This picture of the old post office in New York City is so beautiful and grand, it demands admiration.
With a little music by Fréhel for you to enjoy!
This is the view of the post office, looking north from Broadway and Park Row. The building, which opened in 1880, was in the French baroque architectural style, or Second Empire.
New York City Municipal Archives
Government buildings were once beautiful. Many of them have been replaced with more modern styles like brutalism.
FBI’s J. Edgar Hoover building (brutalist architecture)
It brings to mind a philosophical question: does living in a beautiful place create beauty in life?
In other words, if all other things are equal, if you looked out your front window every day and saw the view on the left, would you have a better or worse life than if you saw the view on the right? Or would there be no difference at all?
Photos: BoredPanda.com on the left; CNtraveler.com on the right
And… stay tuned! I”m working on a really good true crime story I will post in the next few days!
old spirituals 
The photo of the New York Post Office of 1880 makes me reflect on the many craftsmen that America once had to build such an edifice.
The music of Fréhel reminded me of the movie Amélie and the ending of Saving Private Ryan when the Americans soldiers are listening to an Edith Piaf record.
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I have a vague theory that if we began replacing ugly edifices and structures with beautiful ones, our crime rate would go down. I don’t have any data to back that one up, of course, but it would be interesting to study it!
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I witnessed the Atlanta Underground twice built and destroyed by miscreants. If people don’t have ownership they tend to be complacent.
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How horrible! People who destroy public property seem to be under the impression they’re striking out at powerful elites. But who works at Atlanta Underground and who patronizes it? Usually the miscreants’ own family and friends and neighbors. Riots and destruction weaken working people and communities. They make the lives of ordinary people harder. The irony is, mobs are often orchestrated for political purposes by the very elites the miscreants imagine they’re hurting.
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exactly right
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definitely your life is better if you live in a beautiful environment. I’m probably not the only one who would have trouble affording a palatial home on a beautiful street… but living in a clean uncluttered place (which anybody can do) hugely increases your ability to think clearly and make good decisions and that leads to better financial, physical, and mental health.
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That’s true Ruby. I get out of sorts if my house is cluttered
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