you've got mail

 

48 mailboxes seem sufficient for the population of Afton, Texas.  The signs advise that mail will be up by 9:30 and post office hours are M-F 8:00 - 12:30 and Saturday 8:00 to 10:00.  With recent post office closures, Afton is lucky to still have one.  The story goes that this community was first known as Patton Springs, which is the school's name, prior to the 1890s. The first post office was Beckton after the first postmaster; when it closed the community called itself Cottowood but reapplication for a post office had the name already in use.  So citizen Myra Kelly suggested the name Afton from the English song "Flow Gently, Sweet Afton."  The new post office opened in 1900 when the town was populated by Myra and nine of her friends.  There's not many more than that there today.

 

U. S. Post Office

Afton, Dickens County, Texas

6.13.2015

 

79540

 

The former post office building in Old Glory stands in tribute to a community's past where getting the mail was a social event.  The weathered frame structure, even with modern ADA improvements, has character.  The new post office, built according to Handbook AS-503, Standard Design Criteria, looks just like hundreds of small town post offices everywhere.  Despite the new steel building,  the post master (or postmistress) probably still knows everybody and folks still gather about 10:00 a.m. to cuss and discuss.

 



79540

 



Old Glory, Texas

4-25-2014