We had some calls from Polish people with complaints about the future of the city without access to the old post office. Greg Kowalski, chairman of the Hamtramck Historical Commission, underlines in his article that the post office is a great link to the city’s history. The post office on Caniff was completed in May 1936, in the midst of the Great depression, but postal service had long been established in Hamtramck by then.

On Feb. 15, 1915, the Hamtramck Rural District was taken over by the Detroit Post Office and made an independent station at what is now 8578 Jos. Campau, at the corner of Dan Street. In 1923 the building was destroyed by fire, and postal services were moved to the Milwaukee Station on Grand Boulevard. But just a month later, space was rented in the original Liberty State Bank building, which is now where the Polish Art Center is located.

In 1929, the city petitioned the Federal government to build a new post office in Hamtramck, which by then had grown to 56,000 people. In October, 1935, ground was officially broken for the new post office. Congressman George A. Sadowski turned the first shovel of dirt. Mayor Joseph Lewandowski turned the second. “It has taken years of hard work to make this new post office possible, but it has been worth it.” Sadowski then said.>

The Hamtramck Post Office was previously included in a list of locations that were under consideration for closure, but in a recent letter to the Committee to Save the Hamtramck Post Office, Detroit Postmaster Loyd E. Wesley, Jr. Indicated that the Hamtramck branch was no longer to be eliminated. Russ Gordon, Chairman of the committee to save the post office had noted that many Hamtramck patrons were immigrants without the means to travel to more distant locations, and that it „made sense” to keep the Hamtramck office open.