DPO'd: Newport KY Edition

The postal service appears to have given the general public a full four days' notice in publicizing the decision to shutter two stations in northern Kentucky. The town of Newport is just across the Ohio River from Cincinnati.

USPS's Cincinnati District is highly aggressive in closing its offices, and has been running roughshod over its stations in Cincinnati, Dayton, and northern Kentucky. Of all cities in America, Cincinnati has seen the largest number of post office closures. More about that in this GP entry.

Newport's Spence Station, featured in this GP post, was open from 8 A.M. to noon on weekdays and, being in such close proximity to the Newport Main Post Office, its closure was rather inevitable.

The clerk in Newport's Dayton Branch was proud of her post office: it was colored red, white, and blue. She made a special effort to assist this postmark collector, which was very much appreciated.


The two offices were discontinued May 27, 2011.

Furthermore, the author discovered the closure of Newport's contract branch at Northern Kentucky University (NKU) the hard way: while it was listed online, the office had already been closed for more than a month. Its date of discontinuance was August 27, 2010.

The branch was located in the basement of NKU's University Center:



The orange sign above the window reads: "Northern Kentucky University // 41099". The yellow sign on the door states: "NOTICE OF CLOSURE // This Post Office station will close PERMANENTLY Friday, August 27, 2010 // 2 pm // We regret any inconvenience."

DPO'd: 'Cin' City Edition

From this news article by the Cincinnati Enquirer, a map of the FIVE post offices that Cincinnati, OH is losing during the first few months of this year. They were all on the consolidation 'Hit List'. (A sixth loss, the Stock Yards Station -- also on the list -- was closed toward the end of last year.) The article's map is shown here:



Edit 2/26/11: Apparently, the Cincinnati Enquirer deletes the links to its articles after a certain date. Shame, it was an informative article and map.

I obtained all five/six postmarks, though I only visited three of the offices during my trip to Cincinnati last October.

1. Newtown Branch: Serving a small but upscale community. It's a hilly community, and the neighborhood's [flat] main stretch is known as a speed trap. Next closest post office: 2.1 miles (CPU) / 3.1 miles (classified office).


2. East End: A large but poor community. I arrived at this office after hours, so can't comment how well it was used. The signage is yellow, and is difficult to see on white; it actually says "U.S. POSTAL SERVICE // EAST END STATION // CINTI, OH 45226". Next closest post office: 2.2 miles.


3. Reed Hartman Station: A conundrum of sorts, in what one might consider a commercial park district. It was in an office building with absolutely no signage that would indicate that a post office was inside. It had a BEAUTIFUL postmark and there were people using the station, but I suspect it could not make revenue with the fact that it was so difficult to know it was there to begin with (which might explain why it was only open about four hours a day). Next closest post office: more than 2 miles.