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St.Albert Post Office

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Best of T8N 2017

Best of T8N 2017

FOR MOST OF St. Albert’s history, if you wanted to get in contact with anyone outside of the community, you would have to write them a letter. And that meant a trip to the post office. Today, there are many more options available, but the city’s postal service still plays a vital role in the welfare of the community. The post office itself has seen many changes since it was founded, but over the last 137 years, it has remained devoted to connecting St. Albert’s citizens to their loved ones, both near and far. Here’s a look back at how it all began.

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1880s

The first post office in St. Albert was established in 1880, by the same group of missionaries who first settled St. Albert 19 years prior. The post office was located within the clergy residences atop Mission Hill and was run by the church. In those days, if you wanted to check your mail, you would have to make your way to the post office to see if anything had arrived for you. This could be a long trek, especially for rural farmers.

FUN FACT

St. Albert received an alternate designation in 1972 when Canada Post assigned the code “T8N” to the town in order to improve the efficiency of mail sorting and delivery.

Today

With the rise of the Internet, the postage system in St. Albert has slowed down somewhat, as fewer and fewer people are using the post as a form of long-distance communication. In 2013, Canada Post made the decision to phase out door-to-door delivery entirely, and in 2016, they were on the verge of closing down the Perron Street post office entirely. After much rallying from the community, the decision was overturned.

St. Albert’s postal system may not be used as much today as it has been in the past, but for the foreseeable future, it’s here to stay. t8n

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