History Breezes Through the Open Air Post Office

Now that I’ve retired and have free time, one of the pleasures I most enjoy is finding a comfortable place to sit and watch the comings and goings of other retirees, visitors and those still engaged in the daily grind. Today I’m under a large, old, grand oak that shades the green bench I sit on in Williams Park. From my vantage point, I look diagonally across 1st Avenue North at the southwest corner where it meets 4th Street North and cannot help but notice St. Petersburg’s historic Open Air Post Office. The rich detail and arches of the Mediterranean Revival style building are reminiscent of the designs found in early renaissance Florence, Italy. I have passed this building many times but have never felt the need to explore it further. For some inexplicable reason, today it has tickled my imagination and forced me to wonder how and why someone had decided to build such a thing as an “open air post office”? I have an inquisitive nature (some would call it nosey) and so decided to delve into the history of this iconic building.

In my research I discovered this was not the first open air post office in St. Petersburg. In 1907 its predecessor was being built on the corner of Central Avenue and 4th Street North. Then Postmaster of St. Petersburg, Roy S. Hanna, suggested they leave the front façade off the building so residents would be able to get to their post office boxes day or night to retrieve their mail. When the federal postal authorities found out about it they refused to pay rent on such a design. Feeling the open air feature was best for the city, Hanna stood firm.

A few months later a postmasters’ convention was held here. Five government officials in attendance, including the Postmaster General, endorsed the building as adapting to the needs of a city like St. Petersburg; soon the rent was being paid.

By 1915, our city had outgrown the building and the post office was moved temporarily to the first floor of City Hall then located on 4th Street South. That year congress approved $102,500 to construct a new full-service post office which would suit the city’s needs for years to come.

Initial plans for the post office called for a grand structure built above street level with steps leading up to it but Postmaster Hanna didn’t care for it. He worked on and submitted a street level design with no steps, that was open on all sides, giving patrons 24-hour access to their post office boxes. The design was only open on three sides and maintained the grand historic Mediterranean Revival style. The impressive details feature many terra cotta ornaments based on Renaissance designs, marble columns and a roof covered in Spanish tiles. Work on the new building began on March 2, 1916 when a thousand people witnessed Postmaster Hanna turn over the first shovelful of dirt. The cornerstone was laid on October 12, 1916 and the building was completed and dedicated on September 27, 1917.

In 1969, the south wall and south one-third of the east wall were enclosed to allow for indoor service counters, air conditioning, heating and additional postal boxes; yet the building still manages to preserve the look and feel of the original design. On April 4, 1975 it was added to the National Register of Historic Places.

In the rear of the post office there is tiny postal museum. In 1994, a custodian told then Postmaster Harry W. Scott of plans to discard some boxes filled with junk. When he checked out the boxes, Scott found many items from the early days of the post office. Among the rescued documents now displayed in the museum is postal money order No. 1, purchased by John C. Williams, the founder of St. Petersburg. There is also an old leather mail bag, typewriters, and old postcards showing the historic post office.

It is still a functioning post office and I recommend you visit someday to see it for yourself. That’s the best way to appreciate this picturesque building with its many beautiful architectural details that are just too numerous to mention.