The story of the PB Post Office

The Poplar Bluff Museum has tales about us, our family and our history. I want to tell you some of those tales found within the museum walls.

The first post office was established in 1840, almost 10 years before Butler County was incorporated. Its first postmaster was Solomon Kittrell of Cane Creek. He was also the first resident of Poplar Bluff. In 1914, the Poplar Bluff Post Office was built on the corner of Broadway and Poplar Street. It was a large stone building with four limestone columns. The strongest building in Butler County, it survived the 1927 tornado.

In 1967 the old post office was replaced by a modern building. Its four historic limestone columns were salvaged and put on exhibit in front of the Poplar Bluff Museum. They are now one of Poplar Bluff’s most distinguishable landmarks.

In 1996 the Rural Free Delivery (RFD) No. 639 employees built a post office exhibit in the Poplar Bluff Museum. It was dedicated to their last postmaster, John MacDonald. Postmaster MacDonald had been the Poplar Bluff Postmaster for 23 years (1963-1986). MacDonald’s mentoring and leadership had inspired sixteen of his employees to become postmasters too.

The Post Office exhibit is an example of a fully-functioning post office. Kids can be a postmaster for a day. They can stamp letters, sort mail and fill post office boxes. Uniforms, hats, mail bags and postal bicycles are available to enhance the experience.

During the Poplar Bluff Sesquicentennial (150 year anniversary), the museum exhibit became an actual post office again. In 1999, the post office museum exhibit issued and canceled Sesquicentennial stamps and envelopes for two days by Postmaster Norman Magill.

The Post Office room is one of the most educational and interactive exhibits in the Museum. The Museum is handicap accessible and open every Sunday free of charge from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. at 1010 Main Street, Poplar Bluff (Formerly the Old Mark Twain School). Tell them Mike sent you!

Mike Shane is a veteran, Poplar Bluff resident and board member for the Poplar Bluff Museum.