ZMT: Daily Fact: Why the first U.S. post office was in a tavern

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The first post office in the U.S. was established in a tavern.

Benjamin Franklin is often credited with launching the U.S. Postal Service after the Continental Congress authorized him to create postal routes in 1775. But before the ingenious founding father became the first U.S. postmaster, there was another important mail manager: a tavern owner by the name of Richard Fairbanks. About 136 years before Franklin's post office management, Fairbanks' tavern became the first post office in the United States. There, the businessman, who was permitted to sell "wine and strong water" along Boston's Water Street, became responsible for collecting and distributing mail.

Combining a post office and a bar might seem unusual by today's standards, but in the 17th century it was a common and clever system. European practices of the time often designated inns and taverns as post offices because they were regular gathering spots within communities. Public houses had a major influence on colonial life too, providing meals and directions for travelers, entertainment, and news. That logic is why, on November 6, 1639, the Massachusetts General Court designated Fairbanks' tavern as the official post office for "all letters which are brought from beyond the seas," specifically meaning any correspondence between the colony and Great Britain. Fairbanks was paid one penny for each letter he handled. As for intercolonial mail, early Americans were resourceful at communicating with fellow New Worlders, privately sending their letters throughout the colonies with the help of traveling neighbors and merchants.

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Numbers Don't Lie

Pieces of mail processed by the USPS in 2022

127.3 billion

Size (in square feet) of the smallest U.S. post office, found in Ochopee, Florida

61.3

Year the Sanquhar Post Office, the oldest still-operating office in the world, opened in the U.K.

1712

Residential addresses that receive mail delivery in the U.S. as of 2022

152.2 million

Americans once paid to receive their mail, not send it.

Popping to the post office to purchase a book of stamps is a routine task for many Americans, though it wasn't the norm until 175 years ago. At one time, American letter senders didn't pay postage — the recipient of their message did. That is, until 1847, when Congress allowed the U.S. Postal Service to issue its first official stamp. Although mail service had existed in America since the Revolutionary period, by the 1840s the USPS was operating at a budget deficit, in part because delivery fees weren't always paid upon delivery. Postage upon delivery was not cheap — the cost of sending a letter from New York City to Buffalo, New York, was as much as 25 cents at a time when many workers barely earned $1 a day. Mail recipients could refuse letters, meaning the postal service was on the hook for the round-trip delivery cost. Many Americans were skeptical of prepaying postage, believing it an insult that suggested the recipient was too poor to cover the fee, but by 1855 Congress' mail reforms made stamps mandatory, while also standardizing and lowering the cost of mail delivery.

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Daily Fact: Why the first U.S. post office was in a tavern