El Centro Main Post Office

El Centro, United States

Open to visitors

The interior is normally open, possibly ticketed.

Strollie cannot guarantee access — always check before you travel.

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Completed in 1931, the El Centro Main Post Office in El Centro, California, is a Beaux-Arts structure designed by James A. Wetmore and Louis A. Simon of the Office of the Supervising Architect. The building features a commanding loggia across its front adorned with classical Corinthian columns, drawing on Italianate and Second Renaissance Revival traditions. Remarkable for its sophisticated formal style—a significant departure from contemporary practice—the post office employed expensive materials and represented an unusual choice of Beaux-Arts Classicism at a time when the style was already fifteen years out of fashion; by the early 1930s, the Office of the Supervising Architect had moved toward Starved Classical design, and Mediterranean Revival dominated federal buildings in California. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985, the post office remains the most architecturally refined classical building in El Centro and serves as a major focus for the town's urban design.