Harrison Post Office

Located in the heart of the commercial district of the Harrison town, the Harrison Post Office was authorized in the mid-1930s and completed in 1939. The Harrison post office was a part of the public works project, a project created during the Great Depression in the 1930s. The 1920s and 1930s was the most abundant period of post office constructions in the history of the United States. The colonial style was a favored style for post offices and other public buildings. In New York there are approximately 80 other post offices from the Federal Design Program.  This post office is unusual because of its stone exterior. H.S. Auguste donated $80,000 dollars toward the construction and persuaded the department to use stone instead of standard brick.

The Federal Design Program was created in 1935 to provide work for muralists, painters, and sculptors that were unemployed due to the Great Depression. This program was sponsored by the New Deal Program created by president Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) as a strive to give hope and jobs to the American people . The New Deal created many art works for post offices and other public buildings in America. Part of the architectural importance of this building are the murals inside of the post office. The mural was painted in 1941 under the guidance of the Treasury Department’s Section of Fine Arts and it depicts local significance. The mural at the Harrison post office was painted by Harold Goodwin and is called “Early Days of the Automobile.” It was hung proudly on the wall above the entrance.

1.“Federal Art Project,” Library of Congress, http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/newdeal/fap.html, accessed June 4, 2015. (2) Federal Works Agency, Final Report on the WPA Program, 1935-43, Washington, DC: U.S.

2.National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination Form, Harrison Post Office, October 5, 1988, Westchester County Historical Society Archive, Accessed November 12, 2020

3.Williams, Gray. Picturing Our Past: National Register Sites in Westchester County. Elmsford, New York. Westchester Historical County Historical Society , 2003.