Barber Shop Duet?

While the Postal Service faces brushes with Congress and some other close shaves, I thought I'd note that there are at least two places where you can get a haircut and conduct your postal business -- each instance within the same building, and once without having to leave your chair! (Well, just about.) The two locations are very different, but I found both staffed by friendly folks with impressive philatelic selections. So let's have a look:

Guild, New Hampshire post office
First thing's first: the town name is actually pronounced "Guile". You'd never know how to pronounce the name of this town right unless someone told you. I definitely didn't know it wasn't pronounced "Gild" until, shall we say, the Postmaster in an adjacent town was able to figure I wasn't from around there and helped me out a bit.

Nestled between the two larger towns of Sunapee and Newport, I was able to learn about this mill town's heyday from knowledgeable Postmaster Michael Mosher, who's served the community since 2003. I really enjoyed getting to see a century-old photo of construction in the town featuring -- clearly visible -- the exact building in which I was standing. I can't recall if the P.O. was in the building at that time, though it could well have been given as the Guild post office was established in 1882. Around the front of the building is the local salon. The post office is being considered for closure under the Expanded Decimated Access program.




If walking around the corner of a building places too large a gap between your package shipping and your shampooing needs, you could move to Hagerstown, MD, whereupon the southwest part of the city is served by a CPU that has shifted locations frequently of late, but which appears to have settled down. Here's a map of the current placement.



Okay. At first glance I was seriously convinced that the sign read Shippin' and Clippin'. I thought that was the store's name, but the CPU wasn't a part of the salon's business model until late 2009.

Hagerstown, Maryland: Snippin' and Clippin' (Halfway) CPU

(The Census-Designated Place of Halfway is so named due to its equidistance from both Hagerstown and the neighboring town of Williamsport) I chatted with a bunch of ladies by the postal counter, a couple of whom work at the salon, along with some customers. Everyone was really friendly, including the contractor, and I bought two sheets of the Civil War commemorative stamps from her. Many CPUs just carry the least-common-denominator Bell stamps. (Heck, VPOs are forced to sell those and nothing more.) This was an impressive showing.

This part of Hagerstown was served by a location known as the Virginia Avenue CPO for quite some time until the mid-'00s. At that point a CPU was opened at E. L. Jones & Sons, a model train / hobby shop, from Oct. 2006 to early 2007. The CPU ultimately re-set up shop at S&C in Oct. 2009. (This information comes courtesy the impeccable PMCC Post Office Directory, for the record!)

Relics of the former site can still be found...:

Beautiful Post Office: Bellows Falls, Vermont

Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) was instrumental in helping to direct the Senate version of a postal reform bill toward a bit of sanity. While the bill will ultimately satisfy no one fully (which is, of course, the basis for compromise) it does prevent some postal cutbacks for a period of time -- and it's infinitely preferable to the current proposed House bill, which would gut USPS outright. Now it remains to be seen if "the House always wins", as it were, but I'm hopeful that the Postal Service will be able to remain as relevant as it can to the communities of America for years to come (i.e., not downsized to extinction), thanks to some of the assurances and reforms instituted as parts of this bill.

Now, let's look at a gorgeous P.O. from Vermont. It's not one of those rural offices on the chopping block which will be preserved for at least one more year thanks to the provisions introduced by Senator Sanders, but it's definitely worth a look.

I have not seen a post office quite like Bellows Falls's. It's a gorgeous town located along the Connecticut River just across from New Hampshire, and I was able to learn about by speaking with a couple of residents who stopped to say hello (when they noticed my admiring their P.O.). So what makes the building unique? Well, it's a Treasury Department-financed WPA office from 1930, but unlike most such offices the focal point of this building does not lie at the center. The focal points lie at either side! The roof has Spanish-style tilework on top, and you've got blocks interspersed with brickwork that has well withstood the test of time. A lot of beautiful details went into the construction of the office, so let's take a closer look.

Bellows Falls, Vermont post office


Observe the details along the second-floor railing. The five arched windows with Corinthian-headed brick columns. Note the subtle effect imbued by the two alternating row-styles of brickwork.


A handicapped ramp was tastefully added along the side of the building.

My friendly local tour guides drew my attention to some of the unique aspects of the town. First, it holds this piece of historical significance:


Second, they directed me to something strange -- the train was constructed under the town instead of at grade. As in, they dug a tunnel directly under the downtown. Look -- here it is!


