Wednesday, March 25, 2009

The Not-So-New Post Office


This is the end of the counter in the not-so-new post office. It is not-so-new because everything in it was removed, piece by piece, from its former location in the corner of the bookstore. At one time it had been a part of the Holden Store and miners and their families could shop for necessities, check on their mail, and visit...all in one place.

The bookstore itself is currently in the process of a major renovation. During this week, a work group from Pacific Lutheran College in Tacoma is working there to prepare the space for the vicarious pleasures of shopping at Holden...a favorite place for everyone to leave behind some major bucks if they are not careful, discriminating, and iron-willed. The new and improved bookstore should be ready in time to welcome our summer guests.

This framed document, rescued from the wall before post office reconstruction began, now hangs in the not-so-new post office. It is an authorization for Alvin G. Holzhauser to become the Postmaster at Holden. It is dated February 4, 1941 and is signed by Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Here is a close-up of Roosevelt's signature. Holden is very proud to be in possession of the original document after all these years.

Before work began with the crowbars and the hammers, Stephanie Carpenter, the manager of the Holden Bookstore, and Bill Somerville, a volunteer, take down the sign indicating the corner of the store's space is a post office.

Behind the counter, David Chiles begins the work necessary to separating the counter from the place where it has stood for so many years.

Bill and David ponder how best to remove the back counter in the space. The original Holden mail boxes hang on the wall to their left. Those boxes would also become a part of the not-so-new post office. (Nothing was thrown away. It was moved intact, or in pieces, and reinstalled in a different space.)

The back counter is moved to its new location.

This is a photograph of the inside of the Holden Store during the days the mine was in operation. The back corner is the former location of the post office.

1 comment:

Debbie said...

what a great history lesson! You know my Teddy is related Franklin!