New York — Most octogenarians enjoy a birthday party and so will the Johnson City Post Office, which hits the 80 year mark in its present location on Wednesday, August 5. 

A free public ceremony is slated for 10:30 on Wednesday morning outside the Johnson City Post Office, located at 307 Main Street.  Highlights of the morning program include a proclamation from the Mayor’s Office declaring the date to be Johnson City Post Office Day.  

Postal records for the Johnson City Post Office reveal a second anniversary right around the corner:  In December 1889, William Burdick assumed the role of Postmaster for Lester Shire.  The community’s name would be changed to Johnson City on September 20, 1915 with John M. Kennedy serving as Postmaster.

Stay ahead of Wednesday celebration with eight fast facts about the local facility:

1. According to a published report from Binghamton Press, the Johnson City Post Office opened to the public for the first time at 8 am on Monday, August 5, 1935.  It was ‘complete in every detail,’ according to the article, although a custodian had not yet been selected.
2. The same news article reported the 13,550 square foot Johnson City Post Office cost $43,000 to construct.
3. The Johnson City Post Office was designed by the Supervising Architect of the Treasury Department, Louis Simon, who oversaw designs for numerous post offices around the nation.  Locally, his work includes the post offices in Cooperstown, Delhi, Lake Place, Richfield Springs, Walton and Watkins Glen.  He also designed the US Bullion Depository at West Point and the Government Printing Office in Washington DC.
4. The Johnson City Post Office is a Colonial Revival style, which borrowed from traditional architectural designs in Colonial America that featured accented doorways with evenly spaced windows often in pairs or sets of three. Colonial Revival doorways often included pillars, fanlights and a sidelight window as found on the Johnson City Post Office.

5. Murals in the Johnson City Post Office lobby were painted by Frederick Knight and underwritten by the Treasury Relief Art Project (TRAP). The oil and canvas paintings, dated 1937, depict postal activities, local industries and “other activities typical to the community.”
6. The Johnson City Post Office was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989.
7. On October 19, 2000, Public Law 106-315 was signed by the President, renaming this building as the James W. McCabe Sr. Post Office Building to honor the former Johnson City Mayor and 17-year member of the New York State Legislature. The tribute was doubly appropriate as the Assemblyman’s father, Robert F. McCabe, served as the postmaster in Johnson City when it opened in August of 1935.
8. President Franklin Roosevelt was an avid stamp collector who encouraged stamp issues recognizing national celebrations or events. Three-cent stamps sold at the Johnson City Post Office in 1935 honored Susan B. Anthony, celebrated the settlements of Rhode Island and Connecticut, cheered 100 years of statehood in Arkansas and Michigan and championed the new Boulder Dam.  

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