Downtown leaders set up new post

Perhaps the current occupants of the Downtown Phoenix post office don't have quite as colorful histories as some of the luminaries involved during the project's inception during the early 1900s. Perusing historical plaques affixed inside the structure reveals intriguing facts such as the background of Col. James H. McClintock.

“The new building originally was planned during the regime of Col. James H. McClintock, hardy pioneer, historian and rough rider, now dead,” reads an excerpt from the Sept. 28, 1936, edition of The Arizona Republic.

A colorful past is just one of the many hallmarks that the post office brings to ASU's Downtown Phoenix campus.

The Downtown Phoenix campus Office of the Vice President and Executive Vice Provost, Academic Affairs, Administration Affairs and Public Affairs are now calling the post office home after moving from University Center during May. They join a host of others already located in the building including Student Affairs and Public Safety.

Postal services will continue to operate on the first floor for the campus community and the public.

“We felt like we needed to have postal services for the campus and the residents of Westward Ho. That is their post office,” says Mernoy Harrison, vice president and executive vice provost at the Downtown Phoenix campus.

While the building will serve as the heart of downtown's administrative offices, it will also offer a space where students can congregate as the building continues to evolve into a gathering place for students.

The building's geographic location makes it an ideal spot for students to meet since it's located near many developing and existing downtown features including University Center, the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication currently under construction, and the light-rail line scheduled to be running by December of 2008.