European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - August 2, 1993, Darmstadt, Hesse                                \ Small Tow Post offices Little of America disappears when they close by Ted Anthony the associated press f fourteen houses a modest Baptist Church and an impersonal Bay of Metal Post office boxes Are All that remain of Anthony ., once a thriving logging town along Appalachia s Eastern Edge. The Riverside Sawmill shut Down years ago. The last business the general store closed in 1980. The Post office shut in 1988 and finally zip code 24914 vanished forever in 1991. Quot it was like we were losing something another Little piece of the Community Quot says Donna Cooke Anthony s last postmaster who was transferred six Miles across a Mountain to Frankford. Small Post offices some fun by a single clerk Are being swallowed As people1 move on businesses close and suburbs creep outward. Bits of the nation s past vanish with them. Quot America s history is in the mail our commercial history our social political history. It s All there Quot says Jim Bruns director of the National postal museum in Washington . The . Postal service said it closed 190 Post offices in. 1992,91 in 1991,129 in 1990, and 154 in 1989. Most were in Small towns. West Virginia which lost More people in the 1980s than any other state lost 13 Post offices in 1991, also the most in the country. Many towns Are postmarks no longer Hyssop Ala. Friend Kan. Wonnie by. East Peru Maine Menemsha mass. South Schwoon . Bordulac . And Floe . Most were consolidated into Rural routes or annexed by other Post offices moves the government says make the postal service More efficient and Penn Wise. But Progress can be bittersweet. Quot a postal stamp that says this is my town in Many Crossroads areas that s All that s left Quot says Al Luloff a Rural communities sociologist at Pennsylvania state University. America is becoming less Rural As people move into suburbs and suburbs overrun Farmland. The 1990 census taxed 46.2.percent of americans live in suburbs up from 14 percent in 1930. A Mon and pop stores once the favored location of Post offices can no longer keep Pace with National discount chains built to serve a dozen Small towns. Quot very rarely Are you going to find a Post office in a Wal Mart Quot Luloff says. Quot even if you did 150,000 Square feet does t exactly make for a lot of Community  nevertheless Many people Are trading custom for convenience. In Severance a farming town in the northeastern most Corner of Kansas the government closed the Post office last year. A part time clerk had run it since 1987, when postmaster Doris Rowe retired. A but the termite infested White Frame building used for nearly a Century w As deteriorating so services were moved to nearby Troy Quot the thought i had when we closed was that this same group of people won t get together Ever again Quot Rowe recalls. Now there s no place for the town s 125 or so retirees to congregate nowhere to collect Money and Flowers for townspeople who die she says. Quot that s the one area that is difficult for a Rural route to replace. We can provide All the Concrete services but we can t provide the Community Contact Quot says Janet harness Troy s postmaster. It of a a i h 8 / i am similar feelings abound in Bakerton a onetime Limestone mining town of about 800 people in West Virginia s Eastern Panhandle. Now Bakerton is a series of housing developments and virtually a bedroom Community for Washington . The government wants to close the old Post office located in the general store and merge it with neighbouring harpers ferry s. Residents want otherwise. Quot our Post office gives us a sense of belonging someplace being somebody Quot says Robert e. Allen Leader of a petition drive to keep it. People meet and talk and see each other there. We be had a Post office Here for More than 100 years. We re losing our  in 1901, the government operated 76,945 Post offices the most Ever. The number has declined steadily to fewer than�?~27,000, says Lou Eberhardt a postal service spokesman. Guidelines from 1976 require the government to consider How closing a Post office will affect a Community. Those rules allow towns to Appeal to the postal  it s not some kind of master plan. It s evolution Quot. Eberhardt says. Quot we re the last vestige of Commerce in some of these communities. The Corner grocery store is gone the filling station is.  mail delivery in America began in 1639 when the Massachusetts Bay Colony gave Richard Fairbanks permission to deliver shipboard mail from Boston. By the mid-1700s, new England was filled with Quot Post roads Quot along which couriers carried the mail. In 1775, the Continental Congress appointed Benjamin Franklin the first postmaster general. By 1789, the nation had 75 Post offices and nearly 2,000 Miles of Post roads. Early mapmakers used Post offices As landmarks. Thus Quot no Community could claim to be on the map until it could first claim a Post office Quot says Richard j. Margolis author of at the Crossroads a 1980 postal service publication. Quot it was chiefly the Post office that held Rural americans within the National framework. Connecting the Ever met j r l of Quot it a a i re a # i r t a it a i Lav. It Ltd s v s. V