Postal Service Considers Sale of Bronx General Post Office

David W. Dunlap/The New York Times The walls of the Bronx General Post Office are ornamented with 13 giant murals. They were painted in the 1930s by Ben Shahn and his companion, Bernarda Bryson.

David W. Dunlap/The New York Times A detail of one of the murals.

The money-starved United States Postal Service is considering selling th Bronx General Post Office on the Grand Concourse â€" an official city landmark, a centerpiece of life in the borough for more than 75 years and a monumental gallery of the work of Ben Shahn, one of America’s leading Social Realist artists. Postal operations would move to a much smaller leased space.

The proposal was included in a letter that had been sent weeks ago to the Bronx borough president, Ruben Diaz Jr., and copies of it were later posted at the post office. The proposal was made more widely public Wednesday on a blog Welcome2Melrose. On Thursday, the Postal Service received a response from Mr. Diaz.

“Our office feels that the decision to close this historic facility is unacceptable, and we question the United States Postal Service’s methodology in selecting this site for sale,” John DeSio, the communications director for Mr. Diaz, ! said in a statement.

Described by the Landmarks Preservation Commission as the largest of 29 Depression-era post offices in New York City, the Bronx General Post Office occupies the entire block from East 149th to East 150th Street. Its most distinguishing feature are 13 lobby murals painted in the late ’30s by Mr. Shahn (1898-1969) and Bernarda Bryson (1903-2004), his companion and later wife.

David W. Dunlap/The New York Times A sculpture by Henry Kreis ornaments the south end of the General Post Office facade, which stretches along the Grand Concourse from East 149th to East 150th Street.

Lke much of the artwork of that era, the murals celebrate labor and its byproducts. There are colossal figures of farmers and mill workers, steel factories and hydroelectric dams â€" still powerful, though darkened, dulled, nicked and cracked. “My idea,” Mr. Shahn once said, “was to show the people of the Bronx something about America outside New York.”

David W. Dunlap/The New York Times Picking cotton.

There was no mention of the murals in the letter to the borough president, dated Dec. 31, 2012, from Joseph J. Mulvey, a real estate specialist for the Postal Service in Milford, Mass. Instead, he wrote, “In the face of unsustainable deficits, the Postal Service must seek ways to cut costs and reduce the size of its infra! structure! .”

“Advances in mail-processing technology, alternate access, declining mail volumes and route consolidations have contributed to a number of underutilized facilities,” he said.

“We believe we have an opportunity in the Bronx to sell the existing Postal Service-owned property located at 558 Grand Concourse and right-size our retail operation into smaller leased space,” Mr. Mulvey continued.

The building has about 175,000 square feet of space, said Connie Chirichello, a spokeswoman for the Postal Service. In contrast, postal operations in that neighborhood would require only 7,300 square feet.

In an e-mail message sent on Friday, Ms. Chirichello said no final decision has been made regarding a Bronx consolidation.

In his letter, Mr. Mulvey said the Postal Service “wishes to work in partnership” with the borough president and the community. A meeting is scheduled this month, Mr. DeSio said.

David W. Dunlap/The New York Times Textile worker.

The landmark designation, which would regulate what alterations a buyer could make to the exterior, does not apply to the lobby where the Shahn murals are. In theory, new owners could do whatever they wanted. “There is no discussion at this time by postal officials about relocating the murals should a decision be made to sell the building,” Ms. Chirichello said.

Ed García Conde, who wrote the post in Welcome2Melrose, grew up in the neighborhood. “I loved the grandeur of the building in the middle of the South Bronx,” he said in an interview. But he can attest from personal experience that the General Post Office no longer handles nearly the volume of mail it used to. For instance, he no longer sees mail trucks coming and going around the cl! ock from ! his window.

“I’m not opposed to a sale,” he said. “What I’m concerned about is the interior. At the very least, the lobby must remain intact and not be turned into a Dunkin’ Donuts.”

As is chiseled into an elegant commemorative plaque in the lobby, the General Post Office was built in 1935, “during the administration of Franklin D. Roosevelt.” It was part of a Treasury Department program to employ out-of-work architects, engineers, artisans and artists. Thomas Harlan Ellett was the architect. In the austere facade, tall arched windows penetrated a solid wall of gray brick that is otherwise unembellished except for two sculptures, by Charles Rudy and Henry Kreis.

David W. Dunlap/The New York Times The plaque, between two farming scenes, proclaims, “This building was erected during the administration of Franklin D. Roosevelt.”

Inside is a different story: an unfolding panorama of American labor and landscapes on all four walls.

No stranger to controversy, Mr. Shahn worked with Diego Rivera on murals that were removed at Rockefeller Center because they included a depiction of Lenin. He worked with Lou Block on a mural for the Rikers Island penitentiary that was rejected by the municipal Art Commission because its depiction of prison conditions was deemed unsuitable.

At the Bronx post office, religious leaders found reason to object to a depiction of Walt Whitman standing before a blackboard with lines from his poem “Thou Mother With Thy Equal Brood,” which suggested about churches that “maybe their work is done.” The inscription was subsequently cha! nged to l! ines from “As I Walk These Broad, Majestic Days,” including this sentiment: “Democracy rests finally upon us.”

David W. Dunlap/The New York Times In this mural, Walt Whitman points to a blackboard with words from one of his poems: “There is no final reliance but upon us; / Democracy rests finally upon us.”