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[[underlined]]General Post Office Building [[/underlined]]

Mr. Ripley recalled that the July 1983 [[underlined]] Regents Newsletter [[/underlined]] reported Senate passage of the fiscal year 1984 General Services Administration authorization which would direct that agency to transfer to the Smithsonian Institution without reimbursement the General Post Office Building located between 7th, 8th, E, and F Streets in northwest Washington, D.C. The transfer is contingent on GSA finding suitable quality space for the buildings current occupant, the International Trade Commission. It has recently been learned that the staff of the Subcommittee on Public Buildings and Grounds of the House Committee on Public Works and Transportation has developed a draft bill authorizing the transfer of the building to the Smithsonian as an appropriation of $35 million for its renovation and repair. It is understood that GSA plans to submit a prospectus for space for the Commission to the Congress early in 1984.

Since 1958, when the Institution acquired the Patent Office Building, there has been interest in obtaining the General Post Office Building, (the fifth oldest Federal building in Washington, D.C.), which is immediately across F Street. Both buildings are the work of America's first nativeborn professional architect, Robert Mills of South Carolina, who also designed the Washington Monument and the Treasury Building. From time to time since the early 1960's, the Smithsonian has reiterated its interest in the building to the General Services Administration (CSA).

The General Post Office Building would be used for expanded public activities in the National Museum of American Art, the National Portrait Gallery, and the Archives of American Art now housed in the Patent office Building. It offers space for a wide range of public museum activities such as exhibitions, the study of collections, classes and seminar.  An