Here's the mural from above in full, presenting the town much as it looks to this day.


Finally, here's a view of the Bellows Falls P.O. in its setting. In the background are the hills of New Hampshire along the river. And yep -- they don't make 'em like they used to.

LinkVermont.com has more information about some of the other unique aspects of this authentic New England town.

Mismatched Capitals

And, it's been a while. That's what the final semester at grad school will do to you. I suppose there's time for a brief post, and I've long thought it might be fun to show y'all a few state capitals... or are they?

There are dozens of examples of this, to be sure (most notably the case of Springfield); here are just a few that I've visited.

1. Santa Fe, Tennessee post office


About an hour southwest of Nashville, Santa Fe is near the Natchez Trace Parkway, one of several quaint isolated post offices I visited in central Tennessee back in '09. Got to Santa Fe just as they were picking up the daily mail; you can see the truck reflected in the front window.

2. Boston, Kentucky post office


Just southeast of the massive Fort Knox, and 40 minutes south of Louisville. It had been a beautifully misty morning in rural Kentucky, though it had become sunny by the time I arrived in this quaint little town, which featured a gas station and general store. The post office is on its own little side road, Post Office Court.

3. Providence, Utah post office


Back in 2008, after meeting some wonderful folks in Oregon, I was invited to stay with them in northern Utah. Of course I took them up on it. As part of their tour of the area they took me to a handful of local post offices, including that of Providence. Other great sites included the rich autumn foliage in Cache Valley.

4. Madison, New Jersey post office


As part of my spring 2011 New Jersey Saturday Postal Run series, I visited Madison, a grand building along a main street across from an equally grand train station. Their carrier annex, a few blocks away, was much more reserved.

Madison, NJ Carrier Annex:


5. Springfield, Vermont post office


My very first post office of 2012 was in Springfield, a gorgeous New England mill town in a valley along a river. The building was constructed in 1935:


Springfield, Vermont's claim to fame was winning a nationwide contest that won it the premiere of The Simpsons Movie back in 2007. Their mayor rolled a giant doughnut down Main Street! A souvenir of that is in the Chamber of Commerce, down the road from the P.O.

A Final Tale from the CPU Hit List

If you've read USPS's Local News Releases from 2011 closely enough, you'll notice that something unusual happened in Brooklyn last year: "USPS adds new ZIP Code in Williamsburg on July 1". Usually, the realignments I see in the Postal Bulletin occur in rapidly-growing Arizona. But postally–well-established New York City? I never!

The Gothamist presented its take on the story: According to USPS officials, the addition was made because "the existing ZIP code table could not handle all the new deliveries so we had to add an additional ZIP to accommodate all the new construction, population."

(The document presented in the article above (reproduced below) also exhibits a very embarrassing typo. Please note that stationery, the paper, is not the same as stationary, the adjective describing something that is not moving. Alas, spellcheck doesn't catch all errors.)



The point of all this is that USPS recognizes the need for additional postal services in this neighborhood given the population growth of the neighborhood. In fact, the author's experience suggests that the expanding neighborhood has overwhelmed the retail capabilities of its stately mid-'60s office. Conversations with postal patrons in the neighborhood confirm that this opinion is generally shared. In fact, when I visited two-and-a-half years ago there were signs posted trumpeting the nearby Better Letter CPU as an alternative to the line at the real P.O. I suspect it might involve the inclusion of two or three additional clerks to bring Williamsburg to the five-minute wait-time standard.

(At the end of my wait at the Station, I brought my postal card up for a hand-cancel for my collection, to which my clerk said he couldn't do it. After I showed him my samples and the appropriate POM regulations he said "you shouldn't have those" -- which is funny, because they're available online.)

Brooklyn, NY: Williamsburg Station post office


Given as the neighborhood is also effectively bifurcated by the Williamsburg Bridge buildup, adding a CPU on the other side of the overpass seems like a reasonable supplement to the existing postal infrastructure. USPS just doesn't build new classified units anymore.



Brooklyn, NY: Better Letter CPU


Better Letter has been an operational CPU since 2006, and it is the busiest contract unit I have ever seen. During my 20 minutes there I witnessed at least 15 customers, none of whom had to wait because owners Esther and Israel Wurzberger know their customers like the backs of their hands.

