South Carolina Post Offices

Back in 2004 I discovered a place on the web that was trying to collect a photo of every post office in the U.S. This sounded a lot like Don Quixote’s quest and that made it right up my alley. After 3 months and around 3 dozen photos we dropped the whole thing because none of the photos I submitted were added to The Postal Gallery Database. I guess they lost interest because the last update was in February 2004.¹

Then a chance encounter with a PO at the end of 2006 sparked our interest again. Even if it was a lost cause for the Postal Gallery Database folks, it was a perfect excuse for Donna and I to do something together we both like, drive around back roads and take photos. In 2007 we photographed 310 of the 454 South Carolina Post Offices, most of the remaining 100 were done in 2008 with the last few photographed in early 2009.

« back to album

Catawba to Cross Hill

**Catawba - 29704 -** Your choice of any prize on the top row for the person that can tell me how to pronounce the name of this town. (12/02/07)

**Cayce - 29033 -** [Parkland] The sign on the street outside this shopping center said there was a CPU in it, but we couldn't find a sign on any business, so I parked in front of these two blue boxes and called it done. (6/24/2007)

**Central - 29630 -** The LEO we passed on the way into town, showed up and circled the lot behind this Post Office as I sat in the middle of the parking are with my camera on the tripod. I fully expected him to visit and ask what I was doing, but he didn't. (09/22/07)

**Chapin - 29036 -** This town is about 15 miles from downtown Columbia on I-26 and is probably a bedroom community for the capital city. It was in a busy section of town and the traffic in the parking lot was fast and furious at 11:30 on a Saturday morning. (02/24/07)

**Chappells - 29037 -** There wasn't any "real" parking in front of this PO, but it was after it closed for the day so Rudy and I made ourselves at right at home. (02/17/2007)

**Charleston - 29401 -** Now we are talking, this is a seriously imposing Federal Government building, somewhere inside John Dillinger's wanted poster is still hanging. (02/07/09)

**Charleston - 29403 -** [East Bay] After not finding the Citadel PO in the dark, this downtown Post Office in the dawn's light was a piece of cake. (02/07/09)

**Charleston - 29407-4782 -** [Ashley River] Friday afternoon and the shopping center is busy, so in the interest of expediency I parked way out. (02/06/09)

**Charleston - 29407-6706 -** [Saint Andrews] In my first shot the Emperor was in the spot all the way to the left of those three parked cars. Unacceptable, so I circled the lot and parked illegally. (02/06/09)

**Charleston - 29409 -** [Citadel Campus CPU] Our second attempt to find this Post Office was easy, all I had to do was ask the nice Cadet at the gate where it was. (02/07/09)

**Charleston - 29412 -** [James Island] Because this was a Friday afternoon almost every place we went to was fairly busy, this one was no exception.(02/06/09)

**Charleston - 29414 -** [Savannah Highway CPU] The gray minivan next to us turned into this strip shopping center in front of us and was moving so slow I zigged and zagged rows to get around them. My route was longer, but I could see and wouldn't you know it, they pulled in right after I stopped. I got out spent maybe 5 minutes trying to get a decent photo (as you can see, I didn't succeed) and all the while the woman sat there. Only as I started to back out did she open the door to retrieve her toddler through the sliding door. (02/06/09)

**Cheraw - 29520 -** On the first pass I didn't think you could park right in front, so I turned right and let Donna out while I did a circuit of the block. When I parked I saw that you could legally get right in front, so instead of rushing, I leisurely walked across the street and took a picture. (07/15/07)

**Chesnee - 29323 -** I took the standard straight on photo, but when I moved to take a second shot I noticed the Post Office's reflection in the empty store front across the street. So not only do you get a Post Office photo, but as an added bonus you get a self portrait of the photographer. (09/03/07)

**Chester - 29706 -** Chester has a really cool looking downtown, but it would have been nice had there been at least a 50% occupancy rate for the buildings. There wasn't any good way to park in the PO's lot and get a good shot, so I parked on the sidewalk across the street (it was an empty lot.) (11/11/07)

**Chesterfield - 29709 -** An older brick building on the end of Main St. There really weren't any marked spots out front, but the curb wasn't painted yellow, so I parked there instead of the little lot on the right hand side. (03/11/07)

