In January 2024, the Postal Service — on very short notice — suspended services at the post office on Main Street in Watertown Square, the downtown hub of Watertown (02472), on the west side of the Boston Metro area. The building’s owner planned to tear it down and replace it with a larger building.

At that time, a spokesperson for the Postal Service explained that “the landlord is planning to redevelop the property, a process that is expected to take approximately two years. We hope to move back into the newly renovated building at that time.”

Watertown Post Office was razed, Sept. 24, 2024. (Photo by Chuck Dickinson)

The Postal Service could have found temporary quarters or set up a temporary mobile unit, but instead it moved operations to the New Town office, about a half mile away.

The Watertown Square post office (officially Watertown Financial) is currently listed on the Find USPS Locations website as “Temporarily closed.” It’s been that way for nearly two and a half years.

Customers of the Watertown Square post office have had good reason to expect that when the new building was completed, the post office would reopen. 

Based on ongoing conversations with the Postal Service, the developer was optimistic that the post office would reopen later this summer when the building is ready for occupancy.

But the Postal Service recently informed the developer that it does not plan to open a branch in Watertown’s downtown.

Earlier this week, the City Manager told the City Council that the Postal Service had informed the developer that it no longer wishes “to explore adding locations as part of a wider strategy shift, despite the willingness and interest from the parties involved.” 

“My understanding,” said the City Manager, “is they canceled multiple in-progress conversations about opening retail storefronts far beyond just Watertown.”

That comment is noteworthy. Did the Postal Service reveal that there are no plans to ever open a replacement post office in Watertown, in the new building or anywhere else? Did the Postal Service actually tell the developer that it is no longer adding locations as part of a wider strategy?

Rendering of new building (Courtesy of O’Connor Capital Partners)

It’s possible that there’s been a misunderstanding or miscommunication.  Perhaps the Postal Service did not say it had no plans for a new downtown office at all. Perhaps when it came time to move back to the new building, the Postal Service decided that the lease costs were too high or there were other problems with the new space. But that doesn’t seem to have been communicated to the developer.

Congresswoman Katherine Clark and other elected officials have started advocating for a branch somewhere in Watertown Square, and it’s still possible a post office may eventually open in another downtown location.

But if the Postal Service has decided not to reopen a replacement branch, it is legally required to initiate a formal discontinuance process. The Postal Service cannot simply close a branch and consolidate its operations with another post office.

The discontinuance process involves a public comment period, a public meeting, and a right to appeal the closing to the Postal Regulatory Commission. The process is set forth in federal regulations and Handbook PO-101: Postal Service-Operated Retail Facilities Discontinuance Guide. 

As discussed in this previous post about the “permanent suspension” of a small post office in Wilton, Arkansas, it’s not uncommon for suspensions to go on for years without being resolved by a reopening or discontinuance. 

But suspensions cannot be permanent. De facto discontinuances are not legal, and they have been the subject of continuous review by the Postal Regulatory Commission, as well as criticisms and proposed legislation by members of Congress

It has often seemed that the Postal Service suspended a post office with no intention of ever reopening it, but it has never said as much. And even if it took years and much prodding by the PRC, the Postal Service has always gone through a discontinuance process before closing a post office permanently.

The Wilton and Watertown suspensions thus raise the question: Is the Postal Service now making suspensions permanent without ever going through a discontinuance process and giving the public an opportunity to comment and appeal? That would indeed be a new “wider strategy shift” for closing post offices.

There’s more about the problem of long-term suspensions in this post and on our suspension dashboard.

— Steve Hutkins