Man, oh Mannequin: Dickerson Run, PA

So I was driving around rural Fayette County, PA -- in the southwest part of the state -- a few Saturday afternoons back as part of my 86-post office weekend. Everything was closed, but it can be helpful to photograph when there are fewer cars and incomers-and-outgoers flying around. Makes things more efficient -- especially when, like me, you like to chat a lot. My AAA state map of Pennsylvania didn't even show the town of Dickerson Run, which is on the "Expanded Access" study list. Regardless, I knew it was between Dawson and Vanderbilt, PA -- each about a mile away.

Dawson, PA post office:


Vanderbilt, PA post office:


Common mid-late-20th-century architecture; nothing too exciting. But what I saw at Dickerson Run stopped me in my tracks; not [just] because of what the building looked like on the outside, but what I saw on the inside: mannequins modelling postal products. It is something I have never, ever seen before, and something I wish I'd have been there on a weekday to ask the Postmaster about. It's both completely absurd and brilliant at the same time. And fantastic, regardless.

Dickerson Run, PA post office:


The Jolly Green Giant(!?!?), and a mannequin showing off a mid-sized Flat-Rate Priority Mail box:


A service member receiving a small Flat-Rate box [care package?]:


It looks like the pilot's got something that needs to go out, Express Mail, ASAP!

Yeah. That definitely deserves an entry.

Since the lobby was closed after-hours, the photos were taken through the front window. The Dickerson Run post office is likely to be closed as part of USPS's Diminished "Expanded Access" review, so see the mannequins while you can!

For the record, there were a couple of very interesting and photogenic buildings in Dawson; unfortunately that's the subject for a different blog!