Just a thought, you might want to do a search to see if a book exists for all US post offices, both dead and alive. I know such a book exists for Canada, I just wish I had picked it up years ago when I noticed it in a local used book store.
There is an 8 volume set titled United States Post Offices set up by region by Richard Helbock, published by LaPosta. They are $20 to $25 each but are invaluable. My copies are rather dog eared.
Online you can search by name , state or county at:
https://www.postalhistory.com/Post_Offices/index.htm
FYI, Helbock gleaned all his information concerning post office dates of establishment and discontinuance from records available from the National Archives entitled "Records of Appointments of Postmasters". But this was flawed since many times a Postmaster was appointed before or after a post office was actually established. So do not be surprised if you can find covers postmarked outside the establishment and discontinuance dates that Helbock published.
Alternatively and for the years of 1874 thru 1953 the Post Office published this info in their "United States OFFICIAL POSTAL GUIDES" which were sent to every postmaster. This set is a 'must have' for US postal historians. You can download the complete set on Stamp Smarter here
http://stampsmarter.com/learning/PostalGuideS1.html
These PDfs are fully searchable and the smart thing to do is after downloading them is to build a PDF search index on your computer. Once built (using Adobe Acrobat Reader) you can quickly search every PDF in the folder in seconds. This makes finding town/post office names a breeze.
Don
There must be a slew of dead postoffices..i have a book on the postoffices of Columbia County N.Y. since colonial times and i must have 5 or 6 covers from local dead postoffices without even trying.
Thanks all for all the great tips.
Vic B.
There are a mess of dead post offices! I just track New Jersey where there are currently 2212 known office varieties on my list. I show 755 current offices and branches, leaving 1457 DPOs. So that’s twice the offices in the past than currently.
Back in the day every small community in the US or Canada had it's own post office, most of these are gone now. When I moved to Black Point (near Halifax) in Nova Scotia the post office was next door and run by Flora Lohnes. We used to stand around and talk in the morning, it was like a meeting place every morning. In the mid to late 80's we were presented with super mail boxes! I have one of the original PO signs for Black Point and I have to make sure it goes to the Community Center in nearby Hubbards some time soon. Otherwise it will be sold with my estate and end up in some large area like Ontario or the US where there are so many Black Points that no one will know where it belongs. When the community PO disappeared the number of Post Offices must have gone down drastically!
Agreed Harvey! Back in the day people were less mobile than today so having post offices nearby was important. Also the mails were much more important then, with messages coming to us today from many sources. A penny postcard was the email or text message back then!
In New Jersey I travel through towns that have many sections, each of which had its own post office one time.
Is there a web site that post a list of all the dead-discontinued-closed U S Post offices?
I went to the USPS site, and they want you to type in a month, day ay year for a range.
That is a very slow process, instead of looking up Say the State of Iowa, and having a list A to Z and year of closing.
re: a new day a new question Dead Post Offices U S?
Just a thought, you might want to do a search to see if a book exists for all US post offices, both dead and alive. I know such a book exists for Canada, I just wish I had picked it up years ago when I noticed it in a local used book store.
re: a new day a new question Dead Post Offices U S?
There is an 8 volume set titled United States Post Offices set up by region by Richard Helbock, published by LaPosta. They are $20 to $25 each but are invaluable. My copies are rather dog eared.
Online you can search by name , state or county at:
https://www.postalhistory.com/Post_Offices/index.htm
re: a new day a new question Dead Post Offices U S?
FYI, Helbock gleaned all his information concerning post office dates of establishment and discontinuance from records available from the National Archives entitled "Records of Appointments of Postmasters". But this was flawed since many times a Postmaster was appointed before or after a post office was actually established. So do not be surprised if you can find covers postmarked outside the establishment and discontinuance dates that Helbock published.
Alternatively and for the years of 1874 thru 1953 the Post Office published this info in their "United States OFFICIAL POSTAL GUIDES" which were sent to every postmaster. This set is a 'must have' for US postal historians. You can download the complete set on Stamp Smarter here
http://stampsmarter.com/learning/PostalGuideS1.html
These PDfs are fully searchable and the smart thing to do is after downloading them is to build a PDF search index on your computer. Once built (using Adobe Acrobat Reader) you can quickly search every PDF in the folder in seconds. This makes finding town/post office names a breeze.
Don
re: a new day a new question Dead Post Offices U S?
There must be a slew of dead postoffices..i have a book on the postoffices of Columbia County N.Y. since colonial times and i must have 5 or 6 covers from local dead postoffices without even trying.
re: a new day a new question Dead Post Offices U S?
Thanks all for all the great tips.
Vic B.
re: a new day a new question Dead Post Offices U S?
There are a mess of dead post offices! I just track New Jersey where there are currently 2212 known office varieties on my list. I show 755 current offices and branches, leaving 1457 DPOs. So that’s twice the offices in the past than currently.
re: a new day a new question Dead Post Offices U S?
Back in the day every small community in the US or Canada had it's own post office, most of these are gone now. When I moved to Black Point (near Halifax) in Nova Scotia the post office was next door and run by Flora Lohnes. We used to stand around and talk in the morning, it was like a meeting place every morning. In the mid to late 80's we were presented with super mail boxes! I have one of the original PO signs for Black Point and I have to make sure it goes to the Community Center in nearby Hubbards some time soon. Otherwise it will be sold with my estate and end up in some large area like Ontario or the US where there are so many Black Points that no one will know where it belongs. When the community PO disappeared the number of Post Offices must have gone down drastically!
re: a new day a new question Dead Post Offices U S?
Agreed Harvey! Back in the day people were less mobile than today so having post offices nearby was important. Also the mails were much more important then, with messages coming to us today from many sources. A penny postcard was the email or text message back then!
In New Jersey I travel through towns that have many sections, each of which had its own post office one time.