Judging from the cars pictured on this post card, the “outdoor” post office at First Avenue North and Fourth
Street in the heart of downtown St. Petersburg has been a popular gathering place since the early 1940s.
SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2017 | TAMPA BAY MAGAZINE 141
One of the post cards I received prompted
me to reverse the usual “Ask Margaret”
process and pose my own question to you.
Did you know that the city of St. Petersburg
had the first and only open-air post office in
our country?
M.W.B., Dunedin
Between 1876 and 1885, St. Petersburg’s original Pinellas
Village or Big Bayou post office was the only one in lower
Pinellas. It was in a tiny wooden Cracker-style cottage, which
was home to Sarah and John Bethell and their daughter Mary.
The family members operated the post office there, except for
briefly in 1895, until it closed in 1907.
St. Petersburg’s new open-air post office, the first of its kind
in the United States, was built that same year. The new post
office, designed in 1905 by local philanthropist Ed Tomlinson,
was described at the time as being “sheltered only by a roof.”
That unique post office was replaced with another openair
structure. However, the new post office was a much
larger, grander Mediterranean Revival masonry edition of its
predecessor. Although many post offices of that time were
enclosed, raised and reached by an expanse of steps, then
Postmaster Roy S. Hanna preferred the earlier open style, so
that its patrons could post mail and access their postal boxes at
all hours. He sketched out his plans and even obtained $107,500
from Congress to finance it. Hanna’s ideas were drawn up
by Scottish architect George Stewart, who had relocated to
St. Petersburg, where he designed several impressive homes and
landmark buildings, including the St. Petersburg Yacht Club.
In keeping with then Mayor Al Lang’s efforts to beautify the
city, the new Italian Renaissance-inspired post office featured
elaborately ornamented archways, marble columns, a Spanish
tile roof, a colorful glazed terra cotta frieze, gargoyles and even
an American eagle image.
The new post office, operated by Postmaster William
L. Straub until 1923, was built in the heart of downtown
St. Petersburg at the southwest corner of First Avenue North
and Fourth Street, where the First Congregational Church had
been for 27 years. The landmark post office was updated in
1969, when its south side and a third of its east side’s southern
portion were enclosed. This made it possible to add heating
and air conditioning, plus additional boxes. The improvements
protected postal workers and their customers from inclement
weather.
In 1975, St. Petersburg’s post office was added to the
National Register of Historic Places. It remains one of the city’s
striking unique treasures, where you can still mail and receive
postcards. 9
EDITOR’S NOTE: If you have any questions about the people,
places or things in the Tampa Bay area, please send them to “Ask
Margaret” at Tampa Bay Magazine, 2531 Landmark Drive, Suite
101, Clearwater, Florida 33761. We regret that not all questions can
be answered.