2021 Postal Summary

It's hard to believe that this is my 12th annual summary of the post offices and places I've visited. Dang, I've been at this a while! According to my spreadsheets this year I visited 363 new post offices across five states, for a total of 10,558 post offices. I also visited four P.O.s across the border in New Brunswick, Canada (not included in the above tally). This year I also revisited many more places for updated postmarks and photographs, meaning I actually visited 469 post offices in all (including that handful in Canada).

When traveling this autumn I stuck to the heavily vaccinated Northeast. The bulk of my travels consisted of two week-long trips to New England in October and a week-and-a-half Maine excursion earlier this month. This meant I visited a whopping 203 post offices in Maine—nearly half the post offices in the entire state and the most in any state during a given year since I documented 212 in New York back in 2017.

As always, my use of the term post offices for these purposes should be taken broadly: it includes carrier-only facilities, freestanding mail processing facilities, and Contract Postal Units (CPUs).

I was thrilled to get to visit several of the further reaches in Maine, including Eustis, Jackman, Vanceboro, and Lubec, while making significant inroads with the post offices on Maine's only-accessible-by-ferry islands, of which I visited six this year (for a personal total of nine thus far). These trips can eat up a lot of time and the logistics can be daunting, though as you've seen from some of my previous posts (such as this one from last month) the results can be rather rewarding.

Scenes from 2021 postal explorations:

Visiting the post office in Vinalhaven, Maine (only accessible by ferry) in October:


Helen, a former postal employee, serving a customer on October 15—the last day of operation of the Georgia, Vermont Community Post Office (a Contract Postal Unit):


Albany, NY—the new site of the Academy Station post office under construction, prior to opening:


Part of the [modern, not New Deal] mural behind the retail counter of the Hallowell, Maine post office:


Saint Stephen, New Brunswick—Retail Post Office (RPO) at Jean Coutu, a Canadian chain of drugstores:

2021 by the Numbers

I visited as many as 30 post offices (of which 29 were new) in one day this year. State by state—and territory by territory:

Maine: 203 post offices
Focus/Foci: All over the state, but let's say there was a particular focus on the Downeast & Acadia region

Vermont: 70 post offices
Rutland and areas south; Northwest Vermont

New York: 62 post offices
Albany, with routes to the southwest and north

New Hampshire: 22 post offices
Corridor between Lebanon and Manchester, with a slew of revisits around Lake Winnipewaukee

Massachusetts: 5 post offices
Newburyport

Delaware: 1 post office
Harbeson*

* Harbeson was suspended when I first completed my run of Delaware post offices, as its former site was being redeveloped. I have now re-completed the First State with the visit to Harbeson's new site:



Counting Counties:
I visited a handful of new counties in 2021, including Schoharie and Fulton Counties in upstate New York and my remaining four counties in Maine: Franklin, Piscataquis, Hancock, and Washington.

See you next year! I appreciate all your views, shares, and support.
Evan

2019 Postal Summary

It's hard to imagine that this blog was founded nearly a decade ago, and that this is my TENTH Postal Summary. I didn't write a lot here this past year... it's not because I haven't been up to anything (quite the contrary!), but I've been focusing more of my energies on the quicker 'n easier Instagram world. Postlandia has a popular, growing Instagram feed. I posted more than 400 (mostly) postal-related photos in 2019, including at least three P.O.s from every U.S. state.

(As always, my prior summaries can be found at these links: 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018. Starting next year I'm just gonna link to this page with entries tagged "annual postal summary," heh. Let's go!)

2019 was an exciting year. I visited a decent 708 new, active postal operations this year across 18 states (in addition to re-visiting classics in New York). After correcting for a handful of errors in my spreadsheet, my grand total is now 9,994 post offices.

This year's travels included three major trips:
1. Puerto Rico / the U.S. Virgin Islands (17 days, all 144 post offices)
2. Ohio Valley / South (21 days, 351 new POs)
3. Delmarva Peninsula / eastern Virginia (13 days, 213 new POs)

Here I am at the San Antonio, Puerto Rico post office—my last in the territory, 11 days after my first. I'm holding a big, paper AAA map with every post office in Puerto circled (and highlighted, once I visited them); my finger is pointing to the San Antonio post office in the upper left corner:



Me at the Frederiksted, V.I. post office—my last in the territory, at the end of two days visiting its three main islands:



I was fortunate to be able to attend the First Day ceremony of the Post Office Murals stamps in Piggott, Arkansas on April 10, stopping at a forum: Postal Places, at Carnegie Mellon University on April 26, an event with an impressive roster of guests from postal circles. Sadly I can't find a link to the four amazing grad student-developed projects online, but here is a link to the course online.



