Shinrock Post Office

Have you ever heard of Shinrock – and did you know it used to have its own post office?

The U. S. Post Office at Shinrock was a tiny one that once helped to define the small community (or neighborhood) of Shinrock, located in Erie County. The post office was the subject of the article below, which appeared in the Journal on Feb. 19, 1965. At that time, it occupied a small corner of what was both a grocery store and bar, located on Barrows Road. Postmistress Georgia Dute was in charge. The story is a charming account of a surviving slice of small town America.

As noted in the article, the history of the post office there was unclear. So the Journal did a follow-up story less than a month later on March 5, 1965 with a little more detail.

The first article pointed out that the Shinrock was a fourth-class post office. That meant that rather than having its own standalone building owned by the federal government, it was one of many rural post offices that was located in an existing building or business. Postmasters of these small post offices were paid by commission.

The days of these small post offices were numbered, however, and the government really wanted to get rid of them. It's amazing that the Shinrock post office managed to get through the 1960s and 70s. But as the article below from October 4, 1980 explains, with the dawn of the 1980s and Georgia Dute's impending retirement, it was a good time for Uncle Sam to 'cancel' operations there and move them to the post office in Huron.

What's interesting about the story is that it notes, "The post office has been housed in a converted storage shed owned by Mrs. Dute and her husband, Sylvester, since she took over as postmaster in 1960. The shed was next to her home and was convenient for her and her daughter, Mrs. Pat Linden, her unofficial part time assistant. That's it in the photo below of Mrs. Dute hanging the flag outside. 

Today out on Barrows Road, both buildings – the grocery store/bar and the post office 'shed' next door – are still there.

Some comments on the Sandusky Register Facebook page (which helped me figure all this out) included one by a gentleman whose parents own the building that was home to the grocery store and bar. He points out that it was also a gas station and that "the front yard still has the raised cement where the gas pump used to be."

1962 ad in the Berlin High School Yearbook