A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides

mail The mail or post is a system for physically transporting postcards, letters, and parcels. A postal service can be private or public, though many governments place restrictions on private systems. Since the mid-19th century, national postal sys ...

services, such as accepting

letters Letter, letters, or literature may refer to: Characters typeface * Letter (alphabet), a character representing one or more of the sounds used in speech; any of the symbols of an alphabet. * Letterform, the graphic form of a letter of the alphabe ...

and parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling

postage stamp A postage stamp is a small piece of paper issued by a post office, postal administration, or other authorized vendors to customers who pay postage (the cost involved in moving, insuring, or registering mail), who then affix the stamp to the f ...

s, packaging, and

stationery Stationery refers to commercially manufactured writing materials, including cut paper, envelopes, writing implements, continuous form paper, and other office supplies. Stationery includes materials to be written on by hand (e.g., letter pape ...

. Post offices may offer additional services, which vary by country. These include providing and accepting

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is ...

forms (such as passport applications), and processing

services and fees (such as

road tax Road tax, known by various names around the world, is a tax which has to be paid on, or included with, a motorised vehicle to use it on a public road. National implementations Australia All states and territories require an annual vehicle registra ...

postal savings Postal savings systems provide depositors who do not have access to banks a safe and convenient method to save money. Many nations have operated banking systems involving post offices to promote saving money among the poor. History In 1861, G ...

, or

bank A bank is a financial institution that accepts deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital markets. Because ...

fees). The

chief administrator The head of government is the highest or the second-highest official in the executive branch of a sovereign state, a federated state, or a self-governing colony, autonomous region, or other government who often presides over a cabinet, a gro ...

of a post office is called a postmaster. Before the advent of

postal code A postal code (also known locally in various English-speaking countries throughout the world as a postcode, post code, PIN or ZIP Code) is a series of letters or digits or both, sometimes including spaces or punctuation, included in a postal a ...

s and the post office, postal systems would route items to a specific post office for

receipt A receipt (also known as a packing list, packing slip, packaging slip, (delivery) docket, shipping list, delivery list, bill of the parcel, manifest, or customer receipt) is a document acknowledging that a person has received money or propert ...

or delivery. During the 19th century in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

, this often led to smaller communities being renamed after their post offices, particularly after the

Post Office Department The United States Post Office Department (USPOD; also known as the Post Office or U.S. Mail) was the predecessor of the United States Postal Service, in the form of a Cabinet department, officially from 1872 to 1971. It was headed by the postmas ...

began to require that post office names not be duplicated within a

state State may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State * ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States * ''Our S ...

Name

The term "post-office" has been in use since the 1650s, shortly after the legalisation of private mail services in

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

in 1635. In early modern England,

post riders Post riders or postriders describes a horse and rider postal delivery system that existed at various times and various places throughout history. The term is usually reserved for instances where a network of regularly scheduled service was provid ...

— mounted couriers—were placed, or "posted", every few hours along

post road A post road is a road designated for the transportation of postal mail. In past centuries, only major towns had a post house and the roads used by post riders or mail coaches to carry mail among them were particularly important ones or, due ...

s at

posting houses A post house, posthouse, or posting house was a house or inn where horses were kept and could be rented or changed out. Postriders could also be hired to take travellers by carriage or coach and delivered mail and packages on a route, meeting u ...

(also known as post houses) between major cities, or "

post town A post town is a required part of all postal addresses in the United Kingdom and Ireland, and a basic unit of the postal delivery system.Royal Mail, ''Address Management Guide'', (2004) Including the correct post town in the address increases ...

s". These stables or

inn Inns are generally establishments or buildings where travelers can seek lodging, and usually, food and drink. Inns are typically located in the country or along a highway; before the advent of motorized transportation they also provided accommo ...

s permitted important correspondence to travel without delay. In early America, post offices were also known as stations. This term, as well as the term "post house", fell from use as horse and

coach Coach may refer to: Guidance/instruction * Coach (sport), a director of athletes' training and activities * Coaching, the practice of guiding an individual through a process ** Acting coach, a teacher who trains performers Transportation * Co ...

services were replaced by

railways Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

aircraft An aircraft is a vehicle that is able to fly by gaining support from the air. It counters the force of gravity by using either static lift or by using the dynamic lift of an airfoil, or in a few cases the downward thrust from jet engine ...

