Capital Success in Washington

By J.D. Reed

The Old Post Office becomes a dazzling urban fairgrounds

For generations of Americans, the local post office was far more than a symbol of federal power: the dispenser of mail and a source for tax, Social Security and Selective Service forms. The P.O. was also a social spot, where neighbors met to gossip and hear the news. That tradition has been gloriously and ingeniously revived in Washington's Old Post Office, halfway between the White House and the Capitol on Pennsylvania Avenue. Once an embarrassing derelict, the ten-story, 1899 Romanesque wedding cake of Maine granite has been lovingly rehabilitated as a lively market and office place.

Like the recent developments of Boston's Faneuil Hall Market-place and Baltimore's Harborplace, the Old Post Office is a zesty example of preserving an urban landmark in a fashion that not only revitalizes an area but pays its own way. Although it opened just last month, the center is already attracting crowds of office workers at noon, tourists throughout the day and curious suburbanites after dark. The project heralds even more. Once, regulations made it difficult for profitmaking vendors to sell so much as a candy bar on Government property. But in 1976 the Public Buildings Cooperative Use Act was passed to encourage commercial activities within public buildings. Now, for the first time on a major scale, Government and private enterprise are sharing the space and the income from leases granted in a federally owned edifice.

The real estate is breathtaking. Glowing Victorian brass fittings, red oak woodwork and frosted glass set off the Pavilion, a graceful three-level gallery of restaurants and shops in a vast sunlit atrium that rises 215 ft. and has a floor two-thirds the length of a football field. Visible through the distant glass roof, past floors of balconied corridors where 800 federal workers have offices, is a dramatic view: the 315-ft. clock tower that presides loftily over Pennsylvania Avenue. Developer Charles Evans Jr., whose firm also was part of the team that refurbished the nation's oldest covered shopping arcade (1829) in Providence, is delighted with the result. Says he: "People should be able to enjoy monuments like this. The private sector could never duplicate their grandeur or scale, and they go unused."

The Post Office not only was neglected, it nearly fell to the wrecker's ball. In 1899, the building's flossy exterior blended well with the theaters, taverns and whorehouses that enlivened the 1 1/2-mile esplanade. The atrium design permitted postal inspectors to prowl catwalks, checking up on mail sorters below. But as Government grew more dignified, its architects demanded cool, neoclassic superblocks on the Avenue of the Presidents. To them, the Post Office seemed as out of place as flamboyant Diamond Jim Brady at a state dinner. Abandoned in 1934 by the Post Office Department, the building became known as the "Old Tooth" that blocked progress in the Federal Triangle, a stolid group of buildings that includes the National Archives and the Justice Department. For 45 years the structure gathered grime, and its seedy offices were used by various Government agencies, including the FBI's wiretapping unit.

In 1971, two dozen hardy restorationists, fighting the Old Tooth's extraction, caught the attention of the late Nancy Hanks, chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts. A shrewd politician and dedicated preservationist, she charmed the General Services Administration, which is the federal landlord, and enlisted help on the Hill, including the support of Senators Daniel P. Moynihan and Mike Gravel. Hanks, for whom the new center is named, once told a committee, "Old buildings are like friends. They reassure in times of change."

The changes have been minimal. A $30 million restoration plan included replacing the metal roof tacked on in 1901 with a glass one like the original, and casting plaster-and-jute capitals to restore damaged columns. In the clock tower, ten enormous new bells, replicas of Westminster Abbey's, will ring out across Washington.

Beginning next spring, the National Park Service will lift visitors up through the atrium in a glass-walled elevator so they can enjoy panoramic views from the top of the tower, the second highest pinnacle in the area after the Washington Monument. Tourists have other amenities to sample in the Pavilion. After two years of negotiations, the Government granted a 55-year lease to the Evans Development Co., which put up an additional $10 million to make space suitable for shops.

The result is one of the most pleasant public gathering areas in a city that is full of them. What is new at the P.O., says the Pavilion's architect, Benjamin Thompson, who also designed Faneuil Hall's Festival Markets, is the freedom of choice. Says he: "We want you to have inexpensive food or expensive food; you can sit down or stand up, go upstairs or down. We want you to feel free."

The 12 million annual visitors to the capital need more such lively liberty. For years there has been a lack of eating and entertainment facilities on Pennsylvania Avenue. In the shadow of the Internal Revenue Service building, whose severe fac,ades are as humorless as the activity behind them, the Pavilion has an atmosphere that invites and cheers tourists. The spacious court echoes with conversation, the tinkle of silverware and the beat of live music. Pushcarts purvey historic photos and imported tin boxes painted with the images of Washington buildings. Weary sightseers can relax at dozens of tables. On a large stage in the atrium, the Evans Co. presents free entertainment--ballet, jazz and puppet shows--seven days and six evenings a week. Twenty-five shops display items such as lingerie, confections and wooden toys. The Pavilion provides gastronomic relief from the bland fare at the Department of Commerce cafeteria down the avenue. There are five restaurants and 16 fast-food counters, which offer curries, crepes and tacos.

The General Services Administration is considering plans to further enliven the Federal Triangle by introducing more commercial areas. Says Henry Berliner, chairman of the Pennsylvania Avenue Development Corporation: "Now we're not just a place to work, but to eat, to shop and, if residence properties are built, a place to live as well." That may well be some day, but for now Developer Evans has less farsighted preoccupations. "When word gets around next summer among tourists," he happily predicts, "we're going to be mobbed." Taxpayers, prepare to count your profits, and your blessings.

--By J.D. Reed This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.