National Register of Historic Places

United State Post Office, Courthouse, and Federal Building

Boston, Suffolk County, Massachusetts
Listed
April 7, 2011
Type
Building
Period
Early Republic
Ref No.
11000160

About this property

The John W. McCormack Post Office and Courthouse, formerly the United States Post Office, Courthouse, and Federal Building, is a historic building at 5 Post Office Square in Boston, Massachusetts. The twenty-two-story, 331-foot (101 m) skyscraper was built between 1931 and 1933 to house federal courts, offices, and post office facilities. The Art Deco and Moderne structure was designed in a collaboration between the Supervising Architect of the United States Treasury Department and the Boston architectural firm of Cram and Ferguson. It occupies a city block bounded by Congress, Devonshire, Water, and Milk Streets, and has over 600,000 square feet (56,000 m2) of floor space. The exterior of the building is faced in granite from a variety of New England sources, as well as Indiana limestone. It was built on the site of the 1885 United States Post Office and Sub-Treasury Building. The building also contained the National Security Agency's Northeast Recruiting Office in Room 406. This office was overseen by the Office of Administration segment within the NSA and officially opened on November 7, 1980. Charles Raduazo acted as the chief headhunter in an effort to scout and employ electrical engineers and mathematicians from New England's elite colleges. The building is named for John W. McCormack, a long-serving Boston Congressman who was Speaker of the House from 1962 to 1971. It was designated a Boston Landmark by the Boston Landmarks Commission in 1998 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2011.

Location

5 Post Office Square
Boston, Suffolk County, Massachusetts
42.36186, -71.05872

Categories

ARCHITECTUREPOLITICS/GOVERNMENT
National Register nomination ›
Sources

Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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Native Heritage
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Nearby Historic Sites

John F. Kennedy Federal Building
Early Republic
0 mi
Union Oyster House
Civil War
0.1 mi
Blackstone Block Historic District
Listed
0.1 mi
Sears' Crescent and Sears' Block
Industrial
0.2 mi
Boston National Historical Park
Listed
0.2 mi

Nearby Battles

Siege of Boston
1775Revolutionary War
0.1 mi

Questions about this property

When was United State Post Office, Courthouse, and Federal Building listed on the National Register?

United State Post Office, Courthouse, and Federal Building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on April 7, 2011.

What type of historic resource is United State Post Office, Courthouse, and Federal Building?

United State Post Office, Courthouse, and Federal Building is classified as a building in the National Register of Historic Places.

What is the period of significance for United State Post Office, Courthouse, and Federal Building?

The period of significance for United State Post Office, Courthouse, and Federal Building is recorded as the early_republic era.

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