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Marie White
Clarke County, Iowa history
The T. E. Swaim building on the southwest corner of the square has been undergoing a transformation and is ready for occupancy by the Osceola Post Office. According to Postmaster J. E. Graves, the move to the new quarters is to be made on Sept. 5, 1925.
The new room has undergone many changes since it was vacated by O. A. White Grocery. Mr. White moved his grocery to the room just west of his old location. Before moving, this room was nicely fixed for a grocery. The front was remodeled, a new floor was put down and lived up to his reputation in his new location.
As soon as Mr. White was moved, the work for remodeling the future post office began. A large pipeless furnace was installed in the basement that would adequately heat the large room which with the numerous times the door is opened each day makes it rather of a problem. The middle entrance at the north was changed so that the door opens on the west side, giving a large office space for the postmaster. Three good-sized windows have been cut along the east so that the postal employees may have sufficient light for their work.
The lobby of the new room will be along the west side of the room, and the fixtures will be the same used in the present location. They are the property of Mr. Swaim, who purchased them from Dr. Bolibaugh, the owner of the room in which the office has been located for the past 18 or 20 years.
In the past, the shifting of the location of the post office has caused a shift in the business center of the city; it is not thought this is possible now. With city delivery and rural delivery, the number of persons who personally visit the office is much smaller than before. At one time, when all mail was distributed from the office windows, the number of persons who came there daily was very large. Now all is changed. Less than one-third of the city patrons get their mail from a rented box, no one of the rural patrons receive their mail other than by carrier. The principal use made of the office is for the receipt of parcels and the purchase of money orders and postage.
In the opinion of many persons, it will be but a matter of a few years until Osceola has a federal building owned and erected by the government for the sole use of the post office. The post office was at the Swaim building location for 10 years when it moved to its current location at 104 S. Fillmore St.
Columnist’s note: The Swaim building is located at 200 W. Jefferson St., the present location of Reynoldson, Van Werden & McCoy LLP Law Firm. The brick building was built in 1880 by Mr. Bird Pritchett. It was known as the Pritchett Opera House, where musical and dramatic road shows were performed.
This week, Mr. Pritchett’s third great-granddaughter will be traveling from Oklahoma to Osceola to see the building and meet with owner Mr. Reynoldson. She will also be visiting Mr. Pritchett’s home and the cemetery where he and other family members are buried.