Architecturally Interesting Austin POs, Part 2

Goodness, it's been another long while since the last post. Since my last Austin entry I spent another two full months on the road, visiting POs as far as Los Angeles to Billings and Cleveland.

Let's update my previous post. Since reporting that the present Downtown Station Post Office building was sold, USPS has announced that operations will move a few blocks to Congress Ave. The sale of the building also allows USPS to 'DUO' operations (that is, engage in Delivery Unit Optimization, the movement of carriers to local hub offices instead of keeping them at each facility) to the South Congress and East Austin Stations. Presumably that saves the Postal Service money while making customers' lives somewhat more inconvenient if they have to pick up a package.

I'd neglected to present another former site of the Austin Main Post Office from the early 1900s, a federal building built across the street from the late-1800s site presented in the previous entry:


This building, like its other historic counterpart, is now owned by the University of Texas as a medical system office building.

The South Congress Station is (also) located on Congress Avenue, though this office lies south of the famous bat bridge. There was a man panhandling outside the building while I was there, though he ducked out when I took this photo:

Austin, TX: South Congress Station post office

Here's another view:


As you can probably tell, this facility was crowded as heck that Saturday morning.

I've never seen a building quite like Austin's Southeast Station post office. It has... well, just look at it:




Opened in 1976, this building looks like it's building a web to trap unsuspecting flies or possibly FedEx delivery guys.

Hopefully there'll be some more entries up here soon!

Architecturally Interesting Austin POs: Downtown Station

Hey there, folks! It's been a while since I've updated the 'physical' blog. (Much more frequent updates occur on the Going Postal Facebook page, for the record.) Thus far in the trip I've been on the road for seven weeks; required oil changes twice; visited a couple of nice ballparks; savored some amazing barbecue; and, of course, have documented 700 post offices.

Austin, Texas is a cool city and features some architecturally unique post offices. I'd hope so -- their motto is "Keep Austin Weird," after all! Between the Cathedral of Junk, the Texas state capitol, and some excellent Mexican food came some interesting postal stories.

Austin, TX: Downtown Station
This location used to house a full philatelic center, and when I visited, was the home to the limited-edition First Day of Sale picture postmark for the newly issued Flags of Our Nation stamps, featuring Texas's.

The Downtown Station on Guadalupe St. was built in the mid-'90s, and is utterly unique (though it bears a resemblance to the Atlanta Main Post Office). The location is heavily used, and a couple of customers I chatted with have been picking up their mail there for the past 15 years.



The post office is photogenic, but has been the subject of urban planning scorn since its opening. Austin's downtown is dense with tall condos and historic buildings; plastering the majority of a city block with a heat sink / parking lot might not be the best use of the limited space available, critics claim.

The Downtown Station has since been sold, with carriers moving to nearby facilities. The question is, where will USPS move its retail unit? No one I've spoken with can say whether or not there will even be a USPS presence in downtown Austin once this building is demolished for a high-rise.

A friendly customer led me to one of the Austin Post Office's former sites, just nearby. This dates from the very early 20th century:


More from Austin coming soon.