My entries in this blog have focused on post offices that were open at the time of my visitation. While planning a route for my present eastern Pennsylvania trip (which also took me to 18 active post offices today), I discovered an office that was discontinued back in 2009: Minisink Hills, PA.
The location, in a strip mall across the street from an elementary school, still bears the hallmarks of a standard post office: a rear door and loading platform for mail carriers, the flagpole out front, and a handicapped ramp. Here's the building as it now stands:
Located a grand total of 0.8 driving miles from the post office that absorbed its mail delivery, Shawnee on Delaware, and 1.8 miles from Delaware Water Gap, PA, it's probable that the services of this independent post office weren't considered necessary to the community. It's the author's suspicion that a leasing dispute sealed the deal for the closure of the facility. Of course, the site remains unoccupied two years after the office's closing.
Upon closer inspection of the building, one can see the wear marks from the signage lettering:
Neither I nor the Postmark Collectors Club (which maintains the most accurate Directories of post offices throughout the country) knew the date of discontinuance for this office. Fortunately, taped inside the front door was this note from the last Postmaster:
An employee in East Stroudsburg informed me yesterday over the phone that Minisink Hills had been closed for about two years. Sure enough, January 23, 2009 was a Friday!
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