POST MARK COLLECTORS CLUB - POST OFFICE PHOTOGRAPH COLLECTION

Post Office: Charleston, SC 29423 (Charleston County)
Date of Photo: circa 1907
Contributor: Paul E. Petosky, Postmarks from the Past
Comment: Photo shows post office and park. Post office completed and occupied in 1896. Style of architecture is the Italian renaissance. The whole building is finished in marble and mahogany. IMPORTANT HISTORICAL FACTS: A post office apparently operated at Charleston as early as 1694. The Charleston Post Office is first mentioned in postal records in Hugh Finlay's Journal of November 1773 -- a Mr. Roupell is noted as the postmaster. Peter Bonetheau (also spelled Bounetheau) is listed as the postmaster at Charleston in Benjamin Franklin's Ledger, which was compiled from 1776 to 1778. (Prior to the 1800s, the post office's name was spelled Charlestown or Charles Town.)