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.
Olanta to Russellville
Olanta - 29114 - The name begins with an 'O' instead of an 'A' so as there wouldn't be any confusion between this town of 600 people and that larger town over in Georgia that is spelled similar. (03/02/08)
Olar - 29843 - Right next to this open space on the left is a brick building that is in crumbling down stages. I don't know if it because they are tearing it down completely or working on restoration. (03/03/07)
Orangeburg - 29115 - I was surprised that Orangeburg only had one post office. Even though it was a big building, O'burg is a pretty big spread out town and I would have thought there would have been a smaller substation somewhere. (5/13/07)
Pacolet - 29372 - The couple in the Ford Focus pulled in right after us. Donna and sat in the car for about 4 or 5 minutes to see if they would conduct their business. They still sat in the car. We got out and I took some photos. We got back in the car, consulted the map a bit and then drove off. The couple never left the vehicle. Donna wondered what they were doing. I told her maybe they were driving around South Carolina to all the Post Offices and taking pictures of their car in front of them. "Nah", she replied, "Nobody is that weird." (11/02/07)
Pacolet Mills - 29373 - Obviously this used to be a mill town, but the mill itself is long gone. Some of the remnants still exist and the town hall is in a restored section of one of the old buildings. (11/02/07)
Pageland - 29728 - This Post Office was really camera shy. There was no way to park in front, couldn't even cheat here because it is situated on a very busy 4 lane road. Even if you could manage to get in front, the building would have been obscured by the line of trees in the strip between the sidewalk and the street. I'm parked in the lane that leads in to the bank next door. (03/11/07)
Pamplico - 29583 - Second in a series I like to call "Bicycling By", the first is 29170-2878 - West Columbia. (03/01/08)
Parksville - 29844 - Parksville is quite literally a wide spot in the road. The each of the two lanes of highway 28 widens to about a lane and a half for 200 yards or so. Too bad the Post Office was closed, because according to my talkative kid in Clarks Hill, the counter inside is originally from the towns train station. (04/03/04)
Patrick - 29584 - Another town that is pretty much a crossroads of two SC state highways. According to the 2000 census it has a population of 354 and one of them was at the post office with us. (07/14/07)
Pauline - 29374 - I had not printed a map out for Pauline yet, which meant my wife planning our return trip home through this town did not come as a surprise to me. Luckily the Post Office's location was right on the main highway through town making finding it easy even without a map. (09/03/07)
Pawleys Island - 29585-6524 - [29585-6524] The main PO for Pawleys Island is housed in another of what I call low country coastal architecture - green roof, yellow siding and white trim. (09/28/08)
Pawleys Island - 29585-9996 - [Litchield Books] We were a little early for book shopping, but the coffee shop part sounded pretty good. Unfortunately it was Sunday Morning and they weren't open. (09/28/08)
Pawleys Island - 29585-9997 - [Pawleys Island CPU] Looks like a one stop shop for all your shipping needs. Post Office, FedEx, UPS and if you want to do it yourself there is U-Haul. (09/28/08)
Paxville - 29102-7313 - [29102-7313] We missed this Post Office on our first try. Through no fault of our own I might add. We went right to the address listed on the USPS web site and it wasn't there. A letter to the Postmaster resulted in accurate directions for this attempt. (03/01/08)
Peak - 29122 - First of two towns we visited today that are basically on cul de sacs because of the Broad River. The railroad tracks cross the water, but the road does not. (09/09/07)
Pelion - 29123 - We pass through this small town a dozen times a year on our way to and from Columbia, but I don't remember ever seeing the Post Office. There it was though. Funny how that works. (02/24/07)
Pelzer - 29669 - Now resigned to having vehicles in the shot, I take one with the Miata almost out of it. (6/16/2007)
Pendleton - 29670 - Nothing happening here. Nobody here before us and nobody pulling in as I was taking pictures. (09/22/07)
Pickens - 29671 - I kind of like this photo. The lettering above the entrance looks like it is lit up, but that is just because of a street lamp illuminating the white letters. (09/22/07)
Piedmont - 29673-9997 - [Powdersville 29673-9997] This is really in the town of Powderville a good distance from Piedmont, but not as far as the US Postal Service is concerned. Only Alpha Mail is handled by this CPU. (09/22/07)
Piedmont - 29673-9998 - This one was busy too, but because no one could park right in front I took an end spot to keep all the other cars off the frame to the right. (6/16/2007)
Pineland - 29934 - Pineland is a good name for this town as the whole area is nothing but pine trees. Even the Post Office is surrounded by them. (08/18/07)
Pineville - 29468 - We missed this PO when we were in the area the last time because it would have meant making another loop of Lake Moutlrie. Consequently we didn't have a map of where to find this Post Office because it never made it back into the big book o' maps. Fortunately Pineville is small and the PO was on the main drag. (08/31/08)
Pinewood - 29125 - This Post Office has no story, other than it is going to cause us to start bring a notebook with us on these excursions so we can write something down that I can use to jog my memory later. (08/05/07)
Pinopolis - 29469 - Third in a series of bicycle riders and Post Offices (see Pamplico & West Columbia.) I already had a perfectly good shot of this Po, but Donna spotted this kid coming up the street so we waited for him. (04/20/08)
Plum Branch - 29845 - The Post Office in this town was on a street just across the railroad tracks and parallel to SC28. Some folks were fixing up an old brick building right next door. When Donna went in and asked what they were going to make, the response was, they did not know yet. (04/03/04)
Pomaria - 29126 - The map shows that this PO was to the left after we hit US176, but after going a bit in that direction the address numbers were going the wrong way, so we turned around. When we found it, sure enough it was to the left of the road shown on the map, I had just not come into town on the right road. (09/09/07)
Port Royal - 29935 - Harbormaster: What - hey. Hold up, there, you. It's a shilling to tie up your boat at the dock. [they both look at the sunken boat] And I shall need to know your name.
