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San Bernardino Downtown Station

post office in San Bernardino, California

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 1, 2026
Entity authorityQ19867221 ↗
Source-derived summary

The San Bernardino Downtown Station, located at 390 West 5th Street, is the main post office serving San Bernardino, California. The post office was built in 1931 as part of the decade's federal construction programs; it is one of the few remaining buildings in San Bernardino which predates 1950. Architect Louis A. Simon designed the building, which incorporates a number of architectural styles. The general plan of the building is Beaux-Arts; however, the decorative details are inspired by the Mediterranean Revival and Italianate styles. The front of the building features an arcade with acanthus leaf capitals on the supporting columns and a second-floor porch. A red terra cotta tile roof tops the building.

The post office was added to the National Register of Historic Places on January 11, 1985.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “San Bernardino Downtown Station” as post office in San Bernardino, California. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1931, 1950, 1985—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. The account is most persuasive where Bernardino, Downtown and Station can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as post office in San Bernardino, California. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 1, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q19867221. Authority coordinates are 34.109, -117.291. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1931, 1950 and 1985.

Critical limits

A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

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  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
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The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “San Bernardino Downtown Station”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow San Bernardino Downtown Station primary sources, San Bernardino Downtown Station archive and Bernardino research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “San Bernardino Downtown Station”?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “San Bernardino Downtown Station” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.