End of an Era? Main Cleveland Post Office to Close
Cleveland's first post office, currently located at 2400 Orange Avenue, will soon be a page in the history books. Inside sources at the postal facility revealed that workers there were informed today that the facility would be closing down in the near future. Details are forthcoming, and are expected to be revealed later in the week.
The Orange Ave. post office isn't just another post office. It's a revered Cleveland institution, and has been an integral part of not only the U.S. Postal Service's history and development over the centuries, but also the city of Cleveland and Cuyahoga County.
In 2005, the Cleveland post office celebrated its 200 year anniversary. The 1,558th post office in the nation, it opened in October 1804. The postmaster at the time, Elisha Norton, filed the first quarterly report on April 1, 1805 (the date used for bicentennial considerations). The post office moved into its first public home in 1860 at Public Square, and later occupied the area where the Metzenbaum US Courthouse and M.K. Ferguson Plaza are currently located. In 1980, the post office relocated to its present home at 2400 Orange Avenue where it also shares space with the NE Ohio Postal District headquarters.
A Cleveland mail clerk, Joseph Briggs, started the country's first first known free delivery. Prior to delivery, families had to flock to the post office itself to get their mail, waiting in long lines and enduring hard trips. Briggs began the delivery service in 1863, which became so popular that the devoted the rest of his life spreading this idea and practice across the US.
Cleveland's post office also lies claim to the country's first horseless mail carriage, a vehicle built in 1895 by the local Winton Motor Car Co. After cars, there were planes. Delivery by air helped to inspire Cleveland Hopkins International Airport, where Cleveland's postal airmail facility now resides. Cleveland was an important stop in a transcontinental airmail delivery flight spanning New York to San Francisco.
With Cleveland's post office soon to be no more, it's the end of a historic era. It is however, according to our inside sources, something that has been in the works for awhile. The plan has been for a few years now to phase it out in favor of more automated processing. Jobs at the Orange Rd. post office, we have been informed, will be likely transfered to other areas such Akron and Columbus.
Comments
This report is false.
Please remove this report from your website.
The report is false
Cleveland Post office to close.
As a retired postal worker, I know many people who currently work at 2400 Orange Ave. and none has been informed of the facility closing.
what inside sources...whats the big secret??????
Julie who? Please identify yourself and your source. If jobs are going to be affected, please validate the information or stop sending out erroneous information. I am a 40 year postal clerk/ veteran and I have not heard anything about a closing. I have also spoken with the Plant/District manager who have denounced this information.
What should be said is that those who don't come to work are affecting the trully dedicated like myself and my other coworkers. Different subject matter, but I feel that the union is not doing its part in educating the employees on the importance of coming to work. EMPLOYEES NEED TO KNOW THAT IF WE DO NOT MOVE THE MAIL, MANAGEMENT WILL BUY MACHINES TO DO OUR JOBS. SO GET OFF THE PHONE CALLING IN AND COME IN TO WORK!
SINCERELY,
CW
40 YEAR MANUAL CLERK
End of an Era
Ironically you did not accept my post, which indicated the story was not true. Perhaps you did not accept it because I left contact information, which I could not get from your website.
The story is not true; contacting either myself or Dave Van Allen would have saved a lot of people time trying to debunk an obvious untruth.
Victor Dubina
USPS
216.443.4596
Ya know what they say, Where
Ya know what they say, Where always the last to know!!!!. The truth of the matter is Cleveland has alot of employees working hard to get the job done and like any other organization you have workers who for what ever reason will not work, what do ya do?
I have confidence in our union to inform us if in fact there is some truth of this. America is in a bad situation and like other postal facilities where on the front lines. TIME WILL TELL.
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