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Overview

Architect Gilbert Stanley Underwood, consulting architect for the US Department of the Treasury, designed this WPA Moderne post office for Seattle's University District in the mid-1930s. It has been patronized by generations of University of Washington students.

Building History

The University District, the area surrounding the University of Washington, received its larger, new US Post Office in 1937. It was a New Deal-funded project designed by the notable architect Gilbert Stanley Underwood (1890-1961), best known for his series of 1920s hotels for the National Park Service, such as the Ahwahnee Hotel, completed in 1927 at Yosemite National Park. Underwood consulted on this project for the office of the Supervising Architect, Louis A. Simon (1867-1958), whose workload of public buildings increased dramatically as the government spent large sums on public works during the New Deal era.

The Russian émigré artist, Jacob Alexander Elshin (1892-1976), designed two murals for the Works Progress Administration inside the post office.

Two sticks of dynamite were detonated by three men protesting the Vietnam War nearby to the University Station Post Office on 03/03/1970. The blast was one of about 30 that Seattle experienced during the first three months of 1970. (See "4 Charged in Bombing of Post Office Here," Seattle Times, 03/04/1970, p. 1.) It caused about $2,000 worth of damage. (See “Four Accused in Bombing of P.O.,” Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 03/05/1970, p. 2; “4 Charged in Bombing of Post Office Here,” Seattle Times, 03/04/1970, p. 1; "U.S. Takes Jurisdiction in Post Office Bombing," Seattle Times, 04/22/1970, p. F8.)

Of the four men arrested soon after the post office blast, one was released on his own recognizance soon after. Apparently, this man, Jeffrey Paul Desmond, had been a police informant who was paid $500 to warn police about this particular event. As noted in a 1975 article in the Post-Intelligencer: “Desmond was the subject of national newspaper and television stores following the disclosure of his informer role in 1971.” (See Services for Desmond,” Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 08/21/1975, p. A5.) He was later found shot to death on 08/17/1975 at his apartment at 409 Eastlake Avenue East. Apparently, Desmond had given evidence to the US Senate committee led by Senator Frank Church in 1975 investigating law-enforcement abuses by members of the CIA, FBI and NSA. (See "Police informer found shot to death," Seattle Times, 08/18/1975, p. A15; Erik Lactis, "Desmond feared federal agencies," Seattle Times, 08/19/1975, p. A8 and Martin Works, “Bomb-case Figure ‘Assassinated’ Here,” Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 08/18/1975, p. A1 and A10.) Desmond's murder remains unsolved.

Alteration

The front facade of the University Station was drastically altered to accommodate people in wheelchairs.

PCAD id: 16666