If you haven’t yet sent out your holiday cards, you may want to put this issue down – and of course, pick it up again later – and get everything in the mail. A rule of thumb is to mail your cards out in the first week of December if you want them to arrive before the 25th. While rushing to mail out holiday cards and gifts, have you ever stopped to think about what the post in Pickerington was like decades ago?
Courtesy of Pickerington - Violet Township Historical Society
Pickerington Post Office (1921)
P.B. Mason's Meat Market, 1921.
The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) has had its home base all over Pickerington before landing on Hill Road. In the 19th century, postmasters were influential figures – especially in small towns – who were chosen by the USPS based on applications for location and personnel changes.
Between 1831 and 1934, 19 Pickerington citizens served as the local postmaster and operated out of their respective businesses. Pickerington’s postmasters ranged from Jesse Hager, a tavern owner/cobbler, to Erasmus Kraner, the store owner featured in last issue’s edition of “Then and Now.”
Courtesy of Pickerington - Violet Township Historical Society
Pickerington Post Office 1950
Ray Richter, husband of postmistress Cleo Richter, at the post office in 1950.
The building at 21 E. Columbus St. was first constructed in 1914, and Phillip B. Mason, whose wife and daughter Cleo are pictured out front in 1921, utilized the building as a home and Mason’s Meat Market.
Benjamin Franklin was named the USPS’s first postmaster general in 1775, when mail was primarily transported on horseback before stagecoaches came into the picture towards the end of the century. The USPS first used an electric automobile to deliver letters in 1899 – yes, an electric car in the 19th century – and immediately recognized the impact cars and trucks could have. By 1933 only 2 percent of urban deliveries were horse-drawn.
This happened just in time for Pickerington’s post office to move into 21 E. Columbus St., where USPS’s local operations ran from 1934-1967, after Mason was named the local postmaster. Mason passed away in 1940 and daughter Cleo took over as postmistress.
In 1967, the delivery hub moved up the road to 51 E. Columbus St. to a building that has since become home to the city’s building department. On Sunday, Oct. 1, 1967, the city hosted a parade through the
Courtesy of Pickerington - Violet Township Historical Society
Pickerington Post Office (1988)
Pickerington's current post office while under contruction in 1988.
village that ended with a reception at the new office.
In 1988, the post office moved to its current location on Hill Road, where our faithful mail carriers have plenty of space to store their trucks and shuttle your gifts and cards in and out this holiday season.
Tyler Kirkendall is an editor at CityScene Media Group. Feedback welcome at tkirkendall@cityscenemediagroup.com.
