From Luis Gomez. Catch his photos on Picplz and at One Photograph A Day. Follow him on Twitter @LuisGomezPhotos.
With the ongoing development and flood of new residents still coming to the the 14th and U area, it was probably inevitable that the soon-to-close post office at 14th and T Street NW would find a new area home.
The 14th Street Post Office will eventually reopen one block north at the Reeves Municipal Center. (Luis Gomez Photos)
Love it or hate it, the post office at 14th Street will still be in the neighborhood. It is just moving a block up to the Reeves Municipal Center at the northwest corner of 14th and U Streets. This option has been bandied about for months and was confirmed Thursday by Councilmember Jim Graham (D-Ward 1) in a message on local listservs.
Graham said the lease is a done deal and that the post office will occupy “a large space on the ground floor with direct street access.”
Hopefully the new site will also bring a nicer look and shorter lines — and some self-serve stamp machines. The current location at 1915 14th Street NW will remain open through the end of April. No word on the completion date for the Reeves Center location.
Following was the message Graham posted Thursday:
“We have known that USPS decided to attempt to keep the post office in the area. But its new location was subject to site and lease negotiations. The lease with the DC government and USPS is fully executed. The Post Office will occupy a large space on the ground floor with direct street access. The build out is currently being planned.
“And we should be able to announce an opening timeline very soon. It should also be added that the Kalorama post Office in Adams Morgan was also taken from the closure list as a result of this successful process.We worked effectively with Mayor Gray and his team, Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton, Gerald Roane, the DC postmaster and his staff, to save this vital service for DC residents. Thanks for all their great work!
“This is very reassuring for all the people who live and work in the 14th and U Street corridor, numbers that are about to increase dramatically with new development in the next 8-14 months.”
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The Post Office at 1915 14th Street NW is in a one-story building that will be replaced by a new condo-retail development.
The story is back that the U.S. Post Office at 14th and T Streets NW will be closing at the end of 2011 — with no plans to relocate it. DC Councilmember Jim Graham (D-Ward 1) posted a message on the listserv of the U Street Neighborhood Association yesterday with news to that effect.
It was a given that the location on 14th Street NW between T Street and Wallach Place would have to close — the southeast corner of 14th and Wallach is currently a one-story building, which is going to be replaced by a new building with condos and first-floor retail. The only real question was whether that branch of the Post Office would be relocated.
Plans for that building met with initial opposition from some neighbors and adjustments were made, particularly on the Wallach Place side, which is a block of rowhouses.
Graham said the news came from employees of the Post Office branch at 1915 14th Street NW. In the following message Graham also provides contact information for the DC Postmaster and his assistant (below).
From Graham:
Dear Friends:
I am advised by the employees at the “T Street Post Office” (14th and Wallach Place NW) that operations will close on December 31st of this year. They have also been told that there is no plan to open a new post office location.
If this is in fact the case, it is a serious blow to Ward 1 postal services. As we all know, “T Street” is typically jammed with people, as is the much smaller operation at Kalorama and 18th St. The Temple Heights office at 1921 Florida Avenue is also very busy..
Losing “T Street” or any of those facilities will have an adverse impact to be sure.
Development is planned for that site and the USPS lease is expiring. But the new construction could have included a post office and, obviously, another site could still be found.
I have today contacted DC Postmaster Roane requesting confirmation that the “T Street” postal facility will be relocated, and can thus be counted on to serve our residents. I support Congresswoman Norton’s position that neighborhood post offices should not be reduced.
Please email the DC Postmaster and his assistant at these addresses:
[email protected]
Postmaster of the District of Columbia
And his assistant
[email protected]
Bests, Councilmember Jim Graham