**Clarks Hill - 29821 -** A glorified trailer that looked kind of seedy. Of course, the rotting wooden sign outside did not help the image much. It also had an overly friendly kid who wandered over from the quick stop store next door and talked my ear off as I snapped pictures. (04/03/04)

**Clearwater - 29822 -** Clearwater is located at the end of a busy shopping center and when we first eased by to take a picture there was one car parked right in front (about where I am now), a teenager leaning on the wall smoking a cigarette and two old VFW type guys in folding lawn chairs sitting right out front. When we came back by 1-1/2 hours later there was nobody around. (02/29/04)

**Clemson - 29631 -** Who knew Clemson was a town. Was the town here before the agriculture college or did it grow up as the college turned into a university. (09/22/07)

**Clemson - 29632 -** [Clemson University] There was nary a student in sight at the Clemson University Post Office, but that is because they were all probably still recuperating from late Friday night "study" sessions. (09/22/07)

**Cleveland - 29635 -** This is nowhere near Ohio. (10/14/07)

**Clifton - 29324 -** How we missed this PO on the first trip to Spartanburg I'll never know. We even drove down the street we used to get to here when we were going between Converse & Glendale back in September. (11/11/07)

**Clinton - 29325 -** The old man in the silver Tercel sure was curious as to what Donna and I were up to. Never asked, just drove in and out real slow while giving us the eye. The verbiage on the building was hidden behind the light pole or a handicapped parking sign, so we tried parking under the tree, frame left, and shooting, but you lost the size of the building, so we didn't use it. (6/17/2007)

**Clio - 29525 -** I am embarrassed to say that I have zero recollection of anything about this town or it's Post Office and it has only been a week since I was there. I guess I'm going to have to start writing this stuff down. (07/15/07)

**Clover - 29710-1650 -** When I originally made up the spreadsheet of all the Post Offices in the state I must have missed this one, because the only PO I had for Clover was the one about 6 miles east of town near Lake Wylie. It all evened out in the end though because one of the Post Offices I had listed for Lancaster was not one any more and had returned to being just a lingerie shop.(12/01/07)

**Clover - 29710-8084 -** [Lake Wylie 29710-8084] I guess Lake Wylie is not an official town (it is on the state map) because this Contract Post Office is listed as being for the town of Clover a few miles west. (12/01/07)

**Columbia - 29201 -** The main Post Office in Columbia is like an iceberg, what you see here is just what is above the Assembly Street level. There is like two stories below this that you can see if you peek your head over that low wall. There is even a driveway and parking down there, but it looks unused, maybe since 9/11? (4/29/2007)

**Columbia - 29201-9997 -** [Capitol Station] After photographing what I thought were all the Post Offices in Columbia a couple months ago, I found one I had missed while compiling my list. Now I got them all. I hope... (6/24/2007)

**Columbia - 29203 -** [Eau Claire] A nicely remodeled Post Office that about 50 years ago would have been on the edge of town. Now it is nearly smack in the middle. (4/29/2007)

**Columbia - 29204 -** [Edgewood] This PO is in a shopping center too, but the difference is it is the only tenant left in this one wing. Off to the right, you can tell by the shape, is the abandoned grocery store that used to be an anchor. The only thing keeping this from being a very scary place to mail a letter is the other wing, which probably held the K Mart, has been taken over by the Columbia Metropolitan Police and there are about 50 cop cars out front. (4/29/2007)

**Columbia - 29205 -** [Five Points] They are sprucing up the streets and street lights in the Five Points section, but haven't gotten around to putting up any of the street signs yet, so it is a good thing this Post Office wasn't to far off the main drag. (4/29/2007)

**Columbia - 29206 -** [Forest Acres] This Post Office was located in the corner of an L shaped shopping center. The entrance we came in on (after passing by it once) was jammed packed with cars while the rest of the area was wide open. At first we thought it was because of the Fresh Market supermarket, but it turns out it was for a pancake house. Must be the only place serving those things for a 50-mile radius it was so overflowing. (4/29/2007)

**Columbia - 29208 -** [University] This building is not too far from the big main Post Office. You can't tell, but on the door is the logo of the University of South Carlina logo signifying that this is the university's main post office. (4/29/2007)

**Columbia - 29209 -** [Leesburg] Another typical shopping center location. As we were ready to leave a State Trooper's car went whizzing by towards the other end of the lot with his lights flashing. We didn't stick around to see what that was about. (4/29/2007)

