On Friday, September 29, 2008, the U.S. Postal Service placed the Bristow Post Office on emergency suspension. The Butler County community home to 202 residents received Wednesday that week after the postmaster moved to another job and a “lack of qualified and available personnel” could fill the vacancy. Residents had the option of erecting a rural mailbox in front of their homes or picking up mail from metal “cluster boxes” that were placed outside of the Bristow Community Center, which previously shared the building with the now-closed post office.
Service was originally established in Bristow on July 29, 1857 under the name Boylan’s Grove. The Bristow name was assigned May 16, 1876; the post office was officially discontinued in March 2010.
This small post office is open four hours daily to serve the 214 residents of the Wapello County town of Kirkville. Postal service was established in Kirkville, which was named after founder John Kirkpatrick, in September 1849. The community was officially incorporated in December 1883.
The Cherokee County community of Washta was first home to a post office location in May 1868 and was formally incorporated twenty-two years later when railroad service was established. The Washta Post Office facilities are located within the former Farmer’s State Bank building, which was rebuilt in 1918 following a devastating fire that destroyed many of the businesses along the community’s main street.
Washta’s welcome sign celebrates it is the “Coldest Spot in Iowa,” to recognize the -47 degree temperature that was recorded in the town on January 12, 1912. Washta is home to 282 residents.
A large crowd gathered outside the new Hawarden Post Office building for its official dedication on Saturday, February 22, 1941, celebrating the facility as a “milestone in the city’s progress.” The event started with a flag raising ceremony presented by the American Legion followed by the high school band’s performance of “The Star Spangled Banner.” Other musical numbers were played, and the Hawarden Post Office employees were each introduced, along with the city mayor, Chamber of Commerce president, and the guest speaker, John Sparks, a post office inspector from Sioux City.
Sparks spoke on the topic, “The History of the World’s Postal Service,” tracing the early development of postal services in other nations and then the United States. He outlined the post office history in Hawarden, where a location was first established December 13, 1882, and the ceremony closed with a prayer from the reverend at the local Baptist Church. The Hawarden Independent noted one “casualty” at the end of the day: “A small boy attempted to chin himself to the towel bar in the bathroom of the post office, pulled loose the bar and fell. The lad was not hurt.”
In September 1937, the Adams County Free Press reported Corning was one of nine towns in the state to receive funds for a new Post Office building as part of a “seventy million dollar emergency construction fund authorized by Congress” as part of the Works Project Administration. Postmaster A. C. Peterson received information from the United States Treasury on how to proceed in plans for the Post Office, which would be opened for bidding October 4 that year.
The contract was awarded to the Church Company in Kansas City, and construction on the $75,000 building began in early 1938. Prior to its opening, a Free Press reporter highlighted key interior features in the new building, including Tennessee granite in the lobby, red birch woodwork, service windows titled in gold leaf outlined in black, and bronze lighting fixtures. The new Corning Post Office was officially dedicated June 15, 1938.
Featuring a new Iowa photo each weekday; dedicated to discovering and documenting the best of small-town Iowa.
