Understanding the 10036 Zip Code Area
Times Square sits almost entirely within the 10036 zip code, but the boundaries are messier than most people expect. The postal zone covers the block from roughly 40th Street to 45th Street between Seventh and Ninth Avenues, with some portions spilling into adjacent codes depending on the exact address. If you're trying to mail something there or verify an address, this guide covers the practical details that matter. The 10036 code is assigned by the USPS to a fairly compact area of Midtown Manhattan. The main post office serving this zone is the James A. Farley Building at 421 8th Avenue, which handles both general mail and package services. There is no working post office inside Times Square itself, which trips up a lot of people trying to mail packages locally. I learned this the hard way in 2022 when I had to mail a return shipment of event equipment from a hotel near 43rd and Broadway. The tracking system kept showing the drop location as outside 10036 because the front desk dropped my package at a curb-side collection box on 8th Avenue instead of the actual post office. It took three extra days and a call to USPS customer service to confirm the package was never actually lost — it just moved slower because it went through a different processing stream. The workaround was simple: I personally carried the package to the Farley Building lobby counter and got a receipt with a timestamp. From there, everything tracked normally.
A few specific boundaries to keep in mind:
- 42nd Street south of Seventh Avenue sometimes falls under 10018 instead of 10036, depending on the building side.
- Addresses on the east side of Broadway in the 40s tend toward 10036, while addresses west of Eighth Avenue often shift into 10019.
- The Delacorte Theater area and parts of Hudson Yards use entirely different codes (10001 and 10001 respectively), which causes confusion for people who think they're all "Times Square."
The zip code doesn't map neatly onto what tourists or even locals consider Times Square. The official Times Square Broadway district extends slightly into 10019, and the northern edge near 47th Street transitions into the 10036/10019 overlap zone. If you're filling out a form and need precision, look up the exact address on the USPS ZIP Code Lookup tool rather than assuming based on proximity to theTKTS steps. Another thing nobody warns you about: commercial mail in 10036 moves through a high-volume routing channel because of the concentration of theaters, hotels, and tourist businesses. During holiday seasons and major events like the New Year's Eve ball drop, mail sorting at the Farley facility backs up significantly. I've seen standard first-class mail take five to seven business days through late December in this zone when it normally takes two to three. For time-sensitive documents, hand-delivering or using a private courier bypasses this entirely. PO Boxes in this area are available at the Farley Building and at a smaller unit on West 41st Street near 8th Avenue. Both run full — getting a PO Box in 10036 currently involves a waitlist that can stretch several months depending on box size. This is a known bottleneck the USPS hasn't addressed despite population growth in Midtown residential units over the last decade.
Get the Full Details

If you need to verify whether a specific address falls in 10036, the USPS website's lookup tool is the most reliable source. Third-party address validators sometimes misclassify borderline addresses near the 42nd Street and 8th Avenue junction. I've seen at least half a dozen incorrect classifications come through from commercial shipping platforms for buildings right on that dividing line.