Reno's Old Post Office: DeLongchamps' Art Deco Landmark on the Truckee

Step onto the south bank of the Truckee River at Virginia Street and one of Reno's most graceful Depression-era buildings is right there, faced in pale green terra cotta and trimmed in aluminum. The old Main Post Office at 50 South Virginia Street opened in 1934 as a combined post office and federal building, designed by Nevada architect Frederic DeLongchamps in an Art Deco style often described as Moderne. Today it is a mixed-use address with a marketplace in its basement.

This guide traces the building from the day its cornerstone was laid to its second life, and it introduces the architect behind it. Dates in the historical record do not always agree, so we attribute them to their sources and flag the differences as we go.

A New Deal–Era Landmark

By the late 1920s Reno's post office, on the north side of the river, had been outgrown. According to Reno Historical, after much discussion a site south of the river was chosen, which required demolishing the Carnegie Free Public Library that had been built there in 1904.

The cornerstone was laid by a contingent of Nevada Masons on May 13, 1933, in a ceremony Reno Historical says was attended by more than 2,500 citizens and dignitaries. The contractor was MacDonald Engineering Company of Chicago, and published figures put the cost at roughly $360,000 (Wikipedia gives $363,660).

The record on dates is a little tangled. Most sources, including Reno Historical and the Living New Deal, give the opening or completion as 1934. Wikipedia lists 1933, and one Nevada press feature calls it a 1932 building. The Living New Deal offers the likeliest reconciliation: work started in 1932 under the Hoover administration, with Civil Works Administration relief workers contributing during the winter of 1933–34. That is why the building is catalogued today as a New Deal site, even though its planning predates the New Deal itself.

Frederic DeLongchamps, Nevada's Architect

Frederic Joseph DeLongchamps (1882–1969) was born and died in Reno. He earned a mining-engineering degree from the University of Nevada in 1904 before turning to architecture, and by Wikipedia's account he became one of the state's most prolific architects despite limited formal training in the field. He kept his own practice from 1909 to 1938, and in 1919 he was appointed Nevada State Architect, the only person to hold that post before it was abolished in 1926.

His résumé reads like a map of civic Nevada. Among the works credited to him are the Washoe County Courthouse (1911), the Senate and Assembly wings of the Nevada State Capitol (1913), and the Riverside Hotel (1927), whose own story, from divorce-era glamour to artist lofts, is told in our guide to the Riverside Hotel in Reno. He also designed county courthouses in Nevada and California, and he won a silver medal at the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition for his design of the Nevada Building. Many of his buildings were later placed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The post office is one of his best-known works, and it shows an architect working in the idiom of a new decade: classical order trimmed to its essentials, with the streamlined look of the machine age added on top.

Art Deco on the River

Descriptions of the building's style vary with the writer. It is called Art Deco, Art Moderne, "Zig-Zag Moderne," and, on Wikipedia, "Starved Classical," a label for the pared-down, stripped classicism common to 1930s federal buildings. All of them point to the same thing: symmetry and mass from the classical tradition, with ornament reduced to crisp, geometric accents.

The exterior is faced in pale green terra cotta incised to look like quarried stone. The entrance carries aluminum panels with transportation and patriotic motifs, and Reno Historical also notes granite eagles. Inside, the lobby is lined with dark marble highlighted with cast aluminum. A Reno News & Review feature describes black Georgia marble, terrazzo floors, and distinctive medallions and moldings. A central skylight once lit the interior, and a planned fourth floor was never built, according to the Living New Deal.

Aluminum and terra cotta were period favorites, and together they make the building a legible example of Depression-era civic design: confident, ornamental in a restrained way, and built to last. The same downtown has another chapter in the auto age, which we tell in our look at the Lincoln Highway in Reno.

Decades as Reno's Post Office

For generations this was where Reno mailed its letters and met its federal government. The building combined a post office with federal offices, a common arrangement for a medium-sized city in the 1930s. Nevada press coverage of its 2012 closure described a history of 78 years of service, which counts from the 1934 opening.

Here the sources again differ, and the difference matters. Reno Historical states that the building "functioned as Reno's Main Post Office until 1975," when a new, larger facility near the airport replaced it. Other accounts, including the 2012 closure coverage, treat the downtown post office as continuing in the landmark until the end of 2012. The two can both be true: the main postal operation may have moved in 1975 while a downtown office stayed on in the building. We have not found a source that settles this, so read both dates as attributed claims rather than settled fact.

What is clear is the end of the story. Reno Historical records that in August 2012 ownership passed from the U.S. Postal Service to a local development group, 50 South Virginia LLC. Reporting at the time said the downtown post office closed on December 28 and mail services moved to a facility on North Sierra Street. Today's main post office is on Vassar Street.

