Illinois Post Offices

ADDRESS: 1080 Fairfax Street, Carlyle, Illinois 62231
ARTIST: Curt Drewes
TITLE: Fish Hatchery, Farm, and Dairy Farming
MEDIUM: Stone (reliefs)
STATUS: The Carlyle post office is still an active, operating facility, and the reliefs can be viewed by interested members of the public. The relief resides in the lobby on the wall above the postmaster’s door.
YEAR: 1939

It’s not often you find stone relief as art in a post office. Most of the works you see are murals, so it’s refreshing to see something different. Carlyle is a perfect example of this. A great looking cast stone sets this building apart from the rest.

What also sets this building apart from the rest is the accessibility ramp on the right side of the building. Please don’t take this the wrong way folks. When the government mandated all buildings be ADA compliant it was a great thing. What concerns me was the lack of effort in implementing the ramps on various buildings.

The Carlyle building is a perfect example of the lack of effort and forethought when installing the ramp. I’m 99% sure the corner-stone for this building is located on the right side, exactly where the ramp is now located. I’ve seen examples of this on other buildings so I’m not surprise that the builders must have covered it up. It is my thinking the corner-stone has been entirely covered up.

This lack of though is what make me sad. It’s almost as if the building has been defaced by vandals. Maybe that is extreme and maybe some folks don’t really care and will just comment, “It’s just a corner-stone” but I argue, the corner-stone cost money to install and engrave when the building was constructed. To me its an important element to the overall design of the building. And for that reason alone it’s frustrating to observe these situations.

What are your thoughts on the cover up the corner-stone? Was it indeed covered up? Maybe someone did have the fore thought and removed the corner-stone and it’s in storage. Hey now that would make me happy. Any ideas out there? Please comment and share below.

Thanks,

David W. Gates Jr.

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Sources

• Personal visit on 5/2/2015 by David W. Gates Jr.
• Illinois Post Office Mural Guidebook 
• United States Postal Service
• Democratic Vistas: Post Offices and Public Art in the New Deal: [Hardcover]  Marlene Park, Gerald E. Markowitz