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Ellisville Post Office, Illinois, 1891
When this photograph of the Ellisville, Illinois, Post Office was taken on July 30, 1891, John W. Dodds was the newly-appointed postmaster. Dodds served as postmaster for nearly a year and a half, earning about $300 annually. A prominent citizen of Fulton County, Illinois, Dodds had operated a general store in Ellisville off and on since 1862. Many merchants served as postmasters not so much for the salary but for the customers it attracted to their stores. In the 1800s, most Americans had to visit their local Post Office to pick up their mail.
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Ellisville Post Office, Illinois
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Petersville Post Office, Indiana, 1890s
Dr. Fletcher D. Norton was postmaster of the Petersville, Indiana, Post Office in the early 1890s, when this photo was taken. Norton served two terms as postmaster – from 1883 to 1885, and from 1889 to 1893. Like all postmasters, he would have sworn in an assistant to handle the mail when he could not personally attend to it – for example, during medical emergencies. Norton was also the town’s only doctor.
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Petersville Post Office, Indiana
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Washington Heights Station, Chicago, Illinois, 1890s
In 1894, the delivery area of the Chicago Post Office almost doubled – providing free home delivery to nearly 97 percent of the city's inhabitants – when 59 independent Post Offices “within the confines of Chicago” were consolidated with the Chicago Post Office. Most of the discontinued Post Offices, like Washington Heights, were converted to stations of the Chicago Post Office which provided full service to customers but were administratively subordinate to the Chicago Post Office – a technicality which allowed the stations’ customers to receive free home delivery of mail.
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Washington Heights St, Chicago
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Kitty Hawk Post Office, North Carolina, 1901
William Tate and his wife Addie are shown here seated on the front porch of their home, which doubled as the Kitty Hawk Post Office. Addie Tate was postmaster at the time, having replaced William as postmaster in 1898. In August 1900, William responded to a letter from two Ohio bicycle manufacturers regarding the suitability of the local terrain and weather for kite-flying experiments. William assured the brothers that conditions at Kitty Hawk were ripe. One of the brothers, Wilbur Wright, showed up on his doorstep the next month, followed by Orville two weeks later. The Tates helped the Wrights in many ways, even sharing their home with them when they first arrived.
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Kitty Hawk Post Office
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Searsburg Post Office, Vermont, 1914
Needham D. Bartlett was postmaster of the Searsburg, Vermont, Post Office when this photo was taken on June 15, 1914. A sign on the side of the building reads “Don’t Call On Sunday.” Bartlett’s career as postmaster began the year before, when he was 65 years old. By the looks of this photo, it appears more restful than his previous job, chopping wood for the timber industry. Bartlett served as postmaster until he died in January 1933 at the age of 84.
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Searsburg Post Office, Vermont, 1914
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Sprott Post Office, Alabama, 1936
Luther B. Sprott was postmaster of the Sprott, Alabama, Post Office when this photograph was taken in the summer of 1936. Sprott served as postmaster for nearly 30 years, from November 1917 until his death in March 1947, having taken over the office from his uncle, Thomas W. Sprott. The elder Sprott, the town’s first postmaster, served for more than 36 years, beginning in 1881. Photographer Walker Evans took this well-known picture of the combination store/Post Office while working for the Resettlement Administration during the Depression. In 2002 Evans was honored with a 37-cent stamp, one of the Masters of American Photography issue.
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Sprott Post Office, Alabama, 1936
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Chicago Post Office, Illinois, 1930s
In the early 20th century, Chicago had the second-largest Post Office in the country in terms of revenue and was the largest distributing Post Office. In 1934, the city got a new Post Office building, which the office occupied until 1996. With 60 acres of floor space, the Chicago Post Office was the largest in the world. But it was designed to handle mail by rail; it did not have sufficient docking space for trucks, which began carrying more of the load in the 1950s. In 1966, delays in unloading trucks led to a massive logjam of mail that made national news headlines and grabbed the attention of Congress, ultimately resulting in legislation that transformed the Post Office Department into the United States Postal Service, an independent, self-supporting federal agency.
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Chicago Post Office, Illinois, 1930s
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Houston Drive-In, Texas, 1951
Granville W. Elder, acting postmaster of the Houston, Texas, Post Office, first experimented with a drive-in for customers in late 1947 to expedite the handling of Christmas mail. Set up in the Sam Houston Coliseum, the drive-in was used by thousands of Houstonians and relieved traffic congestion near the downtown Post Office. In the 1950s, drive-ins – some of them seasonal – also popped up at offices in Illinois, California, and Maryland, but the idea was never broadly embraced.
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Houston Drive-In, Texas, 1951
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New York Post Office, New York, 1960s
Carved in granite along the top of the old main Post Office in New York City is the now-famous translation from the works of the Greek historian Herodotus, describing an expedition of the Greeks against the Persians in about 500 B.C.: “Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.” The quotation was chosen by the architectural firm that designed the building. In 1982 Congress named the building the James A. Farley Building in honor of the Postmaster General who was in office when it was constructed in the 1930s.
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New York Post Office, NY. 1960s
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Self-service postal unit, 1964
The first experimental self-service postal unit, at the Wheaton Plaza Shopping Center in Wheaton, Maryland, opened on October 18, 1964. Customers could weigh and mail packages and purchase stamps 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
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Self-service postal unit, 1964
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Ochopee Post Office, Florida, 1970s
Postmaster Evelyn Shealy hoists the U.S. flag at the Ochopee, Florida, Post Office, in the 1970s. At 62 square feet, the Ochopee Post Office is the smallest free-standing Post Office in the nation. Located on the edge of the Everglades, it has been housed in a former tool- and fertilizer-shed since 1953.
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Ochopee Post Office, Florida, 1970s
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Hinsdale Post Office, New Hampshire, ca. 1974
The Hinsdale, New Hampshire, Post Office has operated in the same building since 1816, when James Madison was president. It is the oldest known Post Office in the United States in continuous use at the same location.
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