Headsville
Post Office en Route to APS
For
the past thirty-five years, the Headsvillle, West Virginia,
Post Office served as an exhibition and working U.S. Post
Office at the Smithsonian's National
Museum of American History, showcasing its dual role as a country
store and rural mail center. The museum is currently undergoing
a major two-year renovation project and the post office was
closed in late July. The American Philatelic Society proposed
relocating the nineteenth-century West Virginia post office
and general store — which was operated from the early
1860s until 1914 — to the American Philatelic Center
in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania.
Under
the proposed relocation plan, the Headsville Post Office
will find a new home just off an open-air patio in a room
specially constructed to showcase the tiny building, as well
as to preserve it. When visitors enter the store, they will
take a step back in time to the Civil War era and rediscover
the role the postal service played in our nation’s
growth.
Sharp-eyed
stamp collectors should find the building familiar — its
interior was featured on the 1972 8-cent stamp issued to commemorate
the 100th 
anniversary of the Mail Order Industry. Many of the
store’s original fixtures will be on display in its new
location.
The
Headsville Post Office not only will become an attraction
for visitors, it also will be used as a contract postal facility
for the APS.
The
vision of APS is to relocate the post office so that stamp
collectors and the general public can continue to enjoy this
national treasure. Its loan from the National Museum of American
History and its display at the APC is consistent with the
educational mission of the Society and serves as the next
natural step in the evolution of the American Philatelic
Center located in the historic Match Factory complex in Bellefonte,
Pennsylvania.
The
Headsville Post Office Project will be the centerpiece of
the next phase of the Campaign for Philately to raise $10
million over a ten-year period. Up to $350,000 will be utilized
for the project which to the cost of constructing an environmentally
friendly home for the Headsville Post Office that will address
light, humidity, heating issues, as well as the physical
relocation of the 540-square-foot board-and-batten structure
and its furnishings.
"Thanks
to the generosity of our members and their ongoing encouragement,
the renovation of the Match Factory moves forward," said
Peter Mastrangelo, Executive Director of the American Philatelic
Society. "Their support and that of other interested
parties on this next phase will carry an important part of
our hobby and our history from the past to the future." For
more information on the Campaign for Philately or the Headsville
Post Office Project, contact the American Philatelic Society
at 814-933-3803.
To
make a contribution to enhance our future.
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