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.
Glendale to Iva
Glendale - 29346 - This old mill town is now wholly inside the borders of Spartanburg city limits proper, but how you get to it makes this abandoned mill property a world unto itself. (09/02/07)
Gloverville - 29828 - "Just off camera to the right is the car the woman inside the Post Office drove up in. There were about 5 kids, 6-year old or less, in the backseat and they were very interested in what I was doing, opening doors, and peeking out, pointing and smiling/laughing at me. Until one noticed her coming back, the word was passed and they all settled back in and faced forward, becoming perfect little angels again. (01/24/04)
Goose Creek - 29445-2969 - Finally, an easy find for today and as a bonus there is no one in the parking lot and the sun is behind me. (02/08/09)
Gramling - 29348 - I know there is no B in the name of this town, but my mind sure wants to put one there. (09/01/07)
Graniteville - 29829 - I was fairly sure this was the Graniteville Post Office as that is definitely the town I was in, but it had neither the name of the town nor the zip code it serviced on the outside. It did have its address, 50 Canal St., on it above the door, so when I got home I confirmed that is where I was on the US Postal Service web site. (01/24/04)
Gray Court - 29645 - Somehow two weeks ago this Post Office got overlooked in our Greenville and environs trip. Maybe because I haven't finished putting all the little circles on our state map indicating Post Office locations. (06/27/2007)
Great Falls - 29055 - There was a long curving main street that had lots of closed businesses in interesting looking buildings. I bet this place was something to see in the 1950's. (12/01/07)
Greeleyville - 29056 - Must have been my lucky day as there was one open parking spot in downtown Greeleyville when we got there and it was right in front of the Post Office. Reflected in the window you can see Donna reading a map planning our next route and me taking the picture. (03/01/08)
Green Pond - 29446 - This would have been a perfect time to try and get three exposures so I could try an HDR of this image, but I'm old and forgetful. (11/16/07)
Green Sea - 29545 - I can only imagine that the first settlers of Green Sea moved inland from the coast and found lots of empty fields of grass and that is how they came to name this place. (09/27/08)
Greenville - 29602 - I probably could have gotten a better shot if I parked across the street here too, but didn't want to move the car because the homeless guy living under the tree behind us was creeping us out and we wanted to just shoot and go. (6/16/2007)
Greenville - 29603 - [Federal] There were parking spots right in front of the building, but they had signs that read 'Federal Marshall Parking Only', so I parked across the street in a business that had a sign that said 'No Parking. Violators Will Be Towed.' I would rather pay to reclaim my car from an impound lot than have the US Marshalls after me. I've seen the movie 'Fugitive' and they never let up. (6/16/2007)
Greenville - 29604 - [Station A] Nice new Post Office in a nice older neighborhood of town. small blocks, narrow streets with several intersections interrupted by tiny traffic circles at 4-way stop signs. (6/16/2007)
Greenville - 29606 - [Pleasantburg] The first of eight Greenville post offices. Because it is now later in the day on Saturday, the traffic in the parking lots should be less. (6/16/2007)
Greenville - 29607 - [Woodruff Road] There was a sign on the street listing a post office in this small shopping center, but we cruised the lot twice looking for it. Finally we spotted a blue box and that made us spot the small USPS sign on the Ace hardware store. (6/16/2007)
Greenville - 29608 - [Park Place] Another guy in a white pick up truck who sat there reading his mail and wouldn't leave. I'm guessing both these men have their pornography sent to a PO Box because their wives just wouldn't understand. (6/16/2007)
Greenville - 29610 - [Berea Station] After bailing out on the Drive's baseball game we went out to snap some post office pics. The rain that scared us off the game had recently visited this part of town too. (6/16/2007)
Greenville - 29613 - [Furman University] We found the Furman PO by using a map of the campus I got off the internet. Turns out it was inside the University Center. Knowing that I probably wouldn't be able to drive the Miata inside the building I brought along the Emperor's Mini Me, a hot wheels car I custom painted to match. (06/27/2007)
