The post office in Sheffield, Alabama, was built in 1930, and it's on the National Register of Historic Places.  It is rumored to be haunted by a former postal employee.  Sheffield is the birthplace of actor and senator Fred Thompson (born 1942), who, coincidentally, worked at a post office in Tennessee where he attended high school.  Sheffield is just a few miles from Florence, Alabama, home to one of the best examples of Frank Lloyd Wright's Usonian style (1939-40).

The Times Daily is reporting that the Postal Service, starting July 16, will consolidate delivery services and move them from the Sheffield post office to a new facility out on the highway in nearby Tuscumbia.  USPS spokesman Joseph Breckinridge said  the change is a cost-saving measure that will not affect the retail operations of the downtown Sheffield post office. “We crunched the numbers and it comes out to the good,” Breckinridge said. “The Internet is chewing us up, and we're just trying to deliver the service and trying to think in new ways and cut costs.”  Apparently the consolidation has citizens worried, and the rumors are beginning that the Sheffield post office may eventually be closed completely. 

(Photo credit: jimmywayne, on flickr)