The cornerstone to the Downtown Post...

The cornerstone to the Downtown Post Office, at 135 E. Olive Ave.,

was laid in 1937 and the building was dedicated on April 30, 1938.

The architect, Gilbert Stanley Underwood, beautifully designed a

building that invokes memories of California’s Spanish past.

Louis A. Simon, the supervising architect, and Neal Melick, the

supervising engineer, had a $150,000 budget to complete the

24,915-square-foot facility constructed by Zoss Construction Company

of Los Angeles.

The practical role that the Downtown Post Office plays in the

community sometimes overshadows the beauty of the building. A closer

look at the Spanish-style building reveals the painstaking detail

that the architect, engineer and Depression-era Works Progress

Administration (WPA) workers paid when they constructed it.

The exterior of the building reminds us of the missions that dot

the California landscape. Its Spanish roof and five arches grace the

facade that welcomes patrons inside. The suspended lanterns in the

porch are reminiscent of a Spanish hacienda that provides beauty as

well as shelter.

The main entrance’s double doors are handcrafted and trimmed with

blue and red. The balcony under a second-story window on the west

side of the building provides an element of Spanish romanticism to an

otherwise austere portion of the structure. Shutters, which serve no

real purpose, further contribute to the character of the building.

The 2-foot-thick walls add authenticity to the building by mimicking

the adobe walls of older Spanish buildings.

The architectural theme of the building is further carried out in

the interior. Masonry floors and tiled walls decorate the public

areas and elicit a bygone era, when brick was a more functional

flooring material than wood. The geometric brick patterns that line

the floor testify to the time and effort of the workers who laid it.

Colorful hand-painted tiles of scenes of Spanish life are injected

to provide life into otherwise plain tile walls. The wood beams of

the ceiling, with their simple carved pattern, add a beautiful accent

to create the feel of an Old World grand hall. Like the porch,

attractive lantern-like light fixtures serve to illuminate the

building as much as to complement its Spanish design. Two large

murals by Bruce Miller are at each end of the lobby and serve to link

the building to the community. The west end mural celebrates

Burbank’s status as a movie capital by depicting the filming of a

movie scene. The east end mural also celebrates Burbank’s other prime

industry of the time, aircraft manufacturing.

While most the building’s 24,915 square feet are reserved for more

functional purposes (processing the mail), the public spaces have

maintained the historic features that make the building an

architectural gem in our city. The next time you find yourself

waiting in line, take a moment to soak in the striking architectural

features that make this building so important to our past, as well as

our future.

In 1985, the significance of the Downtown Post Office was

recognized when William Clark, Secretary of the Interior, announced

that the building was to be added to the National Register of

Historic Places. The historically noteworthy Downtown Post Office

continues to play a vital role in Burbank today as it did when it

first opened in 1938. Some things never change.

* CRAIG BULLOCK, chairman of the Burbank Heritage Commission,

writes a monthly history column for the Leader.