, and automobiles. Today, the term "post office" usually refers to government postal facilities providing customer service. " General Post Office" is sometimes used for the national headquarters of a postal service, even if the building does not provide customer service. A postal facility that is used exclusively for processing mail is instead known as a sorting office or delivery office, which may have a large central area known as a sorting or postal hall. Integrated facilities combining mail processing with railway stations or airports are known as mail exchanges. In

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

, post offices are found in almost every village having

panchayat The Panchayat raj is a political system, originating from the Indian subcontinent, found mainly in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Nepal. It is the oldest system of local government in the Indian subcontinent, and historical men ...

(a "village council"), towns, cities, and throughout the geographical area of India. India's postal system changed its name to

India Post India Post is a government-operated postal system in India, part of the Department of Post under the Ministry of Communications. Generally known as the Post Office, it is the most widely distributed postal system in the world. Warren Hastings ...

after the advent of private courier companies in the 1990s. It is run by the Indian government's Department of Posts. India Post accepts and delivers inland letters, postcards, parcels, postal stamps, and money orders (money transfers). Few post offices in India offer speed post (fast delivery) and payments or bank savings services. It is also uncommon for Indian post offices to sell insurance policies or accept payment for electricity, landline telephone, or gas bills. Until the 1990s, post offices would collect fees for radio licenses, recruitment for government jobs, and the operation of public call telephone (PCO) booths. Postmen would deliver letters, money orders, and parcels to places that are within the assigned area of a particular post office but there are no post offices in the location. Each Indian post office is assigned a unique six-digit code called the

Postal Index Number A Postal Index Number (PIN; sometimes redundantly a PIN code) refers to a six-digit code in the Indian postal code system used by India Post. On 15 August 2022, the PIN system celebrated its 50th anniversary. History The PIN system was intro ...

, or PIN. Each post office is identified by its PIN. Private

courier A courier is a person or organisation that delivers a message, package or letter from one place or person to another place or person. Typically, a courier provides their courier service on a commercial contract basis; however, some couriers are ...

and delivery services often have offices as well, although these are usually not called "post offices", except in the case of

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

, which has fully privatised its national postal system. As abbreviation ''PO'' is used, together with ''GPO'' for General Post Office and ''LPO'' for Licensed Post Office.

History

There is evidence of corps of royal

s disseminating the decrees of

Egyptian Egyptian describes something of, from, or related to Egypt. Egyptian or Egyptians may refer to: Nations and ethnic groups * Egyptians, a national group in North Africa ** Egyptian culture, a complex and stable culture with thousands of years of ...

pharaohs Pharaoh (, ; Egyptian: '' pr ꜥꜣ''; cop, , Pǝrro; Biblical Hebrew: ''Parʿō'') is the vernacular term often used by modern authors for the kings of ancient Egypt who ruled as monarchs from the First Dynasty (c. 3150 BC) until the ...

as early as 2400BCE, and it is possible that the service greatly precedes that date. Similarly, there may be ancient organised systems of post houses providing mounted courier service, although sources vary as to precisely who initiated the practice. In the Persian Empire, a

Chapar Khaneh ''Chapar Khaneh'' ( fa, چاپارخانه, , ) is the Persian-language term that refers to the postal service system used throughout the Achaemenid Empire. It was created by Cyrus the Great and later developed by Darius the Great as the royal ...

system existed along the

Royal Road The Royal Road was an ancient highway reorganized and rebuilt by the Persian king Darius the Great (Darius I) of the first (Achaemenid) Persian Empire in the 5th century BC. Darius built the road to facilitate rapid communication on the western ...