Alas, due to that obnoxious USPS/APWU contract provision that mandates the closure of 20 randomly, explicitly called-out contract units, the Better Letter CPU will be closing at the end of this week: March 30. (Each CPU that has not already closed will be closing at that time. Those in the Northeast outside New York City closed at the beginning of the year.)

The Postal Service won't be pleased with the amount of business that it will likely lose as a result of this CPU's closure. Inspection of questionnaires filled out by Better Letter customers suggested that many local shippers (who had filled up the entire front of the store with packages, for the record) would rather defect to UPS than deal with what one woman called "up to an hour" of waiting in line at Williamsburg Station. Here are a couple of samples:




An astounding number of locals had signed petitions and filled out page-long surveys expressing their thoughts. I'd never seen anything like it.


Here's a portion of the daily business conducted at Better Letter, courtesy the Greenpoint Gazette.


Another thing the Wurzbergers offer is trust (which has traditionally been one of USPS's greatest assets) within the large local Orthodox Jewish community. Busy regulars can drop off a set of packages and pay their tab later. How nice is that? Here are a couple of scenes from the local streetscape.




My favorite item was this sign on the back wall:


(Google Translate translates הפקר to "abandoned". Which is how half of Williamsburg probably feels right about now.)

The Wurzbergers maintain a related stationery business aside from the CPU in the back of the store, but this was their primary way of connecting with the community.

Unfortunately, someone at the Postal Service appears to have randomly selected this family-owned operation to be closed, and in all likelihood it will be for positively no redeeming reason. [I somewhat doubt that the Williamsburg Station would add three additional clerks (as that contract provision is in the name of union jobs) to provide as full or efficient service to the community as Better Letter provides them now... and if they did, I don't envision them being as gracious and involved in the community as Israel and Esther are.] For a growing community that clearly is in need of additional and efficient postal services, this closure clearly represents the wrong way to operate either a business or a Service. Does USPS play by Bizarro rules?

There were no P.O. Boxes at Better Letter.

The Greenpoint Gazette article is thorough and well-written, by the way.

Post Offices at Colleges

Most colleges in the country have their own private mailrooms. Many also feature an official U.S. Post Office or their own CPU. I've noticed that both categories of offices have been closing on college campuses at high rates. Many are also presently under closure study as part of RAOI. Here are some college campus POs, endangered or closed, that I've visited in the past.

I always question the closure of college post offices; after all, while the younger generations are supposedly those putting USPS out of business, they are also your future customers. Just about every other organization on Earth covets this demographic. But I digress.

Closed: Stony Brook, NY: SUNY CPO
I only found out about this while doing a Google Maps post office marker review; someone had marked this as closed. Lo and behold, it closed in December. Why? Who knows. Like most campus POs, this was located in the primary student center.




There is no post office within walking distance of this former location. (And due to the odd setting of this campus, the closest PO is East Setauket's: 2.3 miles away, rather than Stony Brook's itself.) I can envision this being an inconvenience for the thousands of students who live on the campus who likely don't have a car.

Closed: Boston, MA: Boston University Station post office
Also located in the student center, I wasn't comfortable parking within a half mile of this dense campus. Ah, Boston. But I did find this location before it was discontinued early last year as part of the SBOC study. The post office closed during the summer; its clerks were borrowed from nearby Kenmore Station. That location, the closest to the former site, is a 15-minute walk away from the student center, though many locations on campus are closer to Kenmore than to the former B.U. Station.



Two other college locations in the Boston downtown vicinity are presently in jeopardy: MIT Station and Boston College Station (the latter which I've not yet visited). These are huge campuses. Neither closure would be a good idea.

In jeopardy: Cambridge, MA: MIT Station post office



As you can see, given the old brass mailboxes, MIT's post office has been at this site for a very long time. In fact, this location's postmark was one of the first my father every obtained back in 1961! There were six customers at the office when I visited in late 2010.

I detailed a closed CPU at Northern Kentucky University in this entry, and two college POs -- one endangered, one already closed, in Providence, RI here.

In jeopardy: Wellesley, MA: Babson Park Station post office


Another self-contained campus; nearest post office, while 'just' 1.3 miles away, cannot safely be accessed without a car.

In the future I'll try to cover an interesting instance: Rutgers University in New Brunswick, NJ, which featured five CPUs on five different campuses throughout the area. Two of the five have closed.