Greenville - 29616 - [Keith D Oglesby Station] This Post Office was not to far from a very busy section of town, but nobody showed up to interrupt us in the 5 or 6 minutes we spent there. (6/16/2007)
Greenwood - 29646-9997 - [South Greenwood] I'd like to imagine that this was Greenwood's original Post Office and when they built the newer bigger one downtown, folks lobbied to keep this one open though it serves the same zip code. (02/10/07)
Greenwood - 29646-9998 - Greenwood's downtown branch is quite the busy place at midday on Saturday. Getting an empty parking lot was impossible. We even had another Miata wave us out of our spot, so he could drive through and mail something in the boxes seen behind our car. (02/10/07)
Greenwood - 29649 - [Northside CPU] When researching Greenwood Post Offices the first time the USPS.com site said there were three. Two were easy to locate, but the third was showing on the map almost in the middle of nowhere way north east of town. I had given up hope of finding it until I stumbled on someone else's flickr photo showing it next to a florist. It was then a simple matter of googling for the florist... (6/16/2007)
Greer - 29650-9997 - [The Parkway] That's right, I'm parked in a spot that is all painted in yellow to let everyone know that they aren't supposed to park there. Unfortunately those spots are usually the ones that are the best for photographing the Post Office. (06/27/2007)
Greer - 29650-9998 - Big building and a very busy one on a Saturday morning. (06/27/2007)
Greer - 29651 - [Greenville Airport Branch] As we pulled into the parking area a car was just pulling out. There was also a car waiting on that spot and the pulled right in. I slowly cruised around the row and stopped as the car that left slowly pulled away. I think it was watching me to see what I was up to. The side of that car was emblazoned with lettering that proclaimed U.S. Customs Enforcement. I was waiting for it to turn around and then having to explain exactly what I was up to. (06/27/2007)
Gresham - 29546 - Because we have visited so many, a lot of these small towns are starting to run together. I guess I'm going to have to go back to the idea of writing something down while we are there, so I'll have something to write about for a caption. (04/19/08)
Hamer - 29547-7247 - Right down the street from South of the Border is the PO for the town and because at one time Video Poker was legal in South Carolina US501 between the two places is lined with boarded up building that were once filled with those slot machines. (04/19/08)
Hamer - 29547-7402 - [South of the Border] Still tacky after all these years. I was so excited to go inside and buy one of these famous bumper stickers that I forgot to look to see if the they had any P.O. Boxes for rent. (04/19/08)
Hampton - 29924 - Home of the Watermelon Festival in June. The Miata Club made a trip down one year and it rained the whole day. We haven't been back since. (08/19/07)
Hampton - 29924-4936 - It looks for all the world like a backwoods county home with pickups out front and it has no outward indications of any postal activity, no blue box and no signage. So when we got home from that trip I wrote to the Postmaster of that zip code. A couple weeks later I received a reply stating that it is a Community Post Office. (08/19/07)
Hardeeville - 29927 - Not much to say here, pretty much like any of a dozen or so POs I've found in medium sized South Carolina towns. (11/17/07)
Harleyville - 29448 - This town had nice helpful parking space right out front and on a Sunday morning they were decidedly empty. (04/20/08)
Hartsville - 29550 - Another busy Post Office. So much so that there were no open spots, so I parked where no one was supposed to and quick like a bunny took a photo or two. (07/14/07)
Heath Springs - 29058 - I'd like to apologized to the 900 or so people of this town, because it is only two days after passing through and I cannot come up with memory, good or bad. Even the PO fades into the tens of similar in architecture around the state. (12/02/07)
Hemingway - 29554 - Home of a giant Tupperware plant and a Bar-B-Q Shag Festival held in the spring. (08/31/08)
Hickory Grove - 29717 - Shot from a low angle so as to hide the ugly "Rent a PO Box" banner on the railing of the handicapped ramp. (11/11/07)
Hilda - 29812-5756 - After 2 failed attempts to find the Post Office in the very small town of Hilda I had given up. My wife suggested write the Postmaster of the missing zip to ask for directions and include a SASE. I thought it was fools errand, but boy was I wrong. This week I got a letter back explaining that the PO was inside a car repair garage. There were no outward signs of what it was is why we missed it before. We went over on a Saturday morning when the place was open and this is what we found. Because we couldn't get the real car in the picture, if you look towards the bottom of the photo, right next to a fuel filter, is the Matchbox Garnet Red Miata. (08/25/07)
