Tag Archives: Westport Post Office

From “Paint It Black” To “A Whiter Shade Of Pale”

Posted on August 7, 2013 | 8 comments

In June, “06880” reported that the owners of the old post office intended to paint the exterior of their new restaurant — Post 154 — an indeterminate color. It was described as “brown,” “a dark shade” and “a bit purply.”

Some “06880” commenters noted that property owners can pretty much do whatever they please. Many more, however, were appalled at changes to the handsome brick building.

It was a dark moment in town.

Yesterday — in a meeting with town officials including Planning and Zoning director Laurence Bradley, P&Z Commission chair Catherine Walsh and Historic District Commission administrator Carol Leahy — owners Joe and Melissa Kelly, and architect Bruce Beinfield said they will not paint the brick.

The interior is reported to look great.

Now the exterior will, too.

(Click here if your browser does not take you directly to YouTube.)

8 Comments

Posted in Local politics, People, Restaurants

Tagged Laurence Bradley, Post 154 Restaurant, Westport Post Office

Paint It Black

Posted on June 20, 2013 | 16 comments

Don’t be surprised if one day soon the old post office turns from white to black.

Or — depending on who’s talking — “brown,” “a dark shade,” or “a bit purply.”

The WPA-era building in the heart of downtown has stood vacant since December 2011. In the 18 months since, work has proceeded slowly — v-e-r-y slowly — on a new restaurant that will occupy both the main floor and lower level (banquet room).

Little seems to have been done, except for the removal of historical windows early in the renovation. (“Oops” was pretty much the non-apology for that move.)

Recently though, when the Atlanta-based owners of the white concrete and red brick building planned to paint it a dark color, they were asked to approach the Architectural Review Board for comment and direction.

Their attorney told them they did not have to do that.

Besides, he said, we’re not painting it — our tenant (the restaurant) is.

Also besides, it might not be painted. Maybe stained.

The lawyer is right.

Legally, that is.

In terms of being good neighbors, though — well, that should be the 1st item on any owner’s menu.

(Click here if your browser does not take you directly to YouTube.)

16 Comments

Posted in Downtown, Restaurants

Tagged Westport Post Office

Dead Letters: The Sequel

Posted on August 3, 2012 | 3 comments

The renovation of the old post office — noted here a couple of hours ago — may not be what it seems.

The word on the street is that official approval has not yet been given for construction.

Already gone are windows that some consider “historic.”

I called Westport’s Planning and Zoning office for comment. Unfortunately, it was 3:22 p.m. On Fridays, the office closes at 3.

The circa-1935 windows are already gone.

3 Comments

Posted in Downtown

Tagged Westport Post Office

Dead Letters

Posted on August 3, 2012 | 7 comments

A few months after the post office decamped for muchmorecramped quarters in Playhouse Square, work has begun on the stately old building.

It’s being transformed into a restaurant. The cuisine and name have not been announced, but it will feature 14-foot ceilings, a large bar, and outdoor dining.

A view from Bay Street shows the door to the (former) postmaster’s office is wide open.

Meanwhile, removal of planting in front of the building reveals a cornerstone. Let’s hope the renovation spares this little piece of local history.

7 Comments

Posted in Downtown, Local business, Looking back, Restaurants

Tagged Henry Morgenthau, Westport Post Office

Posted Times

Posted on March 31, 2012 | 17 comments

Sure, our new post office is bright and shiny and only slightly tinier than the number of cells in Rush Limbaugh’s brain dedicated to understanding the concept of birth control.

Our post office is one other thing: confused about the time mail gets picked up.

Here is the sign inside, just above the drop box for letters with postage:

Okay. So mail gets picked up twice each weekday — and both at the tail end of the workday? Twice a day, only 90 minutes apart?

And on Saturday it’s picked up at midnight — that’s 0:00 a.m., right? — just a few hours after the clerks have gone for the day?

But just outside the front door stand two big drop boxes. Here’s what they say:

So there’s an extra pickup outside every day, at 1 p.m.? They can’t go inside then to scoop up the mail? And what goes on between the noon collection on Saturdays, and the indoor collection an hour later?

But wait! There’s more!

One lonely drop box sits at the front of the Playhouse Square parking lot, near Kennedy’s exclusive barber shop. It pre-dates the new post office, but it’s the Holy Grail of Saturday mail:

I can’t explain that 10 a.m. Saturday pickup, or the 3 p.m. weekday one.

But I do understand one thing more clearly now: why employees “go postal.”

17 Comments

Posted in Organizations, Places, Totally random

Tagged US Postal Service, Westport Post Office

A Fond Farewell To Lee Bennett

Posted on March 7, 2012 | 14 comments

The recent move of the Westport Post Office from the Post Road to Playhouse Square jarred many Westporters.

But we adapted. We’re survivors.

Much more traumatic will be the loss of Lee Bennett.

This Friday marks the last day here for the popular, ever-positive, always-helpful desk clerk. Next week she transfers to Bridgeport, much closer to her home in Stratford.

She’s served — and served with a smile — Westport for 26 years. She began her working life as an elementary school special education teacher in Stratford, but took the US Postal Service test, passed — and never regretted it.

Lee Bennett proudly displays her memory book.

“I love it! I love my job!” she said earlier this week. “The people — they’re my friends. Every day I get to express my feelings toward them.”

Lee expresses those feelings in a variety of languages. German, Swedish, Spanish, Danish — she’s learned how to say “hello” in all of them. “It makes them smile,” she explains. “And that makes me smile.”

Though she will miss working in Westport (“we rise to the challenge” is all she’ll say about the cramped Playhouse Square facility), she will not forget the many customers who love her.

