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February 28, 2010
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Spectacular fire Jan. 19, 1886 destroyed the Bay City Post Office, housed in the Westover Block, the city's tallest structure. City Focuses On Saving Downtown Post Office with help from U.S. Rep. Kildee
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U.S. Rep. Dale Kildee, who saved three post offices in Flint in 2009, is now batting for Bay City.
Congressmen Kildee has written a letter regarding the downtown Post Office, City Manager Robert V. Belleman has informed the City Commission, commenting:
"It is a hard hitting letter with some stern reminders to the Postmaster General of the applicable Federal law and Executive Orders. I believe the letter is well crafted and will help in our efforts to retain the downtown Post Office."
Both the city and county commissions have adopted resolutions urging the government to retain the post office. The U.S. Postal Service announced last month it is considering selling the building and moving to another location.
Acting Bay City Post Office Manager Julie Jacobsen said the reason for the action was that the building here was costly to maintain and needs costly upgrades. No cost estimate was given on the cost of decentralizing postal operations and establishing new headquarters for the four dozen postal routes of the city and townships.
Downtown Bay City, Inc., has also taken up the cudgel and is swinging hard, urging members to write federal officials of the need to retain the post office.
Local historians pointed out that the post office is actually the Bay City Federal Building, housing a federal court and government offices such as the IRS, Customs Office, U.S. Attorney, and others.
According to legend, the Federal Court was located here in the days when Bay City was among the most populated cities of the state and because of the huge lumber trade and numerous wealthy and powerful individuals living here.
The Federal Building is a historic structure, having been erected in 1933 at the height of the Great Depression under a program of the Works Progress Administration. It replaced an earlier structure on the same site that dated to 1893.
Architectural historian Dale F. Wolicki says the Bay City Federal Building is one of few buildings completed during the Depression. He describes it as "a dignified neo-classical design," that emerged under direction of U.S. Treasury Dept. architect James Westmore.
"The nine bay symmetrical facade features two separate entrances, each accentuated with a classical surround, two-story pillars and a roofline pediment finished with Corinthian capitals.
"Between the entries, the central bays feature round-top windows with arched fanlights that illuminate the lobby."
Historic incidents in the Bay City Federal Building include the 1938 sentencing of Tony Chebatoris, Hamtramck bank robber, who shot a Bay City man in a botched holdup in Midland, and the capture in 1956 of a deranged attacker who fired a shotgun at Judge Frank Picard, who jumped off the bench with robes flapping, promptly ran down the gunman and helped place him under arrest.
Over the objections of Gov. Frank Murphy, Federal Judge Arthur Tuttle sentenced Chebatoris to hang for the death of Henry S. Porter, a driver for Jennison Hardware. It was the 13th and last execution in Michigan history.
The mail to Bay City originally came from Detroit by way of Saginaw on foot, horseback or canoe; by 1865 the railroad ran to Saginaw and was transferred to boat or stage to Bay City. In 1867 Bay City had its own railroad and irregular mail service was a thing of the past.
Portsmouth had its own post office by 1857 and by 1872 post offices were located in Banks, Wenona, Salzburg, Kawkawlin, Essexville and Pinconning. The latter three still survive, along with Station A on the West Side and Auburn.
Small buildings housed the local post office on Water Street from the 1860s until 1871 when it moved to the magnificent Westover Block at Center and Washington. A spectacular fire in 1886 destroyed the Westover building that also housed Second National Bank, a saloon, several stores and many offices and an opera house seating 1,200 on the third floor.
Soon a new building rose from the ashes of the Westover fire. It was called the Phoenix Building after the ancient Greek mythical firebird that arose from the flames of a catastrophe.###
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