. Similar postage systems were established in

and China by the

Mauryan The Maurya Empire, or the Mauryan Empire, was a geographically extensive Iron Age historical power in the Indian subcontinent based in Magadha, having been founded by Chandragupta Maurya in 322 BCE, and existing in loose-knit fashion until 1 ...

and

Han Han may refer to: Ethnic groups * Han Chinese, or Han People (): the name for the largest ethnic group in China, which also constitutes the world's largest ethnic group. ** Han Taiwanese (): the name for the ethnic group of the Taiwanese p ...

dynasties in the 2nd century BCE. The

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the st ...

Suetonius credited

Augustus Caesar Augustus (born Gaius Octavius; 23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14), also known as Octavian, was the first Roman emperor; he reigned from 27 BC until his death in AD 14. He is known for being the founder of the Roman Pr ...

with regularising the Roman transportation and courier network, the ''

Cursus Publicus The ''cursus publicus'' (Latin: "the public way"; grc, δημόσιος δρόμος, ''dēmósios drómos'') was the state mandated and supervised courier and transportation service of the Roman Empire, later inherited by the Eastern Roma ...

''. Local officials were obliged to provide couriers who would be responsible for their message's entire course. Locally maintained post houses ( la, ) privately owned rest houses ( la, ) and were obliged or honored to care for couriers along their way. The Roman emperor Diocletian later established two parallel systems: one providing fresh horses or mules for urgent correspondence and the other providing sturdy oxen for bulk shipments. The

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

historian

Procopius Procopius of Caesarea ( grc-gre, Προκόπιος ὁ Καισαρεύς ''Prokópios ho Kaisareús''; la, Procopius Caesariensis; – after 565) was a prominent late antique Greek scholar from Caesarea Maritima. Accompanying the Roman gen ...

, though not unbiased, records the ''Cursus Publicus'' system remained largely intact until it was dismantled in the Byzantine empire by the emperor

Justinian Justinian I (; la, Iustinianus, ; grc-gre, Ἰουστινιανός ; 48214 November 565), also known as Justinian the Great, was the Byzantine emperor from 527 to 565. His reign is marked by the ambitious but only partly realized ''renovat ...

in the 6th century. The Princely House of Thurn and Taxis family initiated regular mail service from

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

in the 16th century, directing the Imperial Post of the

Holy Roman Empire The Holy Roman Empire was a political entity in Western, Central, and Southern Europe that developed during the Early Middle Ages and continued until its dissolution in 1806 during the Napoleonic Wars. From the accession of Otto I in 962 ...

. The

British Postal Museum The Postal Museum (formerly the British Postal Museum & Archive) is a postal museum run by the Postal Heritage Trust. It began in 2004 as The British Postal Museum & Archive and opened in Central London as The Postal Museum on 28 July 2017. Si ...

claims that the oldest functioning post office in the world is on High Street in

Sanquhar Sanquhar ( sco, Sanchar, gd, Seanchair) is a village on the River Nith in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, north of Thornhill and west of Moffat. It is a former Royal Burgh. It is notable for its tiny post office, established in 1712 and con ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

. The post office has functioned continuously since 1712, during which horses and stagecoaches were used to carry mail. In parts of Europe, special

postal censorship Postal censorship is the inspection or examination of mail, most often by governments. It can include opening, reading and total or selective obliteration of letters and their contents, as well as covers, postcards, parcels and other postal pa ...

offices existed to intercept and censor mail. In France, such offices were known as cabinets noirs.

Unstaffed postal facilities

In many jurisdictions, mailboxes and post office boxes have long been in widespread use for drop-off and pickup (respectively) of mail and small packages outside post offices or when offices are closed. Germany's national postage system

Deutsche Post The Deutsche Post AG, operating under the trade name Deutsche Post DHL Group, is a German multinational package delivery and supply chain management company headquartered in Bonn, Germany. It is one of the world's largest courier companies. ...

introduced the Pack-Station for

package delivery Package delivery or parcel delivery is the delivery of shipping containers, parcels, or high value mail as single shipments. The service is provided by most postal systems, express mail, private courier companies, and less than truckload shi ...

