These eight mailboxes represent the remaining households and businesses in the unincorporated community of Knoke, located in the northwest corner of Calhoun County, Iowa. Knoke was home to a full-time post office through 1963, when it was shuttered in favor of a locally-operated contract branch office; that office operated 25 years before it was discontinued. Knoke is now part of a rural route originating in the nearby community of Fonda.
This incredibly small post office building sits alone on the main street of Beaver, Iowa, a Boone county community home to 53 residents as of the 2000 census. Beaver sits just north of Highway 30 on the western edge of the county. Additional Beaver photos can be found in Luke Healey’s Flickr photostream.
Located on the western edge of Pocahontas County, the community of Varina is home to 90 residents; a highlight of this small city is this September 11 mural, painted on the side of the Post Office building in the center of town.
At first glance, visitors may believe the post office in Rubio is still active: the yard is well-maintained, United States Postal Service logos can be found on both windows, and the official zip code sign is still in place on the south side of the building. In reality, the Postal Service hasn’t operated in this Washington County community since June 1980. The unincorporated community of Rubio lost its zip code and residents now receive mail via nearby Richland’s rural route.
The Lockridge Post Office moved to the kindergarten classroom of the former elementary school building in April 2005, after arson destroyed the former location.
The classroom was added in 1999, three years before the school was closed due to declining enrollment. Final classes were held for grades K-5 on Thursday, May 30, 2002.