On Oct. 20, 1960, a fully automated Post Office opened in Providence, RI.
Postmaster General Arthur Summerfield — the PMG behind missile mail — championed the endeavor, dubbed “Project Turnkey” because it was meant to process mail at ”the turn of a key.”
A 25-foot-tall control center watched over three miles of conveyer belts and state-of-the-art culling, positioning, sorting and canceling machines in a facility that covered 13 acres.
The Citizens’ Stamp Advisory Committee considered releasing a stamp commemorating the undertaking but decided against it, deeming the theme too self-referential. It also worried that an emphasis on automation would be unpopular in a time of increased unemployment.
Summerfield overruled the committee’s decision, and his instincts were vindicated: The organization sold more than 833,000 First Automated Post Office stamps and 458,000 souvenir envelopes on Oct. 20 alone. The popular release opened the door to more postal-themed stamps, including the 1963 City Mail Delivery stamp, the 1971 USPS logo stamp and the 1973 Postal Service Employees set.
Unfortunately, the automated Post Office was not embraced as wholeheartedly as the stamp that promoted it. Equipment malfunctions and lack of employee training led detractors to label the effort “Project Turkey,” although today it is also viewed as a kind of beta test of postal automation.
If nothing else, the structure is considered an architectural highlight in Providence.
“This is really a remarkable building, utterly unlike anything else here,” the Providence Preservation Society writes in its Guide to Providence Architecture.
“It’s almost as if this were the love child of (Eero) Saarinen and Mies van der Rohe. While too big to be considered delightfully quirky, it is an interesting, unusual and highly visible landmark that should be better appreciated than it is.”