, including both drop-off and pickup, in 2001. In the 2000s, the

United States Postal Service The United States Postal Service (USPS), also known as the Post Office, U.S. Mail, or Postal Service, is an independent agency of the executive branch of the United States federal government responsible for providing postal service in the U ...

began to install Automated Postal Centers (APCs) in many locations in both post offices, for when they are closed or busy, and retail locations. APCs can print postage and accept mail and small packages.

Notable post offices

Operational

* General Post Office, state postal system and telecommunications carrier of the United Kingdom until 1969 * General Post Office in

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 c ...

(inaugurated 1818), headquarters of the

Irish post ''The Irish Post'' is a national newspaper for the Irish community in Great Britain. It is published every Wednesday and is sold in shops in Britain and Ireland. History The first print edition of ''The Irish Post'' was published on Friday, ...

and headquarters of the 1916

Easter Uprising The Easter Rising ( ga, Éirí Amach na Cásca), also known as the Easter Rebellion, was an armed insurrection in Ireland during Easter Week in April 1916. The Rising was launched by Irish republicans against British rule in Ireland with the ...

* General Post Office (1864), erected on the site of the

Black Hole of Calcutta The Black Hole of Calcutta was a dungeon in Fort William, Calcutta, measuring , in which troops of Siraj-ud-Daulah, the Nawab of Bengal, held British prisoners of war on the night of 20 June 1756. John Zephaniah Holwell, one of the Britis ...

* General Post Office (1874) in

Chennai Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...

, India * General Post Office (1887) in

Lahore Lahore ( ; pnb, ; ur, ) is the second most populous city in Pakistan after Karachi and 26th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 13 million. It is the capital of the province of Punjab where it is the largest city ...

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 243 million people, and has the world's second-lar ...

* General Post Office (1895), the headquarters of the Sri Lankan Post * General Post Office (1903), headquarters of the

Croatia , image_flag = Flag of Croatia.svg , image_coat = Coat of arms of Croatia.svg , anthem = "Lijepa naša domovino"("Our Beautiful Homeland") , image_map = , map_caption = , capit ...

n post * General Post Office (1976), the headquarters of

Hongkong Post Hongkong Post is a government department of Hong Kong responsible for postal services, though operated as a trading fund. Founded in 1841, it was known as ''Postal Department'' or ''Post Office'' () before the handover of Hong Kong in 199 ...

* General Post Office (1913), the main post office of

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' fin ...

, India, and one of the world's largest (120,000 sq ft or 11,000 m²) * General Post Office Building (1922), former headquarters of the

Chunghwa Post Chunghwa Post Co., Ltd. is the official postal service of Taiwan (officially the Republic of China). Chunghwa Post was a government agency of the Ministry of Transportation and Communications until 2003, when it was reorganized into a governm ...

and present home of the Shanghai Postal Museum * Central Post Office (1939), also temporary home to the

Privy Council of Canada The 's Privy Council for Canada (french: Conseil privé du Roi pour le Canada),) during the reign of a queen. sometimes called Majesty's Privy Council for Canada or simply the Privy Council (PC), is the full group of personal consultants to the ...

Manila Central Post Office The Manila Central Post Office, often called the Post Office Building, is the main postal office of Manila, which also serves as the home of the Philippine Postal Corporation. It also houses the main mail sorting-distribution operations of the Phi ...

(1926, rebuilt after

WWII World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

) *

James Farley Post Office The James A. Farley Building is a mixed-use structure in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, which formerly served as the city's main United States Postal Service (USPS) branch. Designed by McKim, Mead & White in the Beaux-Arts style, the structur ...

