Former Milford Post Office – Milford Police Station // 1911

The present Police Station in Milford, Massachusetts, faces the town’s Draper Memorial Park and was built in 1911-12 from locally quarried Milford “pink” granite. While currently a police station, the building was actually constructed as the town’s first purpose-built post office, and constructed after a years’ long planning process to find a suitable site, funding, and design review. When the site and funding was set, James Knox Taylor, supervising architect of the United States Department of the Treasury and supervising architect of hundreds of federal buildings built throughout the United States during the period from 1897-1912, was hired to furnish designs. When his plans were unveiled, the community protested against the use of any granite other than the locally quarried “pink” Milford granite in the construction of the local post office. Mr. Taylor conceded and after two years of delays, the Post Office officially opened in 1914. Rectangular in plan, the granite structure is Classical Revival in style with its projecting cornice, symmetrical facade, and pilasters dividing the bays on the facade. The building also included a New Deal-era mural inside. The USPS moved into a contemporary building across the park in the 1960s and the Town of Milford purchased the old Post Office, converting it to the community’s Police Department Headquarters.

Chittenden County Superior Courthouse // 1906

The Chittenden County Superior Courthouse in Burlington, Vermont was built in 1906 and is one of the most bold architectural designs in the city. The building was actually constructed as the U.S. Post Office and Custom House for Burlington, but changed use in the 1980s after the Old County Courthouse was destroyed by fire. The building was the work of U.S. Treasury architect James Knox Taylor. Taylor designed, many major eastern federal buildings during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He provided plans for this Beaux Arts structure with a well-appointed exterior finished in marble and dressed granite. Beaux-Arts architecture depended on sculptural decoration along conservative modern lines, blossoming in the United States in the early 20th century after many American architects studied at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, particularly from the 1830s to the end of the 19th century.