Post Office at Least a Year from Reopening

by Etta Sanders

Downtown’s sorely missed post office at 90 Church Street, which was severely damaged when the Trade Center’s fiery wreckage crashed through its windows, will remain closed for cleanup and repair for nearly another year, U.S. Postal Service representatives said last month.

Pat McGovern, a postal service spokeswoman, said retail service is expected to resume in late spring, and the building’s upper floors will probably be ready for occupation by late summer.

After changing a light bulb last month at the entrance to the post office on Church Street, Tim Halloran wipes away a thick layer of World Trade Center dust from the glass. Much of the interior of the building is still covered with the dust. Photo by Carl Glassman

The handsome 15-story building is still undergoing a massive cleanup and decontamination, which has included the gutting of large portions of the interior. It’s “a complete environmental demolition,” said Robert Selsam, senior vice-president at Boston Properties, which manages the building and is overseeing the work. The cleanup is scheduled for completion this fall, when major renovation work will begin.

On Sept. 11, the Trade Center collapse sparked scattered fires inside the post office building, setting off the sprinklers. Trade Center dust, with asbestos and other contaminants, permeated the walls, floors and ceilings. Because of its location, flanked by both the twin towers and 7 World Trade, the building sustained impact on two sides. And in the following weeks, firefighters occupied the building to shoot water at the smoldering rubble of 7 World Trade Center.

Cleanup was held up for months as environmental tests and discussions about the buildings’ future proceeded. Interior demolition only began in April.

“We agreed the only way to clean it was to remove all the interior walls and carpet and everything,” said Selsam, who estimates that the cleanup alone will cost more than $20 million. According to workers, floors 12 through 15 have been gutted so far.

Remarkably, the solid exterior of the Depression-era, brownish-grey limestone building sustained little damage. The landmarked art-deco lobby, which underwent a multimillion-dollar renovation in the mid-1990s, was also largely unscathed.

Today, other than floors covered in cardboard and signs warning workers to wear protective gear in contaminated areas, the elegant black marble looks untouched by the disaster.

According to maintenance employees, little inside the building has changed since workers fled and the towers collapsed. Food remains in refrigerators, clothes are where they were left, and “there’s a lot of dust everywhere.”

When 90 Church Street reopens, the Postal Service plans to use it for some of the operations that must be moved out of the Farley Building at 34th Street and 8th Avenue, which will close during the construction of a new Penn Station. That will mean an increase in postal truck traffic to and from the building.

The New York City Housing Authority, which leased space on several upper floors before Sept. 11, is expected to return as a tenant, but the Legal Aid Society is not.

For many Downtown residents, who have stood in the long lines at the Canal Street or Peck Slip post offices, the eventual reopening of the Church Street station will be a welcome event.

Leah Singer, the mother of two small children who lives just west of City Hall, said she misses the friendly, helpful clerks, the beautiful interior and the convenience.

“For anyone with kids and a schedule, it suddenly was an enormous task,” she said. “Before, it was completely routine.”

Mobile post offices are parked most days on Church Street near the corner of Vesey Street, and in Battery Park City, but they offer limited services. Customers can buy stamps and mail small packages, but cannot purchase money orders or send items larger than a long shoebox.

“It’s been a big pain without that post office,” observed Judy Duffy, assistant district manager of Community Board 1.