During my trip to Delmarva [Delaware / Maryland / Virginia] I took a couple of side trips into Chesapeake Bay to visit the two post offices at Smith Island, Maryland, as well as the post office in Tangier Island, Virginia. Here I am at the latter:



Thank you to the dozens of people who purchased the 2020 Postlandia calendar! Your support is always greatly appreciated. This has always been a passion project, and I don't get paid a dime to do any of this.

I had some fun mailing packages in 2019...

As always, the counts in this post include active 'standard' post offices, Contract Postal Units (CPUs), carrier annexes, and mail processing plants. They do not include former sites (e.g. historic post office buildings), places I've previously been to but revisited (say, to take a better photo), or previously discontinued operations. Here are some assorted photos from various operations I've visited this year:

Cataño, Puerto Rico Detached Mail Delivery Unit


Virginia Beach, Virginia: McDonald Garden Center CPU


North Little Rock, Arkansas (former site, now library)


Paducah, Kentucky Carrier Annex


I continued documenting the U.S. Postal Service's New Deal treasures as well, for example:

Eutaw, Alabama: "The Countryside," by Robert Gwathmey (1941)

2019 By the Numbers

I visited as many as 34 post offices (of which 31 were new) in one day this year (in the Delmarva Peninsula portion of Virginia). State by state—and territory by territory:

Puerto Rico: 132 post offices
Focus/Foci: [All post offices in the territory]

Virginia: 118 post offices
Eastern counties of the Delmarva Peninsula; Hampton Roads; Richmond

Arkansas: 79 post offices
Northeast corner; Little Rock south to El Dorado

Louisiana: 70 post offices
North central Louisiana; Alexandria

Maryland: 58 post offices
Eastern Shore

Kentucky: 47 post offices
Ohio River Valley (western counties); Berea

Delaware: 34 post offices
North of Wilmington; eastern shore; Sussex County

Missouri: 32 post offices
Southeastern corner

Alabama: 27 post offices
Birmingham; northeast corner

Pennsylvania: 21 post offices
North of Pittsburgh

Tennessee: 19 post offices
Chattanooga; Cleveland; Jellico

Mississippi: 17 post offices
East of Jackson to Meridian

Indiana: 12 post offices
Evansville, to wit:



U.S. Virgin Islands: 12 post offices
[All post offices in the territory]

West Virginia: 12 post offices
Huntington; Charleston north

Massachusetts: 7 post offices
South of Quabbin Reservoir

Ohio: 5 post offices
Random Akron to Columbus; Marietta north

Georgia: 3 post offices
Dade County (NW corner)

Illinois: 2 post offices
Brookport; Cairo

North Carolina: 1 post offices
Knotts Island

This year I finished visiting every post office in Delaware, even getting to visit the post office at Dover Air Force Base. The impetus for the trip was the 58th annual Post Mark Collectors Club (PMCC) Convention, which took place in Dover, Delaware back in late September.

The "kids' table," PMCC convention:


Me at Talleyville Branch, Wilmington, DE, my final post office in the First State:


Counting Counties:
I visited 100 new counties in 2019. They are the dark blue counties east of Texas and south of New York on this travel map:



Dear readers, thank you for your continued support! I'm hoping to share many more new post office stories and photos with you in 2020.

The 2020 Calendar of Post Offices and Places

So! It's been a while since I've written many articles, but I've still been logging several thousand miles visiting post offices. Alas, it's that glorious time of the year that brings us pumpkin spice and the annual Postlandia Calendar of Post Offices and Places. I'm not here to write about the flavors of autumn, so hello calendar! For those of you new to the 'tradition,' the Postlandia calendar is a 12-month calendar that features a different, interesting, and photogenic post office for each month, plus a description of why it's significant. There's nothing else quite like it anywhere. This will be the fourth iteration, and the calendar has now featured at least one post office from most U.S. states.

The 2020 edition of the Postlandia calendar takes us to post offices far and wide—notably the Caribbean, home to the U.S. Post Offices of Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. I've still yet to transcribe my adventures, but I visited every single P.O. in both U.S. territories earlier this year, and it was an unforgettable experience. You'll see two really cool finds from the Caribbean in the calendar. This said, the calendar also takes us to the Northwest, New England, the Mid-Atlantic, and all the way out to the Grand Canyon. The post offices are big and small, and there's something for everyone. (Everyone who's interested in post offices and/or snail mail, at least.)

Here's the [edit: link removed; project retired] direct link to the calendar on Lulu, my trusty printer.

The images are printed in high resolution (far better than I present on this site), on high-quality paper. The dates include not only U.S. holidays but dates significant to American postal history. And, yes, you can write on it—again, good paper. Thick stuff.

Postlandia Calendar cover:


The cover (and one of the months) features one of my all-time favorite post offices: Milton, Pennsylvania. Heck, I featured it in a blog post back in 2011. But I stopped back to photograph it again earlier this year with far better lighting on the building, and this gem definitely deserves another look.

