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Delphos Post Office 75 years old
DELPHOS — On Nov. 12, 1933, the dedication ceremony for the new Delphos Post Office was held in conjunction with the American Legion convention.
The Delphos Herald printed a rare Sunday edition featuring the day’s activities:
Delphos today has the pleasure and the honor of dedicating a new post office building, one of the finest in Ohio for a city the size of Delphos. It is an occasion which will be long remembered by the citizens of the community as an important event in the history of Delphos.
Among the organizations cooperating may be included the following: Odd Fellows, Rebekas, St. John’s Church, Prythian Sisters, C.L. of C., W.N.A., Kiwanis Club, United Brethren Church, Chamber of Commerce, Lutheran Church, K. of P. Lodge, Presbyterian Church, Boy Scouts, C.D. of A., Tri-County Sportsmen’s and Farmers’ Protective Association, Christian Church, American Legion, Eastern Star and Knights of Columbus.
A committee composed of representatives of these organizations, with J. E. Moots and Harry Woodcock of the Eagles as chairman and secretary has made the arrangements for the dedication.
Immediately following the parade the dedication exercises will take place at St. John’s auditorium or, if the weather is favorable, on a platform in front of the new post office at Main and Second streets.
The program will be broadcast through loud speakers arranged in the business district so that all present will be able to hear all of the speakers.
Following the dedication exercises, the public will be invited to inspect the new post office.
A quartet composed of employees of the Lima Post Office, under the leadership of Harry Fast, former Delphos boy, will furnish vocal music at the dedication exercises and will also sing during the inspection.
The following is a description of the new post office building, from the Nov. 12, 1933 edition of The Delphos Herald:
One of the best means of removing temptation is to make it difficult to commit a wrong act without danger of detection. This is the attitude taken by Uncle Sam in building into the Delphos Post Office observation systems by which workers can be watched without their knowledge. The system also makes it possible to detect the wrongdoer should anything of this kind develop in the office.
Built into the building is a passageway leading from the postal inspector’s room in the basement around the men’s recreation room and lavatories, with ladders leading to a room over the vault. All parts of the general workrooms, the money order room and the rooms used by employees in the basement are visible through narrow openings.
A postal inspector can go to his office in the basement of the building from the lobby and from there can go to the passageways and observation room and watch the men at their work without any persons in the office knowing that he is in the building.
This system is being installed by the government in all its newest buildings.
The heating system in the building is also worthy of comment. It is a steam system, large enough to thoroughly heat the building in the coldest of weather and thoroughly modern. It has been installed in a truly artistic manner, the insulating of the pipes and the system in general being almost a work of art as all who inspect this part of the building will notice.
There are three drinking fountains in the building, one for the public and the other two in parts of the building accessible only to the postal employees. These are supplied with city water cooled with an electric refrigeration system.
The rear part of the basement is used for the heating system, coal storage room and for the post office and its employees. The east portion of the basement includes rooms for civil service, postal inspector, Internal Revenue, etc.
The building itself is of a most pleasing and modern design. It was planned by the architectural firm of Langdon and Hohly of Toledo, and includes some of the latest ideas in government buildings. It is one of the most complete and best-planned post offices in this part of the country, as is attested by government men and others who have inspected it and made comparisons with other buildings of this type.
It was erected by the Hibbard Construction Company of Detroit, and combines with architectural beauty a sturdiness of construction which means for permanence and will eliminate practically all expense for upkeep on the building.
Materials for the construction of the building were supplied to a considerable extent by local firms, common brick by Fred Minzing and Son, various kinds of building materials by Henry Ricker and hardware supplies by the Delphos Hardware Company.
An article written by Mary Beatrice Ricker fictionalizes a conversation with a past Delphos postmaster who related the postal history of Delphos:
Standing there on the corner by the new post office, smoking his pipe, the old settler seemed deep in reverie. His faded blue eyes lost their faraway look and lighted up as I asked him, or rather mused aloud, “Delphos mail service has come a long way, hasn’t it?
