Newcastle's post office: Part I

Hannah Gross
NLJ Correspondent 
With Leonard Cash
 
“It was in several different places too,” is how Leonard Cash began his series on Newcastle’s post office for this week’s installment of “History on Main.” 
Starting with a Jan 20, 1927, News Letter Journal article, the post office relocated to the A.M. Nichol’s Supply Co. building (which is the stone building
on Lot 10 where Perkin’s Tavern is), which was divided into grocery, meat, hardware and clothing sections, according to Cash. 
The post office was in the hardware section of the store, and it was “light” and “new.” The workmen were “busy putting the place in shape for the post office, and the move was made with little or no friction in the postal service of the town.” They made good timing “considering the amount of stuff that had to be moved.” 
For the future, the postal service was seeking to move to the government-owned property (Block 9, Lots 8 through 12), which it bought around 1926 or 1927, Cash said. This is where it is currently located. 
According to an article from June 9, 1927, the land was being cleared, and the local Lion’s Club was planning to grade and seed the lot with grass to make a park. 
“(They were) tearing everything down,” Cash said, so the millenary shop was moved to the nearby former Sour photography shop. 
On June 16, 1927, the paper reported that the demolition of the two buildings on the property was completed.
“These buildings have been an eye sore to the community,” the article says. Cash said the Lions Club had quite a bit of “power” back then and pushed to get things done in town. With permission from the government, they planned to build a retaining wall on the south side for the park, but the article says that it would be a few years before they actually used it.  
“That sounds right, don’t it?” Cash said. 
After seeding the lawn, there must have been an issue with people treading on it because a warning was put in the Nov. 3, 1927, issue. 
“Please keep off the lots west of the armory that have been recently plowed, graded, and seed to lawn grass. The committee would like to change the unsightly appearance of these lots to one of beauty, but it can’t be done if you continue to wear a path across them,” the article says. 
According to an article titled “Newcastle Wants a Federal Building” from the Dec. 12, 1929, News Letter (which contained information from an article in the Sheridan Journal), Mayor and Editor Ora G. Franzine stated his support of a federal post office because they already had a federal building site for 16 years and felt that it was “time now to get busy.” 
“Just why the home town of Former Congressman Frank W. Mondell should not have a federal building, we do not know, but that one name alone should warrant their having it, if nothing else. Go to it, Ora, we believe you are on the right track,” the Sheridan article encouraged. In the same issue, Franzine wrote an editorial declaring his support for the post office. 
The push for a post office continued in the April 24, 1930, issue and as stated in Franzine’s editorial, a report from the Denver Post triggered the motivation when “several new post office buildings had been authorized in Colorado and that probably several new buildings would be built in this state, has born fruit in a very definite way.” 
Mondell, who was a founding father in Weston County before moving to Washington, D.C., to represent Wyoming in Congress was responsible for securing the federal building in Newcastle, and the locals were told they could be proud of his efforts at the U.S. capital. 
Around December 1930, it looked promising and “very bright” for construction of a post office building to begin in 1931. The Treasury Department would be receiving sealed bids on Dec. 17 for a topographical and soil survey contract, and it was both recommended and commended for the building to be constructed out of native sandstone, so it would “harmonize with other buildings already located within the immediate vicinity of the site.” Moving the rock would also provide work for locals. 
It was reported that Mondell was keeping up with the progress of his former hometown. Although not set in stone, the approximate amount for the project was estimated to be $60,000. 
Postmistress Edna Jessen announced in the Jan. 1, 1931, issue that the survey contract was awarded to B.A. Newton of Canon City, Colorado, so “definite action is under way toward the actual construction.” Newton was instructed by the post office department in Washington that his survey had to be started within 10 days upon hearing, and it was hoped to get the construction started by spring. 
Over “three quarters of a million dollars” was being planned for seven proposed federal buildings in Wyoming, including $75,000 for the one in Newcastle, reported the Jan. 15, 1931, edition of the News Letter. Although it hadn’t been authorized yet, “special appropriation may be obtained,” according to Congressman Vincent Carter. 
“The opinion is expressed that authorization will be obtained and in time for the actual work to be started by early summer,” an article from Jan. 29, 1931, says, crediting it to the influence of “former Wyomingites in Washington.”
The same article announced the arrival of Newton and Ruel Thomas to conduct the survey. It would take approximately one week, and after it was completed, the results were to be sent to the architect office in Washington, D.C. 
A week later, Congress allotted $60,000 to Newcastle for the construction of the post office, according to a news report from Feb. 5, 1931. However, “appropriation must be carried in a second deficiency bill.” At the end of the month, an article from Feb. 26, 1931, reported that the appropriation bill passed the House, but still needed to pass the Senate and be signed by President Herbert Hoover. Nonetheless, the article was hopeful and said that things looked promising, and the idea of a post office in Newcastle was becoming more concrete. 
 
The History on Main series will continue in next week’s News Letter Journal.