Matthews Post Office
(ca. 1939)
Matthews’ first dedicated post office building, privately funded by the owner of the Matthews Drug Store, served the town for twenty-three years.
195 North Trade St, Matthews, NC 28105
By the 1930s, it was evident that the small yet expanding community of Matthews – whose commercial prosperity and growth stemmed from the 1872 completion of Carolina Central Railroad’s Charlotte-to-Wilmington line and the accompanying 1874 completion of a depot in the community (then known as Stumptown) – was ill-served by its postal service. The meager quarters and frequent relocations of its post office frustrated many of the town residents, especially Lester Hunter Yandle Sr., owner of the Matthews Drug Store. He stepped forward and personally financed the town’s first structure built exclusively to serve as a post office. That now-former U.S. Post Office building on North Trade Street handled the town’s postal services from 1939 until 1962.
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"Doc" Yandle, as he was known by locals, decided to locate the new post office on two contiguous vacant lots he had purchased in 1919 and 1924. The two properties were situated in an ideal location, lying approximately 400 feet from the Seaboard Airline Railroad Depot and abutting the westerly intersection of Trade and Charles Streets. Yandle commissioned W. Alexis Hood, an engineer with the Southern Engineering Company (later to become a nine-term mayor of Matthews from 1945 to 1963), to design an appropriate structure. Yandle also solicited Congressman A. L. Bullwinkle of the Tenth Congressional District to lobby the U.S. Postal Department for authorization. Thanks to Congressman Bullwinkle’s lobbying efforts, the Postal Department agreed to a long-term lease agreement for the building.
Although the federal government granted some leeway in the exterior design of buildings intended for federal use, standardized interior plans for post offices had been established by 1939. The most common architectural styles for the exterior design of most Depression-era post offices were either the Colonial Revival style or, as Hood chose, the Neo-Classical Revival style. Locals claimed that Hood had been inspired by a similar building then situated on Tryon Street in Charlotte. The impressive new post office was a significant contribution to the civic development of Matthews, sending a powerful signal to the town’s residents that theirs was a motivated forward-looking community. Approximately 3,500 people attended the official dedication of the Matthews Post Office that opened on May 3, 1939, with a performance by the U.S. Army’s 105th Engineer Band. Speakers at the ceremony included Congressman Bullwinkle, the postmasters of Matthews and Charlotte, and the Fourth Assistant U.S. Postmaster General.
By 1960, the continued growth of Matthews had exceeded the capacity of the Depression-era post office building. The Postal Department relocated operations in 1962, leaving the former post office building to be occupied by a variety of commercial tenants during subsequent years.