Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-01-14
The Postal W aft.

For many years the Washington city
post office was hatted about town. knocked
from pillar to post, homeless, frlendless In
high circles. the creature of circumstance
Ii was once housed in the classic struc-
turc at the corner of 18th and F streets
built for the Post Office Department. Then
the department grew so that the city post
Office was squeezed out. 1t found miserable
accommodations In one place and another
and finally, after years of heart-breaklns
experiences, its need was recognized in the
form Of an appropria ton of money for the
purchase of site and the erection of
building for its use primarily. site on
Pennsylvania avenue was bought the Sc
lection being guided by considerations of
business convenience The building was
made so large that there was room for not
only the city post Office, but for other
branches of the governmental service. 80
long was the structure In erection that
Congress had time to change its mind ana
before the mortar was fully dried the de-
cision was rendered that the entire build
ing should be devoted to postal purposes.
The Post Office Department was moved out
of its old home and established In the ave
nue. building, greatly to the distress of those
who were familiar with the history of the
ton was then made freely that this history
would be repeated, and that eventually the
home built especially for the city post Of
fee would become too small for 1t and
its cU-tenants. and that it would be ousted
to some less desirable place
That prediction is in a way of verfica-
ton now. Recommendations have been
made to Congress to provide building Tor
the city post office close by the new union
railroad station. The plea is urged that
this location will be much more convent
ent for the transaction of the postal busi-
ness 1t will be possible to get the mails
into the office for distribution and out of
the Office for transportation at a minimum
loss of tir
The argument is not of much weight. 1t
IS true that a little time in the transport
of the mails 20 and from the trains might
he saved by a closer. relation between the
Office and The station. But in such city
as Washington, with its broad. smooth
streets and its freedom from traffic conges-
ton, the separation of the office from the
trains by mile and half is not serious
handicap upon the prompt handling OF the
malls. Far more important is the conser-
walton of the convenience of the public.
city posi- office located on the station plaza
would be literally on the very edge of the
business section, about as inconvenient as
possible Compared with the time lost In
mail transport between the station and the
Office as now located that lost by the cti-
zens in going to and from a plaza-located
post office would be an infinitely more seri-
GUS burden.
1t is well known that the post Office de-
partmental officials have for some years
been casting envious eyes upon the space
occupied by the city post office, and there
has been a fear that the removal proposal
would soon be heard.
Washingtonians would have no objection
to the erection in a central place of a city
post Office building, in order to relieve the
congestion in the avenue structure. But
they would demand in that case as con,
venent a site as the present and a positive
guarantee of permanent tenancy in the new
structure They are very weary of the in
cessant process of custer.