Category: Post Office

The Post Office Files: Small, Cute, and Interesting Pit Stops

The Post Office Files: Small, Cute, and Interesting Pit Stops

While traveling throughout the US, stopping and snapping post office photos has become something of a habit. The photos become place markers for passing through a town with an interesting or funny name. The buildings themselves can give clues about what a place is like to the traveler. Is the post office tiny? Does it share space with a general store? Is it in an unusual building?

As we become more entrenched in digital transactions throughout our existence, if it still exists in a town the local post office can feel almost quaint or nostalgic. Even so, they are still an important thread that runs through the fabric of American communities.


Post Office Photos

Arizona

How could I not stop for a snap of the post office of one of the towns mentioned in the classic (Get Your Kicks on) Route 66?

2020: Kingman, Arizona – 86401

Following Route 66 west from Kingman, the road will drop you into the wold west town of Oatman, Azizona. While there were no fabulous wild burros at the post office, there were plenty roaming through town!

2020: Oatman, Arizona – 86433

California

Though the blazing neon Roy’s sign typically gets all the glory when the town of Amboy, California is featured in media, just across the street is their lovely little PO.

2016: Amboy, California – 92304
2016: Ocotillo, California – 92259
2020: Pioneertown, California – 92268

While the site doesn’t note where the claim comes from, it is apparently said that “As it sits on a movie set; the Pioneertown Post Office is said to be the most photographed PO in the USA.”

Pinoneertown is an interesting stop for a roadside appreciator. While I was there, they were filming a commercial for Coach Dreams perfume.

2011: Seiad Valley California – 96086

Seiad Valley was one of several places in California that attempted to secede from the state at different points in history. In the early 1940s, a group of Siskiyou County residents formed the State of Jefferson movement, which sought to create a new state out of parts of northern California and southern Oregon. Seiad Valley was one of the communities that supported the movement but ultimately did not succeed in its goal of creating a new state.

Topaz, California – 96133

The first time we passed the tiny Topaz, California it knocked my socks off because of its miniature size.


Kentucky

Salt Lick, Kentucky – 40371

Maine

FArmington Falls, Maine – 04940
Rockport, Maine – 04856

This little log cabin-like office was just too cute to not stop for.


Massachusetts

Cummington, Massachusetts – 01026

New Jersey

Sergeantsville, New Jersey – 08557 (Former)

Apparently the little blue office in Sergeantsville, New Jersey was permanently closed. This photo was snapped some time in 2013, I believe.


New York

Colliersville, New York – 13747
Ellington, New York – 14732
Laurel, New York – 11948
Setauket, New York – 11733
Stony Brook, New York – 11790

The eagle on the Stony Brook post office flaps its wings on the hour!

Straatsburg, New York – 12580

Pennsylvania

2017: East Smethport, PA 16730
2016: Lake Como, Pennsylvania – 18437
Madisonburg, Pennsylvania – 16852
Mifflinville, Pennsylvania – 18631
Morris, Pennsylvania – 16938

This office in Morris, Pa is one of my absolute favorites. There is just something so perfect about its midcentury modern vibes. *chef’s kiss*


Virginia

2017: Former Post Office – Burkes Garden, Virginia

This building in Burkes Garden is a former post office. You can see a few more photos from peering in the windows on the old Burkes Garden, Virginia post office.

2017: Rockfish, VA 22966 (former)

Another decomissioned gem – read more about Rockfish.

2017: Vesuvius, VA 24483

You can find this office on Virginia 56, which is a nice twisty ride down off of the Blue Ridge Parkway.


West Virginia

2015: Abraham, West Virginia – 25918 (former)

This photo alone doesn’t look like much but getting to the old Abraham office in the middle of the foggy night was a trip. I found myself here while doing the Void Rally. Read more about the old Abraham Post Office.

2017: Cucumber, WV 24826

This PO stop was solely for the name – I love it!

