The lot where the Montevallo Post Office has been located since 1937, at the northeast corner of Main and Vine Streets, was previously occupied by a large, elegant house that you see in the photo from 1900. Another of the imposing and handsome Victorian structures that once dotted the Main Street district of Montevallo, this was the home of James L. McConaughy and family.
In the 1880’s J.L. became Secretary/Treasurer and partner with William F. Aldrich in the Montevallo Coal Mining Co. According to an October 1935 article from the Montevallo Times, the house was known as the T.W. Cox residence at the time the property was sold to the Federal Government for the new post office at a cost of $6000. The article described the lot as the “most beautiful” of the ten lots in town that were submitted for consideration. In another article from December 1935, it was announced that the Cox house would be moved that week and “the building will be placed on the McConaughy property next to the post office lot, and will be remodeled and repaired.”
The house that is still on the southeast corner of Vine and Valley streets that became known around town as the “McConaughy house” is possibly the Cox house but with a substantially altered appearance following the remodeling. The statement that the house was moved to a lot next to the post office property cannot be correct because a two story rooming house that can be seen in these photos was already standing next to the new post office site before the Cox house was moved.
Work on the new Montevallo Post Office got underway in 1936. In an article in the Montevallo Times that year, it was reported that the concrete floor had been poured, some marble set, and the cornerstone laid by Arnold Bearden, foreman of brick laying and marble, assisted by Clarence Hughes, bricklayer, on Monday, September 21, 1936 at nine a.m.
The building was started during the Depression era years of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s first term and was just one example of his New Deal public works programs intended to create jobs and stimulate the economy. Henry Morgenthau and James Farley were both members of Roosevelt’s cabinet and close political allies of the President.
The photo above shows the new Montevallo Post Office as it looked when it opened in 1937. With the exception of having the windows and doors thrown open for ventilation prior to the addition of air conditioning in the 1960’s, this handsome architectural creation doesn’t look very different today, some 82 years later. We can be thankful that the U.S. Postal Service has seen fit to preserve not only the exterior of the building but much of the customer service area inside. Beautiful marble and stained wood paneling and brass fixtures are featured throughout the service area and establish for visitors a sense that this is a place to conduct serious business. They get the impression from the quiet elegance of the building that they can rest assured their mail is being taken care of by a highly competent corps of postal workers dedicated to accomplishing their appointed rounds and the task at hand.
Thanks to Clay Nordan, Vice President of Montevallo Historical Society, for this information!
CORRECTION TO "U.S. POST OFFICE PART 1":
While researching this week's Throwback Thursday feature, we came across a 1936 article from the Montevallo Times clarifying our speculation about the fate of the Cox house that was the previous occupant of the new post office lot. The article establishes that Mr. W.P. McConaughy was the owner of the vacant lot between the Cox house and his own house on the corner of Vine and Valley and did indeed move the Cox house to his lot to make way for the post office. He wasted no time in remodeling the house and breaking it up into four apartments. He completed this work well before the post office was finished. The apartment house was later sold to O.B. Cooper, power house engineer for Alabama College.