Tales of the Kingstree Post Office, pt. 2

In the early 1890s, Charlotte McCrea Chandler ran the Kingstree post office from a building on Academy Street. I have not yet been able to determine the exact location of this building, but it was a no-frills operation; there were no lock boxes, and everyone had to call at the window for their mail. In 1897, she did begin keeping the post office open in the evenings until after the last mail train arrived so that businessmen could pick up their mail in advance of the next work day. She also became quite ill in 1897, and 14-year-old Dessie Gilland spent some time as the acting postmaster until Mrs. Chandler was able to resume her duties.

The two stores Louis Jacobs built in 1907 as they looked during the latter part

of the 20th Century. The post office would have occupied the Sears building.

Photo Source: SC Archives & History

When Louis Jacobs took over as postmaster on April 1, 1898, he moved the post office to a store he owned, also on Academy Street. With his daughter, Etta, as his assistant, he brought in all new equipment, including oak lock boxes. He also installed both a general delivery and a money order window. The general delivery window was open 12 hours a day, and the building itself remained open 24 hours a day to allow patrons access to their lock boxes. 

In 1901, when President William McKinley was assassinated, Mr. Jacobs placed the slain President's photo in the post office draped in black mourning cloth. Also in 1901, Jacobs renovated the post office by adding a cabinet of 18 more lock boxes. Initially he had installed 15 boxes and then soon after added nine more, but by 1901, there was a great need for even more boxes. The 18 new boxes had already been rented before installation. In addition to the 42 lock boxes, there were 45 call boxes which required people to go to the window to get their mail. 

Late in 1901, the Kingstree Telephone Company made plans to put the central office/switchboard in the rear of the post office. Louis Jacobs was also named general manager of the telephone company as he would be present to oversee both the daily operations of the post office and the phone company. The phone company remained in the back of the post office until it moved across the street to the second floor of Scott's Drug Store in 1903.

It could be argued that Kingstree's first public school was born in the post office on Academy Street. In 1902, Mayor John A. Kelley and Dr. D.C. Scott began spending evenings with Mr. Jacobs at the post office. During these informal get-togethers, the three of them came up with a plan for Kingstree to get a new school building that would house a public school.

The stores Mr. Jacobs built in 1907 as they look today.

A few years later, in 1907, Mr. Jacobs temporarily moved the post office a few doors up Academy Street to the furniture department of Kingstree Hardware so that he could tear down the post office building and replace it with a new brick building. For the new building, he bought fixtures from the Georgetown Post Office, which included 400 lockboxes. Box rent was reduced in an effort to increase the number of box rentals. By mid-July, 1907, the post office was up and running in its new building.

In 1912, the federal government required post offices to close from midnight Saturday until midnight Sunday. This included locking the front door so that patrons who had rented lock boxes would be prohibited from picking up mail during those 24 hours.

Louis Stackley succeeded Louis Jacobs as postmaster on June 16, 1913. Stackley leased the building from Jacobs and continued to operate the post office there throughout his tenure as postmaster. He was succeeded by Fore J. Watson, who in 1932 secured the old Wee Nee Bank building on the corner of Main and Academy for a more modern post office.

The Wee Nee Bank building served as the Kingstree Post Office from 1932-1938.

On the evening of March 31, 1932, the post office moved into the old bank building. It had been specially renovated to house the post office. All mail boxes had combination locks, and according to news reports, many citizens visited the post office for several days before its official opening to practice using their new combinations. The floor was tiled, and the building boasted large plate glass windows on its two open sides. Newspapers noted that adequate lighting had been installed, with writing desks and other fixtures placed throughout the building.

The Kingstree Post Office on Mill Street.

Late in 1937, the US Treasury Department began receiving bids for the construction of a new post office at Kingstree, and on December 6, 1937, awarded the contract at a cost of $42,161. The new building, on the corner of Mill and Jackson streets, was dedicated on July 27, 1938, in ceremonies on the grounds of the Williamsburg County Courthouse. More than 1,000 people attended the dedication, where J.Austin Latimer, special assistant to the Postmaster General of the United States, was the principal speaker. Kingstree Postmaster Watson served as Master of Ceremonies, with music provided by the Kingstree High School Band under the direction of Hal Middleton and the Williamsburg Choral Society. At the dedication, Salters postmaster Julius G. Lifrage, who was in attendance, was recognized for his 59 years of service as the postmaster at Salters. He was believed to be the longest serving postmaster in the United States at that time.

The mural, "Rice Growing," by Arnold Friedman was installed in 1939.

Artist Arnold Friedman at work. The mural in the Kingstree Post Office is his best known piece.

Photo Source: Wikipedia

In 1939, Arnold Friedman (1879-1946) was commissioned to paint a mural for the Kingstree Post Office as part of the New Deal Post Office mural project. The resulting "Rice Growing" is Friedman's most well-known work. The mural is one of 13 such murals painted for post offices throughout South Carolina, Altogether, approximately 1,400 murals were placed in post offices throughout the United States as part of the program. In 2006, Kirsten Olds edited a book titled Arnold Friedman: The Language of Paint about Friedman's work. Author and scholar William Agee penned an essay about Friedman and his work for inclusion in the book.

The Kingstree Post Office was expanded in 1983 in order to add more post office boxes.

Coming Up: The Great 1904 Kingstree Post Office heist.