A New Life for an Old Building

The new owners, local investors including Bernie Carter, his brothers, and Troy Schneider, took on a major restoration. Wikipedia notes that a 1986 renovation had lowered the interior ceilings for energy efficiency; the redevelopment team reopened the third floor, restored the original high ceilings, opened the central skylight, and reinstalled operable windows. As one project representative put it, the building "was constructed without any mechanical ventilation and relied on windows and transoms to provide circulation."

The renamed Fifty South Virginia became a mixed-use property of retail, restaurant, and office space, at nearly 60,000 square feet by press accounts. In 2015 the underground level reopened as The Basement, a marketplace of small shops and eateries. A national furniture and home-goods retailer, West Elm, opened its first Reno store on the first floor in 2016 and closed it in 2022, according to Wikipedia.

A 2022 Reno News & Review feature reported The Basement fully occupied for the first time since the pandemic began in 2020, with about eleven small businesses including a coffee company, a restaurant, a barber shop, and the Golden Owl Bookshop, plus monthly Third Thursday events with local artists and makers.

What Remains

The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on February 28, 1990 (reference number 90000135), and it still sits on the riverbank where DeLongchamps put it. Its green terra cotta, aluminum panels, and marble interior remain, and the restored skylight and ceilings echo the building of 1934.

What Collectors Can Take From It

For anyone who loves the Deco era, a visit is a free lesson in how the style looked when a community built it for itself. Note the geometric ornament and the confident use of aluminum and polished stone. The same design language ran through the objects of the period: streamlined clocks and lamps, chrome and Bakelite accessories, geometric glass, and furniture with clean lines.

Postal and civic memorabilia are a natural companion for a collector with a Reno interest. Vintage postcards of downtown, postal scales, brass hardware, and period ephemera each carry a small piece of the story. As with any antique, favor honest wear and clear provenance, and be cautious with anything claimed to come from a specific building unless the seller can document it. If you are collecting locally, our note on the Reno Antique Faire is a good place to start.

At a Glance: Reno's Old Main Post Office

• Located at 50 South Virginia Street on the south bank of the Truckee River; opened in 1934 as a combined post office and federal building.
• Designed by Nevada architect Frederic DeLongchamps (1882–1969) in an Art Deco / Moderne style, with cornerstone laid May 13, 1933.
• Faced in pale green terra cotta incised to resemble stone, with aluminum entrance panels and a marble interior.
• Source dates differ: Reno Historical says it served as the main post office until 1975, while other accounts cite 78 years of service ending in 2012.
• Sold by the Postal Service to a local development group in August 2012 and redeveloped as Fifty South Virginia, with The Basement marketplace opening in 2015.
• Listed on the National Register of Historic Places on February 28, 1990, and catalogued today as a New Deal site.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who designed Reno's old Main Post Office?

Nevada architect Frederic J. DeLongchamps (1882–1969), who also designed the Washoe County Courthouse (1911), the Senate and Assembly wings of the Nevada State Capitol (1913), and the Riverside Hotel (1927).

When was the building constructed?

Most sources date the opening or completion to 1934. The cornerstone was laid on May 13, 1933, and the Living New Deal says work began in 1932. Wikipedia lists 1933, so the exact year depends on whether a source counts the start of work or the opening.

Is it still a post office?

No. Ownership passed from the U.S. Postal Service to a local development group in August 2012, and the downtown post office closed at the end of that year, according to press coverage. The building is now a mixed-use property, Fifty South Virginia, with offices, retail, and The Basement marketplace on the lower level.

Is the old post office on the National Register of Historic Places?

Yes. It was listed on February 28, 1990, under reference number 90000135, according to Wikipedia's summary of the National Register record.

Conclusion

Reno's old Main Post Office endures because it was built to be both useful and handsome, and because a later generation chose to restore it rather than erase it. DeLongchamps gave the city a federal building with a civic presence, and the green terra cotta, aluminum, and marble still read as a confident statement of the 1930s.

To bring a piece of that design era home, explore our curated collection at The Eclection — chosen not for their shine, but for the craftsmanship and history they carry.

Resources & Further Reading

For deeper study, these non-commercial historical sources are reliable starting points:

• Online Nevada Encyclopedia — an article on Frederick DeLongchamps and his place in Nevada architecture.
• Reno Historical — the Reno Downtown Post Office entry, with historic photographs and a timeline.
• National Park Service: National Register of Historic Places — the official list of the nation's historic places worthy of preservation.