They won’t let her forget them. For a couple of weeks, they’ve been signing a memory book for Lee.

The pages are filled with sentiments like “Thank you!” “Good luck!” And, of course, “Keep smiling!”

She points to several messages, written in Spanish and other languages.

“It’s not how many friends you can count — it’s how many you can count on,” she said.

For 26 years, Westporters have counted on Lee Bennett.

As our interview ended she opened her drawer, and gave me a candy.

“I do that for all my friends!” she said.

With a smile.

(The Bayview Post Office is at 115 Boston St., Bridgeport. Click here for information — and directions, so you can visit Lee there.)

14 Comments

Posted in Organizations, People

Tagged Lee Bennett, US Postal Service, Westport Post Office

When Postmen Really Carried The Mail

Posted on February 10, 2012 | 14 comments

Last month the Westport Post Office moved to newer, smaller quarters. The old Post Road building seems like the perfect PO — and it seems to have been around forever.

Really, though, it was built “only” in 1935 (as a WPA project, for all you anti-socialists.)

Before that, mail delivery in Westport was a different affair. 86-year-old Elwood Betts, an amateur historian, recalls the life and times of rural mail carrier Harry Brown Fairchild — Elwood’s “Uncle Harry.”

Harry graduated from Staples High School in 1897. There were only 4 others in his senior class.

Harry Brown Fairchild, as a young man.

He inherited a large farm from his father, but he had neither the interest nor training to continue.

In 1901, 21-year-old Harry began his career as a rural mail carrier. For the first 3 years he traveled his 26-mile route in different ways: horse and buggy, bicycle, even walking (in winter).

In 1904 he acquired a car. He was paid a mileage allowance to use it.

His first route had 90 families. Later, it grew to 1,300 customers.

Harry was more than a mail deliverer, Elwood says. He was also a “town crier,” bringing news of the day. And he took grocery orders, delivering food to shut-ins.

He had one of the first telephones in town, and was called upon to summon doctors or call in other emergencies for people with no other means to communicate.

Harry Fairchild, in his Model 10 Buick, 1914.

Harry used his own car to deliver mail through 1942, when he retired. He estimated he covered 318,000 miles, and delivered 5 million letters and packages during his 41-year career.

One of his customers was William S. Hart. The Broadway and silent movie star lived here with his mother and sister.

Harry said that another customer — E.M. Asche — was the 1st artist to make his home here. Others followed, and that (according to Harry) was the start of Westport’s fame as an artists’ colony.

Harry’s hobbies were traveling to New York on Sundays, horse racing, flower shoes and county fairs.

He died on April 17, 1954.

By then, the US Postal Service was using mail trucks. Plenty of Westporters had their own phones. Mailmen did not deliver groceries.

And the downtown post office was already nearly 2 decades old.

Harry Brown Fairchild, distinguished mail carrier.

14 Comments

Posted in Looking back, People

Tagged Elwood Betts, Harry Fairchild, Westport Post Office

You’ve Got Mail!

Posted on January 4, 2012 | 6 comments

By 3:30 yesterday afternoon, Dennis Kassimis was exhausted.

It was the day after a federal holiday — always a busy time for the Westport Post Office, which he serves as postmaster.

It was the first “real” workday after Christmas. Westporters who had been away were laden with packages to return, gifts to send back — and, of course, mail to pick up from PO boxes.

Plus, it was the 1st day in the new, but decidedly smaller, Westport post office in Playhouse Square.

Dennis Kassimis

Over the weekend, the move was made. Kassimis downsized — from 7000 square feet in the downtown location that opened in 1935, to 2700 square feet in the former location of Derma Clinic.

But unlike empty nesters looking for less space, the Post Office staff remains the same. There are, however, fewer sales windows — only 2 — plus 1 to pick up items.

There’s a lot less space everywhere — including the lobby.

The newness of the facility — clerks not sure where everything was, people still moving boxes around, along with the tightness of the waiting area, where bundled-up patrons were burdened with extra packages — made for a tough 1st day.

“We’re getting the kinks worked out,” Kassimis said with a weary smile. “We’re trying to get rid of the clutter.”

Kassimis is sure things will be better soon. He’s already pleased with the PO box area — which finally offers 24-hour access to box holders.

He went from 758 boxes in the old facility, to 678 in the new one. But all 80 boxes that disappeared were inactive. So no one lost a PO box — and everyone got to keep the same number.

The line yesterday at the new post office was literally out the door -- at least, one of the doors.

As a result, the new boxes skip a few numbers here and there. A few years from now, that will no doubt be a trivia question posed to “06880.”

Kassimis is also happy with the parking. There was no dedicated lot downtown; now there are plenty of Playhouse Square spots.

At 3:30 yesterday, they were all filled. One woman parked by the curb, nearly blocking access to the condominiums behind.

Full disclosure: I live in those condos. The new post office will make access a bit more difficult. And the extra traffic will no doubt make leaving the shopping center a lot harder.

Interestingly, the reason for the move was the financial situation of the US Postal Service. Since we all now communicate by email and IMs, and send everything by FedEx, the Postal Service is in tough shape.

Though — judging by yesterday’s lines — there are still plenty of Westporters who need the post office.

Welcome to the neighborhood, post office and patrons! For the sake of us who live (and shop) here: Please drive and park safely!

A woman idling outside the post office -- making driving difficult. She was there when I went in, and was still there when I came out 20 minutes later.

6 Comments

Posted in Downtown, Local business, People, Places, Real estate

Tagged Dennis Kassimis, Playhouse Square, US Postal Service, Westport Post Office