on Winton Blount Boulevard, appropriate because Winton was US Postmaster General back when Nixon was president. This structure was dedicated in 1989, and it has this Byzantine flavor, strange for a Federal building.  Maybe it’s because Red Blount’s company built the King Saud University in Saudi Arabia (at $2-billion), the largest construction contract in history. Moving the PO way out here, 8 miles from town, was quite a shock to us citizens back then (still is, for many of us). For 100+ years our “real” post office had  been downtown, on Monroe Street, on Dexter Avenue, or in the Federal Courthouse.

The imposing old structure at right was the Montgomery Post Office 1884-1930. It stood on the corner of Dexter and McDonough, right where the Spanish Compass Bank stands today. Chris’ Hotdogs was right next door, and its early name, appropriately enough, was Post Office Café . This structure, said to be Queen Ann style, boasted one of the city’s first elevators.

In 1930 the Post Office removed from Dexter to occupy the first floor of the then brand-new Federal Courthouse building. It stayed there for 59 years.

-Charles Humphries