History with ‘Hud’: Downtown Post Office continuing to provide service after more than a century

September 5, 2024

Matthew Huddleston,

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — As long as communities have dotted the countryside of America, people have been sending letters and packages from town to town. Although no organized service existed when the first people arrived from Europe, British Parliament passed an act in 1710 for the management of a postal system in the colonies.

But it wasn’t until much later that century when unofficial post-office-style buildings began popping up.

By 1789, North Carolina had four post offices, including one in Wilmington. Exactly 100 years later, a more permanent structure began being built in 1889 and was completed in 1892 at the corner of Front Street and Chestnut Street. When it opened its doors for business, stamps were just two cents apiece (compared to 73 cents today).

Mail was initially transported around by wagons and trains until the turn of the century, when North Carolina’s first airmail was carried from Wilmington in 1912. Regular airmail service began in 1928 as part of a route from New York to Miami.

The original Brownstone Post Office building was torn down in 1936 to make room for the current building completed in 1937. The construction provided work to people during the ending years of the Great Depression when unemployment had reached around 25 percent.

During World War II, the Post Office began to track more than just packages and letters.

Shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor, many women from Wilmington responded to a call for filter center volunteers. They played a key role in defending the East Coast of the United States. When any plane flew overhead, they worked in the Post Office’s basement with male dispatchers to determine the aircraft’s origin, destination, and “intentions.”

Once the war ended, the building was returned to its original purpose of transporting mail and has continued to provide timely postal service in the more than seven decades since.