s Quot Quot a the Post office in guardian ., shares a rustic weathered setting with a store built of Wood and cinder blocks. At right High tech sorting equipment is replacing the single clerk with a Row of Letterboxes. Fir i to not receding West to the established populous East Quot Margol j wrote. A postmasters became town confidants and bulletin Boarts. Quot they were one person continuous wire services Quot Luloff says. Last year postmaster general Marvin Runyon j announced a 30,000-employee cutback mostly in midd Vej management the cuts mean retiring Small town i postmasters sometimes Are not replaced. I Quot everybody always thought there would be a Sears Catalon and look what happened to that. The Economy is always changing Quot says Jim Miller president of the notional association of postmasters. Today the postal service has progressed to Eldron c sorting and bar coded envelopes. Cooke the former Anthony postmaster says technology Means customer the same service if not  in Clifton an Ohio River town that lost its Post Ott be in tit november Richard Gilkey laments a disappearance of accurate mail delivery and the town s Only social outlet. His sister in Law like her Mother before her was postmaster and ran the Post office from their Home. Quot everybody says it s for the Best but i wonder who it s for the Best for Quot Gilkey says. A. Congress Miller says is Quot going to have to decide what kind of Price they re going to pay to keep Post offices in Rural . Lugoff says the Rural Post offices Are yet another worthwhile institution that interstate highways and cellular telephones have helped make obsolete. Quot the isolated self sufficient Rural Community of America is gone Quot Luloff says. Quot but there is a Community of he mind that is still very real to Many people. They Don t have anything that s theirs and in some places people ask what s next Quot and there Aren t too Many  v \ if to a s 1 it a Xit lit amp \ x \ the Post office in Sagaponack ., is next to the general store and a meeting place for local residents. . A >70 a cooing Uii w amp i f. Of \ to following is a list of the american towns that closed or consolidated one or All of their Post offices in 1991 and 1992, according to the . Postal service. Is your Hometown or any one nearby on it Alabama Hyssop. Alaska dutch Harbor. Arkansas Chatfield Hanover California Baxter red Mountain Represa class Colorado Chivington hot. Jefferson Boyero Gulnare Townee san Acacio Silver Cliff Texas Creek Connecticut Newfield station Delaware Rhodes Point Georgia Stovall Empire Hawaii Ookala Kealia. Idaho Darlington Waya Illinois Brownfield Meppen Dorchester Colmar Indiana Echols Centerton mount pleasant Marshfield Iowa Highlandville Honey Creek Montpelier mount Etna Saratoga Carnarvon Northboro Green Island Kansas Lafontaine Scottsville Huron Severance Delavan Belmont Langdon Susank Densmore Menlo Alamota Bloom Friend Modoc Pierceville. Kentucky Anao burning Fork Ford Clen Dean Cage Hagar Lytten Malone on Stark Wonnie Deatsville Sample West Bend Pine Crove Chevrolet Bailey switch Eriline Salt cum Spurlock Johns run Lawton Newfoundland upper Tygart Pebworth Vada Wolf Coal Bethanna. Foraker Fritz Hendricks Wheelersburg Manton Depoy Blackford Alcalde Ritner Louisiana station a Frogmore Goudeau Larto Lemoyen Hebert flicks Leander Maine East Peru Emerey Mills Whitefield North Amity Sebec West Sullivan Pemaquid Maryland Unionville Harmans Massachusetts Berlin Bree Bush East Princeton Minot Menemsha Potter place Michigan Gay Minnesota Trosky Wilder St. Paul Togo Cranger Oakland Amiret Florence Kanaranzi Svea,.buckman, Little Sauk Angus a Mississippi i Lar Riston Missouri Arab new Wells Poyner Bigelow Courtois Souder. Montana Utica Lothair Shonkin Lloyd Nebraska Liberty Steinauer Belgrade Mclean masked Verdel Lebanon Elsmere Willow Island new Hampshire Jaffrey Center new Jersey Townsend Inlet eclair Branch new Mexico Broadview Bard new York Cicero Harford Mills Holmesville South Schwoon Woodville Oliverea Mottville Otselic Owasco Northwestern. North Carolina Unaka Salem station North Dakota Bordulac Cummings Fillmore Landa Johnston Joliette Nash Guelph Nortonville Hon scr. Battleview Alkabo Ohio Fairview Kipling Adams Mills new Lyme Flar Lem Springs Carrothers Carbondale Rinard Mills a Oklahoma Boulevard Pontotoc Vernon Oregon Mikkalo. Pennsylvania Parde Essihe Teays Landing South Carolina Bucksport mount Flolly Shulerville Canadys Poston Cherokee Falls South Dakota Dolton Forestburg Albee Dempster Farmer Athol Tennessee Hickory withe Montville Elbridge Belen Skene a. Texas Carta Valley Geneva Kirvin Long Mott Boston Antelope red Springs Duffus Katemcy Albert Cypress Hill Dryden boys ranch. Utah Greenville Dingle Stone King kill Placerville Beryl Virginia Blakes Miles Plain View Shadow state farm Weirwood Union level Exeter Foster Falls Washington Mcmillan West Virginia Anthony Coaldale Curtin Floe Ceni Leet Mcconnell Mill Point Patterson Runa Vadis Willow Island Wixx Yville Filbert i rout Bandytown Fola Myrtle Dothan Green Subj Hur Wisconsin Alvin Kew Enaw Bay Wood Astico 2at How Wyoming Bosler Canyon Grants Iron Mountain Jelm Lake old faithful Fox Park Weston. A the associated press the stars and stripes monday August 1, 1993 the stars Ano stripes