The aerial view of the post office was taken in 1918. The post office was remodeled in the 1960’s with oak wood. Ebenezer H. Neil founded the post office and then became the postmaster. The post office that we know today was not the first one built in Skowhegan. The first one was in the Locke Tavern on Main St.

In order to build our current post office they had to tear down a house. There have been many different post masters. The first post master was Ebenezer H. Neil who was appointed in 1823. Our current post master is William J. Sylvain.

The first truck arrives at 4:25 a.m. to deliver the mail to the post office. Then the first employees get there at 5:00 a.m. The carriers get there at 7:30 to start sorting their mail. Each carrier gets their mail for their route. They need to arrange their mail in the order that they will need it to be delivered. The truck that takes the outgoing mail arrives at the post office at 2:50pm to take the express mail and priority mail. At 5:40pm the truck that takes the rest of the mail comes in. They average about six to eight cages of mail each day. Around Christmas time it gets much busier and they get twelve to thirteen cages full of mail a day.

The first class mail is the most important and gets sent out right away. The advertisements that come in the mail are 3rd class. The 3rd class mail does not get distributed until the day after the post office gets them. Close to Christmas the advertisements slow down mail deliveries because companies sent catalogs out early and they think that you have already done your Christmas shopping.

The mail gets to its destination 96% of the time. The other 4% don't make it to there destination. They have to deliver in the city and in the outskirts. There are carriers that drive and there are carriers that have to walk. There are many fraud reports yearly, there are even some in our home town. The mail carriers are careful and keep and eye out for fraud. Working in the post office is a tough job but also very rewarding.

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