Delaware: Birth of an Empire


Illinois: A "Great American Post Office"


Texarkana: Two States, one Post Office


As always, there's so much more where these came from. I hope you experience as much enjoyment with this calendar next year as I've enjoyed curating it. Remember—I've trekked to thousands of post offices (I'm presently just shy of 10,000) so I can bring you some of the very best, anywhere.

I refuse to sell advertising on any website I manage or any product I manage, so this is the only way I make even a modicum of money from this hobby. It really does make a dent in my gas money bills, so I want to thank everyone who purchases a calendar for your support.

Again, the link to the calendar is [removed]. I've always said that this is the perfect gift for the special USPS employee or snail mail enthusiast in your life; a wonderful purchase for philatelist and stamp collectors; and generally speaking, just the perfect post office calendar. The calendar is available [link removed], at the secure website of the high-quality printer Lulu. Everyone I know who's purchased either the 2017, the 2018, or the 2019 Postlandia post office calendar has loved it!

BONUS!!

I'm a huge fan of FDR-era (1933-1942) post offices, more than 1,000 of which house beautiful examples of New Deal artwork. Last year I introduced a second calendar that overlaps somewhat with our postal fandom, and this year I'm bringing it back: [retired link] New Deal Legacy: 2020!

It features a bit of postal goodness from the FDR era, but goes way beyond to highlight some of the myriad of accomplishments put forth by various New Deal agencies across the country, including the Works Progress Administration (WPA), Public Works Administration (PWA), and Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC).

Again, each image in the calendar is accompanied by a full description of exactly what's going on.

2020 New Deal Legacy Calendar cover:


The projects...

Louisiana: Deco Justice


New Mexico: Desert Pride


Colorado: The High Road


The high-resolution images include the stories that make each one image significant. They are printed on thick, high-quality paper and will hold up to all of your writing-on-your-calendar needs. Just as with the Postlandia calendar, these span the country. There's something for everyone. Here is the combined link to my author's page that will lead you to both the the Postlandia and New Deal Legacy 2020 calendars.

Thank you for your continued support.
Evan

Beautiful Post Office: Montchanin, DE

Unfortunately I've been saturated with work and don't have the time to present a detailed entry right this moment. I've been working on a larger one regarding RAOI and its relationship to Newark, NJ. Regardless, I thought it might be nice to present this fantastic location in northern Delaware. Just outside of Wilmington, the Montchanin Post Office has been in operation since 1889 (though research on Postmaster Finder only dates back to 1944.)

The significance of this location is that the Hagley Museum and Library is right by the facility. While that name is not highly known, the name DuPont surely is. The 235 acres that presently house this Museum were where E. I. du Pont founded his gunpowder mill back in 1801. That is how the the family made its fortune!

The Museum site described: "This example of early American industry includes restored mills, a workers' community, and the ancestral home and gardens of the du Pont family." It is a fun visit, and there are demonstrations of working aspects of the mill every half hour. One features a gunpowder explosion!

In any case, let's see what part of Delaware we're dealing with:

View Larger Map
The location looks rural, but Wilmington is just beyond those map boundaries.

According to this map, available at the Hagley Digital Archives, the mill itself did not possess a post office, but there was one nearby, known as Henry Clay Fact[ory] [see bottom]:


The Henry Clay Factory post office operated from 1851 to 1924.

So why do I say "Beautiful Post Office"? Because of its setting, located right on the Brandywine River. According to Reference Archivist Lucas Clawson at the Hagley Library:
The Montchanin Post Office "is located in Breck's Mill, which operated as a cotton mill through most of the 19th century. The DuPont acquired the property in the 1850s and later used it as a community center for the Henry Clay community. I'm not sure when the post office moved into the building but it was definitely not before the late 20th century."

Here is the site now:



(The water was brown due to a massive rainstorm that had hit the Wilmington / Philadelphia area the day before.) The building is also home to a gallery.

I Can't Believe It's Not Idaho!

This weekend was the Post Mark Collectors Club's 50th annual Convention, and this year it was held in Easton, MD. Which is a good thing, since it's only about two and a half hours from school; much further and I wouldn't have been able to make it this year. That said, I've been busy with post office runs and with actual work, so my next couple of entries might be a bit short. Never fear: I do have a couple of positively fantastic postal tales from this weekend, however, and they will be up when I get the opportunity.

Okay, so Delaware. Until a month ago I'd only been to one post office in the state. As of yesterday I've been to about 30% of its offices. It's actually not too difficult. With less than a week's worth I'm sure one could visit all the offices in the entire state, save perhaps that on Dover A.F.B.

Believe it or not there are agricultural elements to this small state. About 30 miles south of Wilmington and 20 miles north of Dover, there's a small farming community called Townsend. I swear, this scene is a dead ringer for parts of Idaho. Combine that with the lighting and you get one photogenic scene.

Post office: Townsend, DE: