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A discontinued post office or DPO is an American postal term for a post office which is no longer in service or is in service under another name. Some are in ghost towns, some victims of consolidation of mail service as small post offices are closed or a city expands. The introduction of Rural Free Delivery, RFD, in 1902 led to the closure of many post offices, which peaked in 1901 at 76,945. In the United States, which was mostly rural, mail previously had been picked up in rural areas at small local post offices, home delivery being limited to urban areas until experimentation with rural delivery began in 1890.
Covers, that is letters, wrappers, or postmarks from discontinued post officers are of interest to students of
A discontinued post office or DPO is an American postal term for a post office which is no longer in service or is in service under another name. Some are in ghost towns, some victims of consolidation of mail service as small post offices are closed or a city expands. The introduction of Rural Free Delivery, RFD, in 1902 led to the closure of many post offices, which peaked in 1901 at 76,945. In the United States, which was mostly rural, mail previously had been picked up in rural areas at small local post offices, home delivery being limited to urban areas until experimentation with rural delivery began in 1890.
Covers, that is letters, wrappers, or postmarks from discontinued post officers are of interest to students of postal history
Postal history is the study of postal systems and how they operate and, or, the study of the use of postage stamps and covers and associated postal artifacts illustrating historical episodes in the development of postal systems. The term is att ...
. As one example, in Saguache County, Colorado there are over 50 discontinued post offices.
Notes
Further reading
Examples of references from the postal history of Colorado: *Bauer, William H.; Ozment, James L.; and Willard, John H., ''Colorado Post Offices, 1859-1989: A Comprehensive Listing of Post Offices, Stations, and Branches'', Colorado Railroad Museum (May 1990), hardcover, 280 pages, *Helbock, Richard W., ''A Checklist of Colorado Post Offices 1858-1988'' *Jarrett, David L., ''Colorado Territorial and Pre-Territorial Postmarks'', Collector Club of Chicago (January 1, 1976), hardcover *Meschter, Daniel Y., ''Pre-Territorial Colorado Postal History'', La Posta Publications (1994), 91 pages *Segerstrom, Kenneth ''Colorado Illustrated Covers'' La Posta Publications (1988), paperback, 100 pages {{DEFAULTSORT:Discontinued Post Office Postal history Philatelic terminology Philately of the United States Postal history of the United States