Hilton Head Island - 29926 - [Fairfield Station] HHI's second post office and quite the busy place on a Saturday afternoon. Busier than the North Augusta Post Office was, and that is saying a lot. The challenge was getting the neat concrete sign out front by the road (seen in the intro page) and the building in the same shot because there was not any name on the building itself. In the end I gave up and that is why there are the 2 photos. (03/14/04)
Hilton Head Island - 29928 - Here is the main Post Office on the island and it was not nearly as busy (at least here they had the town name on the front of the building.) Supposedly there was the Central Post Office for Daufuskie Island not too far away from here. We drove in circles around where it should have been, but never found it. The other we missed was on Sea Pines, we traveled the whole length of the road it was supposed to be on without success. (03/14/04)
Hilton Head Island - 29928-7227 - [Harbortown] This place was hard to find too. The 1st attempt to find the address on Sea Pines back in 2004 led us to golf clubhouse. This time I wrote to the postmaster and she straightened me out as to building location, but the actual location in the building was elusive. It took asking two different shop owners where it was before we found. Because it was tucked in the corner of an outdoor mall, the Miata's Mini-Me had to do the posing. (11/17/07)
Hodges - 29653 - Another one of those very similar Post Office designs, but placed on a interested shaped lot that made it hard to get a picture of it with any of the car visible. (03/17/07)
Hollywood - 29449 - All that fan mail you send to Brad Pitt or Angelina Jolie comes through here. (07/06/08)
Honea Path - 29654 - The blue panels above and below the windows sort of color coordinate with the water tower in the background. (6/16/2007)
Hopkins - 29061 - The parking for this Post Office is to the left of the building and it was slam full, so I drove across the street and pulled off to the side of the stop sign there and took the photo. (08/04/07)
Horatio - 29062 - The Post Office is located inside the LeNoir General Store and still uses the old fashioned wood & glass PO boxes. There has been a store on this spot for close to 200 years and is still run by the descendants of the town's founders. When Donna went inside and asked a question, a little, really old, lady (perhaps an original LeNoir) asked if she was stupid. Another old woman said, "Mom, you are not supposed to call people stupid." So much for discoversouthcarolina.com site recommending you step inside and have a country chat. (08/04/07)
Huger - 29450 - It looked really simple according to the map I printed out, but using the county map book we traced a back road route to this small town. We came into town at a cluster of buildings that judging by what we know of small towns could have been the center of town. It may have been, but the Post Office was a long way off, about 5 miles from there. (09/28/08)
Inman - 29349 - I almost positive that this building came into being as a Post Office, but I can't help but think of a Goody's clothing store when I see it. (09/01/07)
Irmo - 29063-2867 - This is literally just up the street from the Carolina Girls CPU. This is a newer building and I'm betting the reason for the close proximity of the two places is that the main Irmo PO was someplace else up until a few years ago. (6/24/2007)
Irmo - 29063-2888 - [Irmo Village CPU] If I was a single guy and lived in Irmo, this would be my Post Office of choice, a CPU inside the Carolina Girls Health & Fitness Center. (6/24/2007)
Irmo - 29063-8164 - [Broad River Rd CPU] We drove right by the shopping center this CPU is located in before realizing it. After we turned around and pulled into the shopping center we drove right by the store once before finding it on the second attempt. (6/24/2007)
Islandton - 29929 - This is literally in the middle of nowhere. Nothing but farmland for miles. Maybe 20 yards before this building was a small blue sign that said Post Office that pointed down a sandy trail to where the old PO was. (08/19/07)
Isle of Palms - 29451 - Because it is early Saturday morning we get our choice of up front parking unlike yesterday. (02/07/09)
Iva - 29655 - This baby was designed by Mike Brady. 🙂 (03/18/07)