Existing comment:
Nicodemus, Kansas opened a post office on September 12, 1877, the first all-black town to do so. Originally housed in a dugout, the Nicodemus post office later moved to the St. Francis Hotel owned by Postmaster Zachery Fletcher. The hotel's remains are shown in this 1983 National Park Service photograph; the post office was in the two-story, gabled portion on the right.
Kendleton, Texas has the oldest still-operating post office of any historically black town in America. It opened on April 15, 1884 in a cotton processing facility near the railroad depot. The second post office, shown here, was also a generate store and gas station. |