To celebrate its 30th Anniversary, The Seaside Post Office is offering a new, commemorative stamp depicting the iconic building. We are told this is one of the most photographed post offices in the U.S. You can purchase a full or half sheet inside the post office located in the center of Seaside’s airstream row on Scenic 30A.
The Seaside Post Office Through the Years
The post office hasn’t changed much, but its surroundings have evolved into what today is a bustling town center and gathering place.
Few post offices are as distinctive and friendly as the Seaside Post Office. You’ll be sure to hear, “Hi. How ya doin’?” as customers enter and exit the quaint building. Seaside residents pick up their daily mail, greeted by the friendly Pat Day, postmistress since shortly after the opening of the post office 30 years ago, as well as one of the most recognized people in Seaside.
Conspicuously located in the bustling town center, the post office was the second civic building to be built in Seaside, after Ernesto Buch’s Tupelo Street Beach Pavilion, according to “Visions of Seaside” by Dhiru A. Thadani. “Having a physical post office at Seaside established a sense of place and gave the town credibility and the perception of being real,” Thadani writes. “Subliminally this convinced potential home buyers that a town would emerge over time.”
Seaside founder Robert Davis designed the building, which instantly became a landmark for the town when it opened June 3, 1985, marking the town center.
“It did seem to me that having a post office would be an important symbolic element in establishing Seaside as a town,” he says. “And … it has become an important civic and social element for Seaside.”
Davis designed the post office with the help of Robert Lamar, an interior designer from Pensacola, and the American Vignola and the Builders Companion, two of a number of handbooks and manuals of the 19th and early 20th centuries that were used by carpenters and masons to build competent classical buildings. Master carpenter Terry Londeree built the post office.
“He wanted it to be visible,” says longtime resident Glenn Seawell, recalling Davis’ vision for the town more than three decades ago. “And the flag pole, post office and the chapel’s steeple were built on an axis that splits Seaside in half. When he told me his plans for Seaside, it convinced me that he was serious about building a town.”
Read more at The Seaside Times | Sept issue or pick up a paper available now all around town.
SoWal Photos by Kurt Lischka
The Seaside Post Office Through the Years
The post office hasn’t changed much, but its surroundings have evolved into what today is a bustling town center and gathering place.
Few post offices are as distinctive and friendly as the Seaside Post Office. You’ll be sure to hear, “Hi. How ya doin’?” as customers enter and exit the quaint building. Seaside residents pick up their daily mail, greeted by the friendly Pat Day, postmistress since shortly after the opening of the post office 30 years ago, as well as one of the most recognized people in Seaside.
Conspicuously located in the bustling town center, the post office was the second civic building to be built in Seaside, after Ernesto Buch’s Tupelo Street Beach Pavilion, according to “Visions of Seaside” by Dhiru A. Thadani. “Having a physical post office at Seaside established a sense of place and gave the town credibility and the perception of being real,” Thadani writes. “Subliminally this convinced potential home buyers that a town would emerge over time.”
Seaside founder Robert Davis designed the building, which instantly became a landmark for the town when it opened June 3, 1985, marking the town center.
“It did seem to me that having a post office would be an important symbolic element in establishing Seaside as a town,” he says. “And … it has become an important civic and social element for Seaside.”
Davis designed the post office with the help of Robert Lamar, an interior designer from Pensacola, and the American Vignola and the Builders Companion, two of a number of handbooks and manuals of the 19th and early 20th centuries that were used by carpenters and masons to build competent classical buildings. Master carpenter Terry Londeree built the post office.
“He wanted it to be visible,” says longtime resident Glenn Seawell, recalling Davis’ vision for the town more than three decades ago. “And the flag pole, post office and the chapel’s steeple were built on an axis that splits Seaside in half. When he told me his plans for Seaside, it convinced me that he was serious about building a town.”
Read more at The Seaside Times | Sept issue or pick up a paper available now all around town.
SoWal Photos by Kurt Lischka