United States Post Office (Canandaigua, New York)

The former U.S. Post Office in Canandaigua, New York, is located on North Main Street (New York state routes 21 and 332). It is a Classical Revival granite structure built in 1910 and expanded in 1938. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places both as a contributing property to the Canandaigua Historic District in 1984 and individually in 1988, as part of a Multiple Property Submission of over 200 post offices all over the state.

Its construction was authorized in the first decade of the 20th century under the Tarsney Act of 1893, which authorized the federal government to hire private architects to design buildings for its use. Local philanthropist Mary Clark Thompson, widow of banker Frederick Ferris Thompson, donated the land and paid for Boston-based Allen & Collens to design the new building. It is one of only three post offices in the state built under the act, and the only one outside of New York City. In 1938 it was expanded with an additional story under the auspices of Louis Simon, Supervising Architect of the Treasury Department.

At the time of its construction it was also used as a federal courthouse. Three years after it was listed on the Register, the Postal Service moved out for larger quarters. The neighboring YMCA bought the post office building several years later. It has annexed it to its own building and built an extension to the west, but kept the post office building intact.