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Postal News
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 8, 2002
Contact: (202) 268-2155
Release No. 02-076
Postal Services To Continue Following Transfer Of Postal Facility Bearing 'Neither Snow, Nor Rain Nor Heat...' Inscription
WASHINGTON - The Postal Service today moved toward transferring ownership of the historic Farley Post Office building in New York City by entering into a Memorandum of Understanding with the Pennsylvania Station Redevelopment Corporation (PSRC), which is a subsidiary of the Empire State Development Corporation. The change will be transparent to consumers as retail lobby and other services will be retained.
"We are proud to be part of Manhattan's revitalization," said Postmaster General and native New Yorker, John E. Potter, "but we are not going anywhere. We will continue to serve our customers at this building as we have since 1912."
Following routine environmental reviews, the parties intend to enter into a formal contract of sale. Ownership of the building is expected to be transferred to the PSRC within one year. Terms of the sale were not disclosed pending finalization of agreements scheduled to be concluded within one year.
The building, bearing the inscription: "Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds," is a national historic landmark, and occupies two full city blocks.
The inscription was supplied by William Mitchell Kendall of the firm of McKim, Mead & White, the architects who designed the Farley Building and the original Pennsylvania Station in the same Beaux Arts style. Kendall said the sentence appears in the works of Herodotus and describes the expedition of the Greeks against the Persians under Cyrus, about 500 B.C. The Persians operated a system of mounted postal couriers, and the sentence describes the fidelity with which their work was done.
The Farley Post Office was constructed in two stages. The original front half was built in 1912 and opened for postal business in 1914; the building was doubled in 1934 where it backs up to Ninth Avenue.
The Postal Service will retain approximately 250,000 square feet of the 1.5 million square-foot building, located at 421 Eighth Ave., between 31st and 33rd Streets. Beyond retail lobby services, other postal operations remaining in the building will include Express Mail, mail delivery, truck platforms, and a stamp depository. Administrative offices for the Postal Service's New York District will also be headquartered there.
All mail processing operations will be relocated to the Morgan Processing and Distribution Center. All other administrative functions now in the Farley Building will be moved to the Church St. Processing and Distribution Center, 90 Church St. in Manhattan.
The Farley Building was instrumental to maintaining service levels in the New York City area following the 9/11 attacks when it served as a back up to operations for the Church Street Station Post Office located across the street from the World Trade Center Complex. Advances in automated mail processing technology, coupled with adjustments to postal distribution and transportation networks now make it feasible to absorb associated mail volumes just one block away at the Morgan Processing and Distribution Center, 341 Ninth Ave.
There are approximately 2,500 postal employees now domiciled in the Farley Building. Once operations and administrative offices are moved, approximately 900 employees will remain in their current location.
Upon opening in 1914 it was named the Pennsylvania Terminal. In July 1918, the building was renamed the General Post Office, and in 1982, renamed once more as the now James A. Farley Building. Farley, a New York State native, was appointed by Franklin D. Roosevelt as the 53rd Postmaster General and served from 1933 to 1940. He died in 1976.
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Since 1775, the U.S. Postal Service has connected friends, families, neighbors and businesses by mail. It is an independent federal agency that makes deliveries to 137 million addresses every day and is the only service provider to deliver to every address in the nation. The Postal Service receives no taxpayer dollars for routine operations, but derives its operating revenues solely from the sale of postage, products and services. With annual revenues of more than $65 billion, it is the world's leading provider of mail and delivery services, offering some of the most affordable postage rates in the world. The U.S. Postal Service delivers more than 43 percent of the world's mail volume - some 207 billion letters, advertisements, periodicals and packages a year - and serves 7 million customers each day at its 38,000 retail locations nationwide.
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