Harmony welcomes village post office
HARMONY — Postal services are returning to the historic borough after a more than a four-year absence.
A new village post office opens this month in Historic Harmony's Museum Shop in the Wagner House Annex, 222 Mercer St.
A grand opening ceremony with representatives of Historic Harmony and the U.S. Postal Service will take place at 1 p.m. Wednesday at the Harmony museum.
Retail postal services will be available during regular shop hours: Tuesday through Saturday from noon to 4 p.m. and Sundays from 1 to 4 p.m. It is closed on Mondays and holidays.
The village post office returns the convenience of basic postal retail services lost to residents and businesses when the lease expiration closed Harmony's Post Office at the municipal building in mid-2009.
Harmony's former post office occupied the same Wagner House space for many decades before being moved to the municipal building in 1967.
“Historic Harmony proposed bringing a village post office to our museum shop primarily as a convenience and need fulfillment for area residents and businesses, as well as for the tourists and shoppers Harmony attracts,” said John Ruch, president of Historic Harmony.
“We will receive a modest monthly operating fee from the postal service, but more important, we also expect this valuable new service at the Harmony Museum to increase customer traffic not only at our shop, but for all the retail businesses in Harmony.”
“It's a great thing for the community,” said Jim Hulings, borough council president. “We don't have the big town facilities like Cranberry Township or even Zelienople. I'm sure residents will put it to good use. It's going to be a meeting place.”
Mayor Cathy Rape said, “I was very upset when they (U.S. Postal Service) left because it hurt the town and the historic district.”
Rape explained about a year ago, she learned about the village post office concept from a Pennsylvania State Association of Borough's newsletter.
She showed it to Ruch, who investigated it.
“At least we're getting a piece of our old post office back,” she said.
Customers can buy Forever stamp booklets, get free priority mail flat rate supplies, drop off postage-prepaid packages for Postal Service pickup and deposit mail in a sidewalk collection box.
There also is free parking adjacent to the museum shop.
There are 439 village post offices opened in the United States.
Village post offices, according to the U.S. Postal Service, are in communities in a variety of locations, including convenience stores, businesses and libraries.
