The Old Post Office, also known as the United States Government Building, is located at the intersection of State Street and Broadway in Albany, New York, United States. It was built from 1879 to 1883 at a cost of $627,148. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972. It is also a contributing property to the Downtown Albany Historic District, listed on the Register in 1980.Plans for the building had been made two decades prior to its construction. Originally it was to be a larger Gothic Revival structure, but the time and the costs of acquiring the land exceeded the original budget, and a smaller post office in the Italian Renaissance Revival style was erected instead. Today it is used as offices by the central administration of the State University of New York (SUNY). Postal operations moved to larger facilities prior to 1972, but the building continued to house federal government offices for a few years.BuildingThe post office building is located on the east side of the three-way intersection of Broadway and State Street. An open, grassy plaza is located to the south; otherwise the surrounding neighborhood is densely developed with commercial buildings of a comparable or greater size. Many date to the late 19th and early 20th centuries and are, like the post office, contributing properties to the Downtown Albany Historic District. Some of its neighbors are also listed on the Register themselves.