(1912), America's largest operating post office, the main office for New York City. Bears the famous translation of

Herodotus Herodotus ( ; grc, , }; BC) was an ancient Greek historian and geographer A geographer is a physical scientist, social scientist or humanist whose area of study is geography, the study of Earth's natural environment and human society ...

's description of the Persian postal system along its front facade: '' "Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds"'' * The Edificio Central de Correos y Telégrafos building (1917), San José, Costa Rica. Contains the Costa Rican Philatelic Museum on the second floor * Polish Post Office, a scene of intense fighting during the 1939

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

invasion of Danzig * Taipei Post Office (1928), the headquarters of

Taiwan Post Chunghwa Post Co., Ltd. is the official postal service of Taiwan (officially the Republic of China). Chunghwa Post was a government agency of the Ministry of Transportation and Communications until 2003, when it was reorganized into a gover ...

First Toronto Post Office Toronto's First Post Office (also known as the Fourth York Post Office National Historic Site of Canada) is a historic post office in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is the oldest purpose-built post office in Canada that functioned as a department of ...

(1833) *

Istanbul Main Post Office The Istanbul Grand Post Office ( tr, Büyük Postane), or Istanbul Main Post Office, is an office building for postal services located in the Sirkeci neighborhood of the Eminönü quarter within the Fatih district of Istanbul, Turkey. It was des ...

(1905), home of the

Istanbul Postal Museum The Istanbul Postal Museum, aka PTT Museum Istanbul ( tr, PTT İstanbul Müzesi), is a postal museum dedicated to the historical development of mail and telecommunication services in the Ottoman Empire and Turkey, exhibiting related equipment and ...

Former

Bandinelli Palace Bandinelli Palace ( it, Palazzo Bandinelli; uk, Палац Бандінеллі; pl, Kamienica Bandinellich we Lwowie) is a late Renaissance townhouse (kamienica (architecture), kamienica) facing Market Square (Lviv), Market Square in Lviv, Ukra ...

(1589), a former post office in

Lviv Lviv ( uk, Львів) is the largest city in western Ukraine, and the seventh-largest in Ukraine, with a population of . It serves as the administrative centre of Lviv Oblast and Lviv Raion, and is one of the main cultural centres of Ukrain ...

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

General Post Office (Washington, D.C.) The General Post Office, also known as the Tariff Commission Building, is a historic building at 700 F Street NW in Washington, D.C., United States. Built in 1839 to a design by Robert Mills and enlarged in 1866 to a design by Thomas U. Walter, i ...

(1842), the city's first "all-marble" building, patterned after Rome's Temple of Jupiter and now a 4-star hotel,

Hotel Monaco The Kimpton Hotel & Restaurant Group, LLC is a San Francisco, California, based hotel and restaurant brand owned by IHG Hotels & Resorts (IHG) since 2015. Founded in 1981 by Bill Kimpton and led by Chief Executive Officer Mike DeFrino, the group ...

* Chief Post Office (1877), the former chief post office of

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

Christchurch Christchurch ( ; mi, Ōtautahi) is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Canterbury Region. Christchurch lies on the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula on Pegasus Bay. The Avon Rive ...

* Central Post Office Building (1903), home of the Government of Sweden * Buenos Aires Central Post Office (1908), now the Bicentennial Cultural Center * The Fullerton (1919), a 5-star hotel in Singapore * Old Main Post Office (1921), an enormous abandoned structure in Chicago * '' Palazzo Delle Poste'' (1928), the former post office of

Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

, heavily damaged during Naples' 1943 uprising against the Nazis

Historic

* The

General Post Office East The General Post Office in St. Martin's Le Grand (later known as GPO East) was the main post office for London between 1829 and 1910, the headquarters of the General Post Office of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and England's ...

(1825), former headquarters of the GPO in London, demolished in 1912

References

External links

Photos of post offices around the world

Royal Mail

The British Postal Museum & Archive

United Kingdom Post Office site

United States Postal Service

Universal Postal Union
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