Built in 1937, the Arlington Post Office was the county’s first federal building and represented an important milestone in the development of Arlington from an agglomeration of disparate suburban villages to the urban community is today. With its opening, this post office, located on Washington Boulevard in Clarendon, assumed the services that had been provided by the Rosslyn, South Washington, Glen Carlyn, Ballston, and Georgetown (D.C.) post offices. A modernistic interpretation of Georgian classicism, the deftly handled composition was designed by Louis A. Simon, Supervising Architect of the Department of the Treasury. The Arlington Post Office building is also an exemplar of the fine quality and attention to detail given to federal works in the 1930s, works intended to instill pride in the institutions of government. The exterior is distinguished by it elegant domed portico. The interior murals of traditional Virginia scenes by Washington, D.C. artist Auriel Bessemer, are important survivors of the Depression-era program of enhancing Federal projects with works of art.