Back in 2020, when I first had this idea to do these abstract urbanist photo essays, I wrote an appreciation of the Post Office:

The Post Office is a frequent punching bag for pundits of varied political persuasions and for ordinary customers too: it cuts crony deals, it bankrupts itself, it’s too expensive, it’s too cheap, the workers are too lazy, it subsidizes far-flung low-density living arrangements, it’s a dinosaur from a vanished age of centralization and bigness. Critiques flow in from libertarians, finance hawks, consumer advocates, environmentalists. One wag cautions against privatization of the Post Office like so: its “ongoing existence as a government-operated monopoly is a constant reminder to the electorate of the impressive incompetence that is government itself.”…

The aesthetics of the average postal branch probably haven’t helped. The local post office I grew up with looks exactly the same as it did 20 years ago, as do innumerable others across America: muted businesslike greys and blues, plain tile floors, angular, trapezoidal formica counters with built-in trash cans (a little particle board peeking out under chips), front desks with grimy rubberized edges, a “menu” of services backlit with flickering fluorescents that almost makes me want to be a wise guy and order a Big Mac, but with the expectation that Big Macs are sold out. Many more remote branches did not even get that decor package. As best I can tell, there have been no new, system-wide decor upgrades in the last quarter-century. The Post Office can feel like a Soviet simulacrum of a business: its ancient, slowly failing trucks can resemble Cuban cars if you squint, and it even has five-year plans!

But from that mixed opening, I went on to argue that the Post Office is one of the few apolitical, civic things we have left that we all share, that serves everybody everywhere in the country, that hasn’t been reduced to a political token or a gutted, diminished shadow of a private enterprise. It’s just there, and it mostly works, and it’s for everybody.

Post Office architecture is interesting, and probably more varied than the locations of most chains or institutions, like, say, McDonald’s or the Catholic Church or Dollar General. Branches can be in strip plazas or city blocks, or they can be standalone structures. They can be massive or tiny, modern or classic, no-frills or grand. There’s a common set of products and services, and a mostly shared interior décor and design package, but quite a lot of uniqueness.

Following this civic appreciation piece, I had planned to round up a bunch of small post offices from my road-trip travels and write a follow-up sharing them. Because of the pandemic, I ended up doing far less of that than I wanted to, but over the years now I’ve accumulated a bunch. I’m going to share them here, and may do another photo roundup later on.

A little side-note: it’s so satisfying to think back to three years ago or more and realize that I’m doing now what I imagined doing then. Especially to go back and pick up where I left off—to put some broken continuity back together. The other week I went to a Chinese buffet in Warrenton, an old town in Virginia 45 minutes west of my home. I remember looking at this buffet one late night in February 2020, feeling very hungry, thinking I’d like to explore old-town Warrenton and then go eat there. And finally, I did. It’s the little things.

But here are some of my favorite small-town post offices!

Stanton, New Jersey

Dickerson, Maryland

Millwood, Virginia

Toms Brook, Virginia

Calverton, Virginia

Clifton, Virginia

Broad Run, Virginia

I’m ending with this one because of its interesting location—it sits right about at the western edge of the suburban/exurban expansion, and it’s on a local road that runs, at that point, right alongside I-66, so I see it every time I drive out west. Every time we pass it I say, “We’re in the country now.” No more subdivisions, big-box stores, strip plazas. For now, that holds.

I haven’t actually gotten the picture because it’s always been out of the way to get off the highway, so here it is from Google Earth:

And here’s to more little post offices and country and small-town road-trips!

Related Reading:

Not-Pennsylvania Amish Country

Nothing But the Chimney

Mail Day

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