Mailboxes are as quintessentially American as baseball and apple pie, yet in today’s digital age of texts and emails, we often overlook the charm of daily home mail delivery.

Have you ever wondered about the origins of U.S. mailboxes or why some have vanished from our neighborhoods?

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Free City Delivery Services

The Post Office began offering Free City Delivery Services in 1863 and was an instant success.

Residents enjoyed no longer needing to plan trips to town to send or receive mail.

However, since the delivery service was new, the USPS did not immediately require people to have receptacles or mailboxes to receive the mail.

In these times, carriers would knock on the door or ring the bell and wait for the resident to answer.

If they received no response, the mail would be left outside, exposed to the elements.

Mailboxes: Shapes and Sizes

Like anything else, manufacturing companies began to realize that this presented them with a profitable opportunity to solve this issue.

Soon, mailboxes were available in different sizes, shapes, and designs, with little to no uniformity.

Those who couldn’t afford a mailbox could fashion one out of anything from crates and old cans to food cartons.

As you can imagine, this led to an unsightly display of mismatched repositories.

USPS Introduces the Mailbox

In 1903, the U.S. Postal Service recognized the need to address issues with mailboxes and appointed a five-member commission to evaluate existing designs.

Finding all options inadequate, the Post Office Department developed its own standardized mailbox to better meet its requirements.

Mailboxes and Roy Joroleman

In 1915, Roy Joroleman, a postal engineer, designed the tunnel-style box we know today.

Since then, USPS mailboxes have evolved to fit the changing needs of people.

Today, you can find heavy-duty mailboxes, locking mailboxes, extra-large boxes, and more.

The Disappearance of the Blue Postal Boxes

Remember back in the early 2000s? It seemed like there was a large blue postal box installed at nearly every prominent street corner.

Nationally, the number of these boxes has declined significantly over the years. In fact, some customers were left upset by this and complained that the USPS was removing too many of the boxes.

This has proved to be a tricky balancing act for the USPS. Some blue collection boxes are rarely used, and they are expensive to maintain.

Alternatively, these boxes represent the visual presence of the Postal Service in America, and people have noticed their disappearance.

After all, they’re secure, reliable, and convenient places to put outgoing mail.

So, why have these blue collection boxes disappeared?

According to the Postal Service, their goal is to keep mail collection infrastructure proportionate with needs but at a reasonable price.

Hence, they’ve removed any box that averages less than 25 pieces of mail per day.

At the same time, they’ve added boxes to more popular areas for convenience.

Ultimately, it’s sad to see the blue collection boxes disappear, but you can’t help but think – what’s next?

The rise of technology and instant delivery mail types such as text and email leaves us with one question.

How long until home mailboxes begin to disappear?