North America / Pic of the Week / South Carolina / Southeastern USA

“Pic of the Week”, September 4, 2015: Charleston Historic Post Office

02 Charleston Post Office

Charleston is one of America’s most walkable cities, especially the area south of Broad Street.  Compact enough to get around on foot, and with interesting architecture, gardening and history.   I’ve greatly enjoyed both of my visits to this city.

During my last sojourn to Charleston, we stopped by the historic U.S. Post Office and Courthouse, a grand building situated just south of Broad near the corner of Meeting.  It’s one of the oldest post offices in the United States and was completed in 1896 for the then staggering sum of $500,000.  It’s thought that construction of this building lead to a revival of the area that surrounded it, then already well over a century old.  The Historic Post Office is of Renaissance Revival architectural style and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.  

The Post Office and it’s museum are on the first floor of the building (the second story is for the courts).  Our visited focused on the elegant post office, with its beautiful staircase, finely detailed metal-work, and a small but fun museum demonstrating items used in processing the mail over a century ago.  Everything is free and, if you want, you can have a postcard stamped here because it still functions as a post office!

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