United States Postal Service

Story

U.S. Post Office in San Pedro, California is a historic Streamline Moderne Post Office built in 1935 as a Works Project Administration project. Designed by Louis A. Simon and Fletcher Martin in the WPA modern style, a conservative or classicized Art Deco, the San Pedro Post Office was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1985. The building also formerly served as a U.S. Customs Office. The building's use of marble, bronze and milk glass are typical of 1930s architecture for U.S. government buildings. The floor tile is laid in a basket weave pattern surrounded by black marble, giving the effect of rugs on a marble floor. Some of the original bronze lamps and ink wells are still intact at the public writing desks. The mural inside the Post Office Building was painted by Fletcher Martin in 1938 and is titled "Mail Transportation." Martin (born 1904) also painted WPA-era murals at the U.S. Post Office buildings in La Mesa, Texas, and Kellogg, Idaho.