The New Deal post office (1933) in Modesto CA is being auctioned off, and you can follow the bidding action on the General Services Administration (GSA) auction site (it’s one of the featured properties at the top).  The auction started on June 9, with a minimum opening bid of $100,000.  As of July 5, three bidders were competing, and the high bid was $350,000.  The GSA site doesn’t say when the bidding will be closed, so you’d better get yours in soon.  The site has some nice photos of the New Deal murals in the building.

The Modesto post office story is another case where the Postal Service gradually emptied  the building of all but a small retail operation, and then declared it  was under-utilized, obsolete, and needed to be sold.  Non-profit groups, working through county officials, have expressed interest in buying the building, but the GSA says it will go to the highest bidder.  The GSA can decline the top bid if it doesn’t reach the appraised fair market value, which the GSA won’t disclose.  Other New Deal post offices have sold for millions—one in Palm Beach FLh went for $3.7, and another in Westport CT, for $3.6 million.

(More on the story here, and a TV news report, here.)

(Photo credit: Modesto po)