The smallest post office in the U.S.
Photo credit: M. Ciavardini.
Back in the days when people could travel between towns without being warned to quarantine, the Brawny Sherpa and I take a meandering drive down the Tamiami Trail (also known as Old U.S. Route 41) between Naples, FL and Key Biscayne. On this drive through the Florida Everglades, we expect swamps, alligators, airboat rides, and indigenous villages. What surprises us is the Ochopee post office, the smallest post office in the United States. It measures 61 square feet.
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The Ochopee post office, the smallest post office in the United States, is in the Florida Everglades on Old U.S. Route 41 (the Tamiami trail) between Naples and Miami.
Photo credit: M. Ciavardini.
Welcome to Ochopee, FL 34141
Little more than a lawn mower shed, the smallest post office in the U.S., the Ochopee post office, remains a working post office, albeit one with reduced hours. Post-office loving tourists seek out this place to send postcards and letters that will bear the Ochopee postmark.
—Lori Tripoli
A sign at the Ochopee post office in Ochopee, FL reads as follows: “Considered to be the smallest post office in the United States, this building was formerly an irrigation pipe shed belonging to the J. T. Gaunt Company tomato farm. it was hurriedly pressed into service by postmaster Sidney Brown after a disastrous night fire in 1953 burned Ochopee’s general store and post office. The present structure has been in continuous use ever since—as both a post office and ticket station for Trailways bus lines—and still services residents in a three-county area, including deliveries to Seminole and Miccosukee Indians living in the region. Daily business often includes requests from tourists and stamp collectors the world over for the famed Ochopee post mark. The property was acquired by the Wooten Family in 1992.”
