ORANGE COUNTY, Va. (WVIR) – The United States Postal Service is now weighing in on the closing of the Montpelier Station Post Office in Orange County.
In a statement, the USPS says it found out the post office was in a building that was recognized as a historic site with a museum about segregation. The USPS decided to “suspend” the post office to make sure that customers did not associate it with discrimination and segregation.
The full statement from USPS says:
“Regarding the Postal Service’s decision to suspend operations at the Montpelier Station Post Office… this is a leased Postal Service-operated facility, which has one employee and operates four hours daily. This postal facility is co-located in a building that has been recognized as a historic site with a museum about segregation. There are two exterior doors to the museum, and signage above one door reads “Whites” while the other bears a sign “Colored.” Information about this museum and its proximity to the Post Office was only recently brought to the attention of senior Postal Service management. Because the Post Office is co-located in the same building as the segregation museum, Postal Service management considered that some customers may associate the racially-based, segregated entrances with the current operations of the Post Office, and thereby draw negative associations between those operations and the painful legacy of discrimination and segregation that marked prior historical eras. Thus, Postal Service management elected to suspend the Montpelier Post Office with the intention of finding suitable alternative quarters in the community, or in the absence of any, to proceed with a discontinuance study if appropriate.”
CEO and Interim President of The Montpelier Foundation Elizabeth Chew says she was not notified before the closure.