Remember last fall when we revealed that HSOY owns the Yarmouth Port Post Office building? Are you curious as to how this came about? Let us share this interesting story with you.
In 1958, the year the building was constructed, HSOY was in its infancy and seeking innovative ways to raise funds for restoration of its Greek Revival treasure, the Captain Bangs Hallet House. Then, seemingly by a stroke of luck, an individual unaffiliated with HSOY came forward and proposed building a post office in a compatible architectural style on land he wanted to lease from the group. Thus began HSOY’s journey of deriving rental income to further its mission; of fostering the construction of a much-needed new post office; and of focusing on historic preservation and conservation projects on its 50-acre parcel of land.
The South Yarmouth Pancake Man.
The individual behind building the Yarmouth Port Post Office was John T. Crawford of South Yarmouth. According to ads that appeared in the Yarmouth Register in 1958, he was the proprietor of Babbitt Rentals, Hyannis, which was a tool and equipment rental business (interestingly enough, in 1961 he and his wife Frances were co-founders of The Pancake Man restaurant in South Yarmouth!). He also must have been a builder because the U.S. Postal Service awarded him the contract to build the Yarmouth Port Post Office. After the town denied construction at one location, he was forced to identify another site. It appears that by March of that year, he had contacted HSOY about leasing some land. The minutes of HSOY’s Executive Board meeting, dated March 17, 1958, indicate that “land is to be leased to John T. and Frances Crawford for a term of 10 years at an annual rental of $240, payable in monthly installments of $20…with an option for extension times” and “said property is to be used for a Post Office.” Ann Maxtone-Graham, co-founder and then-president of HSOY, “…said Mr. Crawford had been very helpful in making the arrangement” and added that “…Royal Barry Wills, well-known Boston architect, would design a colonial style building” (Yarmouth Register, March 14, 1958).
Yarmouth Port Post office, about 1959.
As part of this project, the historically separate Yarmouth and Yarmouth Port post offices merged into one operation. As highlighted in a May 9, 1958, article in the Yarmouth Register, “[t]he Post Office Department decided to consolidate Yarmouth Port and Yarmouth Post Offices by absorbing the Yarmouth office in the new building…”
The new post office opened at the beginning of August, with the merging of the two offices having been completed at the end of the month. The previous Yarmouth Port Post Office was housed in the 19th-century commercial building at 194 Route 6A, which became the offices of the Dennis Yarmouth Register immediately after the post office vacated the building. The old Yarmouth Post Office was located in a modest gable-front commercial building at 490 Route 6A. Both buildings survive today; one is a private home, the other is a law office.
By 1969, Mr. Crawford was out of the picture as builder, lessee, and “agent” for the U.S. Postal Service, and HSOY bought the building and leased the land directly to the Postal Service. In 1978 Theodore Childs, former administrator of Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City and chair of HSOY’s Post Office Committee, negotiated with the Postal Service to arrive at a compatible design for the rear addition to the building (a plaque dedicated to the memory of Theodore Childs hangs in the lobby on the wall opposite the front door). The addition, which doubled the size of the building, was designed by Harold Palmborg of Needham.
In 1995 Cape artist Karen Dexter Mackiewicz painted a mural entitled, “Yarmouthport in the 1800s,” which hangs above the mailboxes in the lobby opposite the front wall. This mural was carefully removed and restored by Cape Cod Picture Framing & Restoration/Art Rescue after a car damaged the right side of the front wall and part of the lobby in October 2024. The building reopened to the public on November 26, 2024, after the damaged portion of the front wall had been rebuilt, the front door replaced with an accessible door, and new lobby flooring installed. The restoration of the mural took a little longer, and it was reinstalled in March 2025.
So, there you have it: The connection of the Yarmouth Port Post Office to HSOY and its property is no longer shrouded in mystery.
Researched and written by Gary Sachau