POST MARK COLLECTORS CLUB - POST OFFICE PHOTOGRAPH COLLECTION

Post Office: Philadelphia, PA 19104 (Philadelphia County)
Date of Photo: circa 1910
Contributor: Paul E. Petosky, Postmarks from the Past
Comment: Photo shows the Philadelphia Post Office located on the corner of Market and 9th Streets that extended along 9th Street to Chestnut St. It was built of pressed granite, four stories high and surmounted by a dome reaching 170 feet above the pavement. Total cost $8,000,000. Notes in the files of the USPS Historian indicate a post office operated at Philadelphia as early as 1683 under the British. The Philadelphia Post Office also is mentioned in Hugh Finlay's Journal of November 1773 and Benjamin Franklin's Ledger in 1776. Franklin, a former Philadelphia postmaster, became the first Postmaster General for the United States on July 26, 1775, under the Second Continental Congress. The first Philadelphia postmaster to appear in postal records is James Bryson, who submitted a financial account for the post office as early as 1782. His appointment date is not available.


Post Office: Philadelphia, PA 19104 (Philadelphia County)
Date of Photo: circa 1935
Contributor: Paul E. Petosky, Postmarks from the Past
Comments: The new General Post Office (pictured) was dedicated on May 25, 1935, and is the second largest post office in the United States. The real front is on the Schuylkill River and has no entrances. It is the only building in the country that can be reached by airplane, boat, automobile and train.