Street U.S. post office located at 524 Main St. Built in 1939, the post office isn’t even close to being one of the oldest buildings in the city, some of which were built in the early 1800s. Yet when it comes to the iconic places in the city, the post office is among the most treasured of our landmarks.
In 2011, the U.S. Postal Service included the Columbus post office as one of 3,653 post offices around the nation under consideration for closure. It came as a shock to the community, which had assumed the post office would endure forever.
Fortunately, the post office avoided that fate mainly for its historical significance, part of it controversial. Care has been given to keeping it in good working condition.
This week, work began to repair the doors and windows, the third repair project in the past decade. Previously, a piece of the facade across the top of the front fell and had to be replaced. Before that, rotted wood in the building’s cupola was replaced. Additionally, the Master Gardeners have maintained the flowers and shrubs on the grounds.
Were it not for the Great Depression, there is a good chance the post office would have never been built. FDR’s Public Works Administration, designed to provide jobs at a time when unemployment reached 25%, built new post offices all across the country, including Columbus.
The post office had previously operated out of the building on Fourth Street South, now the home of Columbus Water and Light.
Work began on the Main Street post office in 1937, and it opened in 1939.
The post office is also home to another New Deal project, this one designed to provide work for the nation’s artists, whose livelihood were imperiled at a time when few people had money for artwork.
In the lobby of the downtown building is a mural entitled “Out of the Soil.” It was painted by Beulah Bettersworth. She completed the painting for the building’s east lobby wall in 1940 at a cost of $1,850. The primary part of the mural depicts mostly Black workers toiling in cotton fields. Although historically accurate for the time it represented, the correlation between Black people and cotton emerged as a painful stereotype. First-time visitors today are often shocked by what depicts.
We believe it serves as an unvarnished window into a specific era of our local narrative, ensuring the complexities – and shame – of our shared past are not forgotten.
Had the post office been built 10 years earlier or 10 years later, it might very well have been closed. As a reminder of the Great Depression and New Deal work programs, its historical value is strong.
Today, the post office is symbolic of a revitalized downtown that looks to the future while honoring its past. We’re glad to see the exterior renovation happening.
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
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