Post office relocated to 259 Nassau amid debate

After four years and significant debate, the old post office in Palmer Square officially moved to 259 Nassau Street on Nov. 9.

The post office will share space with a new 7-Eleven store, which is still undergoing renovation.

United States Postal Services regional spokesperson for New Jersey Ray Daiutolo did not respond to request for comment.

The relocation of the post office has been discussed since September 2011, when USPS realized they were not utilizing the space at Palmer Square to the fullest extent possible. As a result, the organization began considering the idea of selling the post office.

The Palmer Square property has been purchased by real estate investment and development company LCOR Ventures, and will likely be developed into a retail or dining establishment, according to Planet Princeton.

Representatives from LCOR Ventures did not respond to a request for comment.

Some students are unhappy with the move becausethe new location is about a 10 minute walk from the old one and is less accessible to people on campus.

“It’s annoying to have to walk all the way down the street now,” Lloyd Feng ’19 said.

However, others are relatively indifferent to the move, since mail services are already provided at Frist Campus Center.

“I never really use the post office,” Ruchita Balasubramanian ’19 said.

Mark Aksen ’17 said he did not even know about the existence of the post office until he heard about the move.

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Community members have expressed concerns about relocation, especially regarding the potential loss of the history the building represents.

The sale was initially blocked because of misgivings from the New Jersey Historic Preservation Office. State officials were unsure if sufficient measures would be taken to preserve the history of the building.

The Palmer Square post office was constructed in 1934 as part of the New Deal. Part of the building includes a mural painted by artist Karl Free in 1939, titled “Columbia Under the Palm,” which was a painting commissioned under the New Deal as a public arts project.

“[The Palmer Square post office] was built during the Depression to make people feel proud of their communities, actually to restore confidence in the government,” said Steve Hutkins, a literature professor at New York University.

Hutkins runs a website called Save the Post Office, which tracks and reports on the closings of local post offices.

He said that the new post office building is nondescript at best, and lamented the diminished view of the post office. Hutkins added that going into the old post office was similar to going into an art museum, a feeling that cannot be replicated in the Nassau Street building.

Hutkins noted that the relocation of the post office is yet another example of the current trend of selling post offices.