Posted 1:11 am Monday, December 27, 2010
Downtown Tyler Post Office Had Long, Varied History
By CASEY MURPHY
Business Editor
Tyler has had a U.S. Post Office downtown for 124 years -- until last month.
Business Editor
Tyler has had a U.S. Post Office downtown for 124 years -- until last month.
From 1886 to 1985, it was on the corner of West Ferguson Street and North Bois D'Arc Avenue, before moving two blocks to Erwin Street in 1985.
The downtown locations offered an easy walk for the many who live and work around and near the square. But on Nov. 19, the downtown station closed its doors, consolidating its services and transferring the friendly longtime workers there a few miles north to the Main Post Office on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.
Although it is gone for good, and downtown customers once spoiled by the easy walk now will have to get in their cars to conduct their postal business, the U.S. Postal Service always will have a rich history in the heart of Tyler.
In 1886, the U.S. government purchased the property of Capt. Franklin N. Gary, at 221 W. Ferguson St., and built the federal courthouse and post office building, now named the William M. Steger Federal Building and United States Courthouse.
The first post office-courthouse was a two-story brick structure, which had the postal facility on the first floor and the court and federal offices on the second floor. A wing was added to the building around 1933.
The Texas Railroad News and Illustrator, a railroad publication, commented in its first issue in July 1896 that the Tyler Federal Courthouse and Post Office cost $75,000 to construct, and it was "one of the places to see for out of town visitors," according to a 1976
Tyler Morning Telegraph report.
While records indicate that the facility was the site of the first federal courthouse, it wasn't Tyler's first post office in the city, which was also located downtown. The first post office was in a little frame building on South Broadway Avenue, on the east side of the street between Erwin and Elm streets. After that building burned down, the post office moved to another building just north of the post office-courthouse building, newspaper reports show.
While records indicate that the facility was the site of the first federal courthouse, it wasn't Tyler's first post office in the city, which was also located downtown. The first post office was in a little frame building on South Broadway Avenue, on the east side of the street between Erwin and Elm streets. After that building burned down, the post office moved to another building just north of the post office-courthouse building, newspaper reports show.
The two-story brick facility was replaced with the three-story Post Office and Federal Courthouse. The 1976 article also boasted plans for the new future Federal Courthouse next to the federal building. The new masonry building, with three-stories and a penthouse offering 47,700 square feet of floor space, cost about $2 million and was completed in 1976.
"It will complement the existing federal building in similar, but more modern design," an April 24, 1974,
Tyler
Morning Telegraph article reported.
The two buildings have two separate entrances but are connected.
Morning Telegraph article reported.
The two buildings have two separate entrances but are connected.
FORCED TO VACATE
The post office was forced to vacate the federal building when the U.S. General Services Administration decided to convert part of the first floor into a courtroom, chambers and offices for U.S. District Judge Robert E. Parker, who transferred to Tyler from Marshall.
The post office was forced to vacate the federal building when the U.S. General Services Administration decided to convert part of the first floor into a courtroom, chambers and offices for U.S. District Judge Robert E. Parker, who transferred to Tyler from Marshall.
In 1984, Jack Johns, who served as the Tyler postmaster at the time, announced that they would have to vacate the federal building but were looking to relocate downtown.
In December 1985, the new downtown post office opened at 202. W. Erwin St.
According to newspaper reports, it was "designed to be space-efficient and practical." The 5,700-square-foot post office was on the first floor of what was then called the InterFirst Plaza Building South, on the corner of Erwin Street and College Avenue.
"I think people will like the aesthetics," Johns said while standing in the new black-tiled lobby with its "shining new coat of yellow paint," according to the
Tyler
Morning Telegraph.
The new post office boasted four teller stations and 1,500 post office boxes, parcel post lockers, mail deposit slots and postal vending machines in a separate section connected by glass doors and open 24 hours a day. New efficient equipment installed in the post office included motion triggering lights for "energy conservation."
Morning Telegraph.
The new post office boasted four teller stations and 1,500 post office boxes, parcel post lockers, mail deposit slots and postal vending machines in a separate section connected by glass doors and open 24 hours a day. New efficient equipment installed in the post office included motion triggering lights for "energy conservation."
"Johns said they decided to keep the new post of
fice downtown in order to continue to serve the business customers located in office buildings around the square," according to a newspaper article.
The Postal Service at the time had a 10-year lease on the space with four- to five-year lease renewal options, Johns said at the time. "We're looking at being able to serve out of this location for up to 30 years," he said.
Parking was a problem with the new location until the parking garage was renovated nextdoor and short-term parking meters were added out front, reports state. "But the majority of our customers are downtown customers and walk," Johns said.
The day the post office opened on Erwin Street, Sue Hester commented on the change while dropping off some mail. She said she liked the "modern appearance" of the new station.
Fifty people were polled by the
Tyler
Morning Telegraph for their opinions on the move of the post office to Erwin Street from Ferguson Street, and some of their comments ran in a story on July 27, 1985.
Tyler
Morning Telegraph for their opinions on the move of the post office to Erwin Street from Ferguson Street, and some of their comments ran in a story on July 27, 1985.
W.M. McCoy, who worked at Moore Asphalt, said, "If parking facilities are adequate, it's fine. I don't know if it's adequate. It's probably better. We won't have to fight the federal court for parking. They don't have to pay their tickets, so they'll just stay there all day."
Clay Meadows, First City Bank: "I think they ought to leave it here (at the present site). This building was built for a post office. The federal judges are just showing too much authority. They should look for the new offices."
Jane Ivy, Windsor Interstate, said, "There'll be no parking -- less than there is now. Now I'll have to walk from the office. I'm unhappy about it. If you have to walk, that's quite a distance in bad weather."
Mrs. Robin H. Brians Sr., housewife: "We'll just get as much parking as we do now. Here, the Baptists get it all. Of course, I have a handicapped sticker on my car, so I can just about always get a parking spot."
Most Tylerites were unhappy about the recent closure of the downtown post office because they now will have to travel to the Main Post Office on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard or to the Azalea Station on South Broadway Avenue to conduct their postal business. Many who had postal boxes downtown also now will require hand-delivered mail to their offices for convenience.
It still is eerie to walk by the old location on Erwin Street and know that the doors of the post office are closed forever. Its convenient downtown location surely will be missed.