**Columbia - 29210-5124 -** [National Mail Service CPU] If you look at all 13 of the Columbia pictures you will see that in the last half ones the top was up, while for the the first half the was top down. Typical spring day in SC, cool to really pleasant in the morning turning stinking hot at noon. (4/29/2007)

**Columbia - 29210-9998 -** [Dutch Fork] All the way down the other side of the building from the car was an empty wheel chair with a small American flag attached to it. Right next to the chair was a pile of plastic garbage bags. At first I figured it was homeless vet and his belongings, but on further inspection there was no person any where around. A mystery. (4/29/2007)

**Columbia - 29212 -** [Harbison] We were supposed to hit a different Post Office, but I missed the turn. We kept going down the road a couple miles and came to this one. It is a relatively new building, so why the outside addition for the 24 hour stamp kiosk? (4/29/2007)

**Columbia - 29223-5846 -** [Two Notch Rd CPU] Less than 1/2 mile from a large Post Office is this CPU. Curious. (4/29/2007)

**Columbia - 29223-9998 -** [Northeast] A very large stand alone Post Office building on US 1 heading out of town. (4/29/2007)

**Columbia - 29229 -** [Sandhills] This is a new Post Office way out northeast of town. It is probably really needed because from the looks of all the new construction out there, this is the direction Columbia is growing. (4/29/2007)

**Conestee - 29636 -** Google maps was confused as to the location of this Post Office's address and just showed us the street. It was a short street so how hard could it be to find? Pretty hard as it turns out. Two laps of the street and even an excursion on an extension with a different name didn't turn it up. Wasn't until we gave up and decided to go on to the next that we found it, just around the corner on a different street altogether. (6/17/2007)

**Converse - 29329 -** Google maps returned an approximate location for the address of this Post Office, but we had a street and it's number, how hard could it be? We followed that street all the way into downtown Spartanburg and found a big Baptist church at that address. Another look at the map of the tiny town of Converse on the outskirts of Spartanburg showed a just plain Main St. a little off US29, the East Main we had been driving on, so back we went. Son of a gun, there it was, 250 Main St., Converse, SC. (09/03/07)

**Conway - 29526-3393 -** Post Office number three of the day and the sun is just now clearing the horizon. (09/27/08)

**Conway - 29526-8659 -** [Coastal CPU] Located on the Coastal Carolina University campus. (09/26/08)

**Cope - 29038 -** Cope's downtown consisted mainly of this Post Office and a general store across the street. The place was deserted and looked like a ghost town on a Sunday morning. (5/13/07)

**Cordesville - 29434 -** With the metal bars on the windows this looks like the town's old jail. (09/28/08)

**Cordova - 29039 -** I have no idea what the downtown of Cordova looked like as the PO was on the way into town and after we finished taking this picture, we turned around and headed back out. (5/13/07)

**Cottageville - 29435 -** All I can think of here is cottage cheese... (07/06/08)

**Coward - 29530 -**
- The Coward of Florence County -

Promise me, son, not to do the things I've done.
Walk away from trouble if you can.
It wont mean you're weak if you turn the other cheek.
I hope you're old enough to understand:
Son, you don't have to fight to be a man.
(03/01/08)

**Cowpens - 29330 -** I snapped this one picture with Donna in the car, but wanted one from a different angle too. The second one caught someone just as they exited the door. About this time Donna said, "Let's go." Seems there were a couple people leaning on their pickup truck in the spot behind where I was standing and the way they were looking at me made her nervous. I snapped off one more exposure and of course the fellow who was in the last one, instead of just going to his car, had stopped to read the headlines in the newspaper, so there he was again in the middle of the photo. My wife is better looking so her picture gets posted. (09/03/07)

**Cross - 29436 -** This Post Office completes the Cross Trilogy as we have previously photographed Cross Hill and Cross Anchor. (04/20/08)

**Cross Anchor - 29331 -** Our last Post Office picture of the day. All the rest of the towns we would pass through on the way home we already have photos of. One of which is the town of Cross Hill. The town of Cross, which is somewhere near Charleston, remains to be photographed. (09/03/07)

**Cross Hill - 29332 -** A very well taken care of and patriotic Post Office. My personal favorite of the dozen we visited today. (6/17/2007)

The domain is now defunct.

Life of Brian

a proud part of the 90%

South Carolina Post Offices

Catawba to Cross Hill