Taylor Post Office

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, every good story starts with a name, and this one starts with two. The first post office that opened in this community, back in 1876, went by Taylorsville.

That was the name on the letters, the name on the ledger, the name folks knew. Then 1882 rolled around, the city got incorporated, and just like that, Taylorsville became Taylor. Simple as a pen stroke, but it meant something.

A town with a new name, official and permanent, written into the record. The post office followed suit. And for a good while after that, the mail got sorted and sent from one location, then another, then another still.

The post office moved around this community the way post offices do, findin' whatever roof would have it. But patience, friend, because 1929 arrives in this story, and with it, something worth waitin' for. Construction began on a permanent home, finished out in 1930, and what they built was not just a building.

It was a statement. Classical Revival style, the kind the federal government favored for its projects in the nineteen twenties, and this one had everything that style called for. Six round-arched windows on the ground floor, each one a proper gesture toward grandeur.

Up on the second floor, a balustrade and a parapet, dressed up with a garland panel. An elaborate entry portico to welcome you in. Stone columns.

And a Classical entablature crowning the whole affair. This wasn't a building that apologized for itself. It stood up straight and said: the mail matters here.

And somewhere back in 1876, a little post office called Taylorsville started that very same argument.

What the marker says

The first post office established in this community opened in 1876 under the name Taylorsville. In 1882, when the city was incorporated, it was renamed Taylor. The post office was housed in a number of locations until this structure was built in 1929-30. A finely crafted example of the Classical Revival style that characterized federal projects of the 1920s, the building features six round-arched windows on the ground floor; a balustrade and parapet with garland panel on the second floor; an elaborate entry portico; stone columns; and a Classical entablature. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1992