Gerald S. Burns Building

Construction of the Pawtucket Post Office, on a trapezoidal site at the intersection of Summer and High streets, began in 1896 under the supervision of U.S. Treasury architects William Martin Aiken, and James Knox Taylor. Built of red brick on a granite base, and with a domed tower, the Beaux-Arts inspired building was completed in November 1897. The tower entrance, now closed, is framed by granite Doric columns supporting an entablature, on top of which sit two stone eagles. The principal facades radiate diagonally away from the entrance, each with five arched windows separated by 3/4 columns, each facade terminating at a pedimented secondary entrance.

The building served as the post office until 1933, when the City of Pawtucket acquired it, changed its use, and renamed it the Municipal Welfare Building. In the late 1970s, the city renovated the building again to convert it to library use, and to join it to the Deborah Cook Sayles Public Library. The building was later rededicated as the Gerald S. Burns Building.

The Burns Building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976.

Text imported from Wikipedia article "Pawtucket Public Library" and modified on February 23, 2022 according to the CC-BY-SA 4.0 International license.