Jack : [hands him three coins] What d'ye say to three shillings? and we forget the name?
Harbormaster: Welcome to Port Royal, Mr. Smith.
(08/19/07)
Jack : [hands him three coins] What d'ye say to three shillings? and we forget the name?
Harbormaster: Welcome to Port Royal, Mr. Smith.
(08/19/07)
Prosperity - 29127 - There is a directional sign not to far from town which was famous for about eight years back in the 90's (and may get a rediscovery after 2008) that pointed towards Prosperity, SC in one direction and Clinton, SC in the other. (02/24/07)
Quinby - 29506 - We stopped here last night to take a photo, the darkness made the area kind of forbidding, the alarm going off in an adjacent building didn't add to our comfort level, so we waited to come back in the day light. (07/15/07)
Ravenel - 29470 - I can't figure out where this town got it's name, but it might be from Ravenel, France. Or maybe it comes from the same place the French town does: from ravenelle, flower of the family of the cruciferes, the wild shape of radish. (07/06/08)
Reevesville - 29471 - But officer, I thought that 'X' marks the spot I was supposed to park in...(5/13/07)
Reidville - 29375 - The Federal government probably paid some farmer a premium for this bit of land on the outskirts of town. (09/01/07)
Rembert - 29128 - Somehow this PO got overlooked when we were doing this area the first time, but we made up for that when coming back from Rockingham, NC this past weekend. (06/29/08)
Richburg - 29729 - Not far from here in the community park, housed under an awning, is "Lil' Dinky" (#5), the last operating non-tourist steam locomotive. (12/01/07)
Richland - 29675 - "29675 - Richland"
desc = "Town we missed a couple of weeks ago when we were up this way, but Richland wasn't even on the radar. I hadn't made up a map for it yet, which was too bad because we were less than 3 miles from here then. Twice. (10/14/07)
Ridge Spring - 29129 - In this town both the map and our eyesight were right on, as we found this Post Office first time. Of course it was a good thing a local law officer was not around as I pulled a u-turn right there on Main St. to park in front of the building. While there was very little activity at the Post Office itself, I did have to strategically snap pictures, as the street was kind of busy. (03/21/04)
Ridgeland - 29936 - Ridgeland has a nice little downtown and just outside of it sits the Post Office which shares it's building with the Federal Government, unlike the neighboring town of Tillman. (01/27/07)
Ridgeland - 29936-8191 - [Riverwalk Pharmacy CPU] How this ended up with a Ridgeland address I'll never know. It is 22 miles from the main Ridgeland Post Office and only 7 miles from the one in Bluffton. Because it is so new and in a new shopping center Google maps had no clue where to locate it. I called the Riverwalk Pharmacy and asked for directions. The woman I talked to was mystified as well as to how they got classified as Ridgeland. (11/17/07)
Ridgeville - 29472 - You know you are in the South Carolina Low Country when there is Spanish Moss draped from the branches of trees. (07/06/08)
Ridgeway - 29130 - This is my kind of parking spot, nowhere for anyone to park next to you and ding your door and it is in the shade. (09/09/07)
Rion - 29132 - Another place too small to have census data. One of the residents almost runs me over as he tries to make a late turn into the street I'm standing in to take this picture. (09/09/07)
Rock Hill - 29730 - An empty parking lot and the sunrise reflected in the Post Office front windows. Doesn't get any better than that. (12/02/07)
Rock Hill - 29732-1017 - [Ebenezer Station] Very busy Post Office on a Saturday afternoon. (12/01/07)
Rock Hill - 29732-3152 - [Cherry Road Finance] Our first attempt at photographing this Post Office was foiled by a delivery van parked right out front where two guys were filling up the newspaper boxes. We waited for a while to see if they'd finish, but when they started walking to other boxes in front of different stores in the shopping center we left. Drove over and took a photo of the main PO and vowed if those guys were still there upon our return they were just going to have to be in the picture. They were gone as you can see. (12/02/07)
Roebuck - 29376 - Donna stayed in the car checking our large Spartanburg city map planning our route to the next Post Office. It is also hard for her to get out from under all our documents: an official state map, a 3rd party state map with all the dots, a local city map and the jumbo binder with over 150 printed out Google map close ups. (09/02/07)
Round O - 29474 - With a town name of Round O I expected something a little different of a building, but instead I got the same box style as 80% of the Post Offices we saw today. (07/06/08)
Rowesville - 29133 - While I took photos of this PO Donna walked across the street to investigate the town park & gazebo. I drove over and picked her up so we could move on to the next town of Bowman, but after two failed attempts to find the shortcut to there, we just stayed on a big road Branchville. Bowman would wait. (5/13/07)
Ruby - 29741 - About a block before we got to Ruby's Post Office Donna spotted a store with an ice cream cone in the window. While I took photos she walked back there. As I pulled in front, next to a Gold Wing motorcycle with a side car, she was just entering the store. It wasn't open on Sundays, but the owners were inside with the same idea as us, they were out cruising and decided they wanted ice cream. They were nice enough to serve us a couple cones anyway. We chatted about small town life 'til the ice cream was gone and we all went our separate ways. (03/11/07)
Ruffin - 29475 - This car sat there with it's trunk open the whole time with the person inside the PO. We sat there a while too, to see if they'd leave, but after waiting 10 minutes we left because we couldn't stand the gnats buzzing around us anymore. (08/25/07)
Russellville - 29476 - We had just past a big ol' industrial looking plant before coming to this Post Office and judging by the size of the town surround it, I'm betting the only reason this PO is still in business is because of that plant. (04/20/08)