Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1891-05-26

Ground Broken for the Temporary HON.
on a OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES OF space.

Ground Broken for tire Temporary HouD
on q neutrality-suspicious. OF space.
Just at present the population Of this city. or
at least that large part Of IL that reads and
writes, Is interested in three city pos, ofices.
There is nov one such Office. next fall there
will be another. and tho probability is that in
few years there will be fine new one on Penn
sylvanis avenue opposite The star office.
There Is not much that Is new in the matter
Of the new Office that is 10 he built The re-
port Of the post Office site has been approved
and forwarded 10 the Attorney General, and 10
now finding its way through the usual official
channels As yet. Of course, no work has been
done upon the actual designing Of the plans by
the srchi.ects
According TO the law the supervising srchi-
tect OF the treasury is TO commence his share
OF the work as soon as the deeds OF transfer
have been made out, the government in
actual possession Of the land and the
present holders compensated There would
now seem TO be no reason why the architects
may not get TO work upon their plans before
any great length of time has elapsed. IL may
De Tour or hve years. however. before the new
building Will be completed and ready for occu-
pancy.
GROUND BROKEN ron rHE TEMPORARY BUILDING.
In the meantime the post Office has out
grown Its present dilapidated quarters and
things have come TO such rass that il must
be removed 10 more suitable home. BY the
LIST OF next November IL is promised that
the new building on q street will be
completed and the letter boxes, bags,
and all the rest OF the paraphernalia Of q big
city post Office will be removed thither and
business continued. Ground has been broken
Tor the new structure. which IL TO be known a
the Union building, and work upon IL will he
pushed as rapidly possible. The site is
the north side OF q street between 9th and 9Th
streets, on the east side Of the wide alley.
The building, which il 10 he a handsome COM
bination of stone and brick, six stories and .
basement. has a frontage Of l0s feet inches
on q street, with depth of 2l2 feet 6 inches
his makes an unusually large building and
one much better adapted for the
needs of poet Office than the pres
ent one on Louisiana avenue. Practically the
whole OF the .SIfce can be accommodated on
one floor, but The first floor. the basement and
part Of the second floor will be at their dis
posal- The remainder of the building. which
is being erected by local syndicate, will prob
ably be occupied by one or more branches Of
the government as offices.
ADVANCEMENT OF THE FIRST FLOOR.
The arrangement of the first foor has been
placed in the hands of Postmaster Sherwood,
and with the assistance Of the superintendents
of divisions he has completed the allotment of
floor space. The main entrance will lead di-
rectly into a wide corridor which runs to the
elevator shafts. about half way back. The
main Offices will be conveniently located on
either side of this corridor. ON the right il
the money order division and next 10 that the
registry division On the left of the entrance
viii be the letter boxes. opening directly upon
the main corridor and also upon a smaller one
running across the front of the building. In
the rear Of the box office comes the city deliy-
cry division, which can, if necessary, have doors
opening upon the alley.
THE MAILING DIVISION.
The whole back part Of the building will be
used for the mailing division, with accommo-
dations in the for the big mail wagons TO
load and unload. The postmaster's Office will
be IN the southwest corner OF the second floor,
with the assistant postmaster next to him and
the cashiers room in the rear.
The lease on the present ofiice will expire at
the end of this fiscal year. but no difficulty is
anticipated in having 1t renewed until the q
street building is completed, though it may at
an increased rental. At any rate, when the
government once gets in a building as a tenant
It is a hard matter to dislodge IT.
Postmaster Sherwood left this afternoon for
the north on a tour of observation. lie will
visit New York, Brooklyn. Boston and probably
Philadelphia in order TO study the systems and
workings Of the various post Offices.