“That is strange,” he said, “because I was just thinking that very thing. Do you know that our first mail came to Delphos by way of the Miami and Erie Canal?” he asked me. I hadn’t known, so with a little urging he enlightened me on the progress of mail service in our “city of brotherly love.”
In the early stages of American history the mail was transported by Pony Express, but in the early history of Delphos the mail came in slow-moving canal boats.
In 1847 a tiny frame room, built on the platform of Dock 10 between the galos on the Van Wert County side, served as the first official post office in Delphos.
“We used to go down to the post office and sit around chattin’ about what kind of headway we were making with our homes and business ‘til it was time for the boat to come in. We’d get to speculatin’ who would get a letter and wonderin’ if we’d hear from the folks back in Germany. Occasionally our friends in other settlements would find time to keep in touch with us by writing. There were no postage stamps in those days. The postage was paid either by the sender and parked “paid” or by the receiver when marked “postage due.”
As he talked, I learned that Mr. Clutter was the first postmaster and served for two years. The next six years Mr. Lynn was postmaster.
Then in May 1853, Winchton Risley was appointed to the position and he promptly moved the post office to his home on East Third Street where the electric shop is now situated. When he died the following year, is wife, Mrs. Mary Risley was elected postmistress and held the position for 25 years.
“She was a fine postmistress too,” my informant interrupted himself to add. “She had a good head for business.”
Although it is seldom that women are mentioned in the history of Delphos, it is evident that without their help and encouragement, the city would not have been what it is today.
“It must have been around about 1878 that we build our next post office. It was a frame building which stood on the northeast corner of Main and Third streets. I don’t know just what year it was moved across the street to the northwest corner. As this was a brick building, you can really see that Delphos was progressing rapidly,” he remarked.
When our fifth post office, which was in the Phelan Hotel block was considered inadequate, Congress appropriated a fund, aiding the construction, which was contracted for $55,501.
“And there it is, he murmured. “That structure is certainly an example of progress. Those red buff bricks and the stone trimmings compared to our first little room on the locks. Shall we go in and inspect it?”
The building is 20 feet high from the grade to the top of the stone coping. The roof is built of asphalt with flashings of copper.
“Mr. Theodore Leist, the federal superintendent of construction, told me the style of the building shows a modern trend to eliminate all useless decorations such as cornices,” my newly found friend told me.
He led me up the eight granite steps, through the double doors of glass and bronze, into the spacious lobby. On the extreme north side is the money order room and on the south side is the postmaster’s room. Vaults lead off from these two rooms. The general delivery and parcel post windows face the lobby as do the lock boxes and mail receiving boxes. The wainscot and spaces under the boxes and windows are of Tennessee marble.
We stood awhile, gazing around, noticing the terrazzo floor with marble border and other features. The ceiling height is 10 feet, 6 inches in the lobby and 16 feet in the work space.
As we inspected the place, he asked me to “Notice the woodwork. This is red birch in the postmaster’s room, in the lobby and the offices in the basement. The work space on the first floor and all the rest of the rooms are finished in Arkansas pine.”
The floors in the work space, money order rooms and the postmaster’s room are wood block laid in squares. These blocks are held together with two metal splices on the bottom, and they are then laid on top of the asphalt mastic cement. The floors in the basement are current except in the lavatories and shower rooms, which are terrazzo. The basement walls are of common brick, plastered on the outside with a waterproof cement plaster. The floors are also water proofed. The doors of the fuel and boiler rooms are fire proofed.
Here in the basement are the postal inspector’s office, civil service room and a special office, along with four storage rooms, fuel rooms, boiler room, carriers’ observation rooms, showers and lavatories. The work space is west of the loading platform, which is approached by a noiseless driveway of asphalt blocks. The building is fully equipped and is an example of the progress in post office construction and equipment.
“But with all your speed, accuracy and modern conveniences, I feel sure that we first settlers appreciated our occasional mail, which came in on the canal boat more than you do your daily letters,” he mused.
He left me then with thoughts of canal boats, of fast-moving trains, of mail planes and of transcontinental air mail routes, with a pride for our inventions, yet with an ache for a letter brought on a canal boat.
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