One of the girls had been asking about how mail gets from one place to another and how the mailman knows where it's going, so I thought it would be fun to take them to the postal museum to learn about mail delivery. On some day off school last fall, we headed downtown for the day.
The postal museum is located at the old post office, which served as the
main post office for DC until the 1980s, I believe. I hadn't realized
this, but when the postal service was established, they built the post
offices next to the major train station for that city in order to facilitate
mail transportation. Makes sense. Anyway, the museum is right across
the street from Union Station, which was the main train stop in DC for
many years. Both the post office and Union Station are gorgeous
buildings.
It was fun to see different mail boxes from different countries
We found Canada's mail box. I'm not sure if it's still the same, but when I was a kid, mail was delivered to a box outside our house, but we had to walk a couple blocks to a neighborhood box for mail that we were sending out. I remember lots of walks down the street to drop off our mail, and it was kind of a privilege to walk mail down to the mailbox when my Mom had to send something out
Playing in an old stagecoach
Practicing sorting mail
2 comments:
That is really fun. What a great idea and it looks like it is fun and educational all at the same time.
Yes, Canada still has the same mail system. And mailmen/women still walk their routes. In fact, the last time I was in Canada I noticed that we still have the same mailman. He must have walked that same route for over 20 years!
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