2017: Fanrock, WV 24834
2017: Helvetia, WV 26224
2017: Josephine, WV 25857
Lost City, West Virginia – 26810
2017: North Matewan, WV 25688
2017: Onego, WV 26886
2017: Odd, West Virginia – 25902
2017: Panther, West Virginia – 24872
2017: Rhodell, WV 25915
2017: War, West Virginia 24892

Wyoming

Aladdin, Wyoming – 82710

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The Old Burke’s Garden Virginia Post Office

The Old Burke’s Garden Virginia Post Office

Following the very wiggly VA 623, will drop you into the upland valley of Burke’s Garden, Virginia. When there, something about it feels like you’re in a place cut off from the rest of the world.

The local whitepages:

My travels brought me to Burke’s Garden because of a photo I’d seen online of an old post office with a Pepsi ghost ad on the side. I was surprised to see what nice shape the mural is in. By the looks of things, that Pepsi ad is pretty well cared for.

I gingerly stepped up onto the front stoop to take a look inside. My chances of either falling through the step or being stung by bees seemed to be about 50-50. It made me chuckle to myself to think that if I was really lucky, maybe I’d be able to pull off both.

The sign above the door reads: “Burkes Garden, Va – God’s Land”

 

Snapshots: The Odd, West Virginia Post Office

Snapshots: The Odd, West Virginia Post Office

Maybe I should just go ahead and have all my mail forwarded here 😉

I think that the first time I ever saw the name Odd, West Virginia was in a photo from David over at Less Beaten Paths blog. He always features great Americana from his travels on his site. And he’s working on a book, Less Beaten Paths of America: Unique Town Names. I’d say that Odd fits that bill.

Just Passing Through – Small Town, West Virginia

Just Passing Through – Small Town, West Virginia

Rhodell, West Virginia – a place I’d never heard of prior to standing in front of the alternating colors of the post office’s awning. Why would I have? It isn’t a pass-through on a way to a bigger town. It isn’t famous for anything. No, it’s just a little tucked away place where normal people live their lives.

Normal people, doing normal things.

While I was taking a photo, a young woman came out of the house to receive a little boy getting off of the school bus. When the bus pulled up, a young man also came out of the house to see that same little boy off the bus.

Instantaneously, I’d made a judgment as to why two young adults were home in the middle of the afternoon based on the realities of my own existence.

But – maybe one was a stay at home parent and maybe the other had time off work. Or maybe one was on vacation, on sick leave, worked nights, cared for a sick relative, or it was their regular day off. Maybe one of them hadn’t started their shift yet. After all, I myself was there in the middle of a Tuesday afternoon. The reasons two parents were home in the middle of the day, during what you’d call 9-5 work hours were myriad.

And yet… based on what I’d passed on my way through that burned out and vacant town, I assumed something else. At least one of them might be out of work.

Out of work. That was a real possibility. Where would they work, anyway? Where are the jobs in that little pocket of the world? Of course, I have no idea what the truth of their lives is. I was just some opinionated asshole passing through town, making assumptions.

Later that evening I wrote some notes in my travel journal about what I’d seen throughout the day. “Poverty isn’t a tourist attraction, and yet I feel as if I cannot tear my eyes away.” I feel this so strongly.

Seeing poverty firsthand leaves me with a sense of helplessness. There is a chaos that stirs inside of me and it’s like I just want to “fix” everything, help everyone, give them a place to work… and I can’t.

I look at my life and my surroundings and become desensitized to them. This place where I live becomes reality. Everyone, everywhere lives in this comfort, right? Wrong. And in the wide arc of my own life from childhood to now, I should know this. But, how quickly we forget when lulled by our own good fortune.

Rhodell, West Virginia
2000 census
The median income for a household in the town was $17,143, and the median income for a family was $19,167. Males had a median income of $17,750 versus $18,750 for females. The per capita income for the town was $7,582.
– Source: Wikipedia