Old Post Office, 327 Abbot Rd. (1933)

Old Post Office, November 2003. Photo Credit: Kevin S. Forsyth.

The Agricultural College received its postal service from Lansing for many years, until a campus post office was established in 1884 and operated under the authority of the Secretary of the Board from his office in the Library–Museum. When Ira H. Butterfield resigned as Secretary in 1899, he retained his position as Postmaster and moved the office to the “south room” of the Horticultural Laboratory.[Towar, pp. 99–100]

This arrangement only lasted a few years, when in 1902 a new indoor waiting room for the streetcar was built near the north entrance to campus. A second room in this building was provided for the post office, which remained there until 1910 when it moved to a much larger space in the first floor of nearby Station Terrace.[Minutes, 30 Oct 1902, p. 97; 8 Mar 1911, p. 71]

In 1923 the post office moved to another rented space, this time in a small brick commercial building at 211 E. Grand River Avenue. (As of 2019 this building is still standing, adjacent to the Center City development project, sporting a ghost sign for the long-gone M.A.C. Restaurant on its east wall.) Finally, in 1933 the Public Works Administration built a new, dedicated building at 327 Abbot Road. It served as East Lansing’s main post office from 1934 to 1972, when the U.S. Postal Service moved to its current facility at 1140 Abbot Road.

Olympic Society House, formerly the home of Prof. W. S. Holdsworth, circa 1913. Photo Credit: Beal, p. 199.

The Old Post Office occupies the site of the “Olympic House,” an early society (i.e. fraternity) house. Beginning in 1974 it housed the Pantree Restaurant, which closed in 1987 due to financial difficulties. The addition to the north was concurrently occupied by an office of the Secretary of State. In 1988 the post office became the Evergreen Grill, which thanks to rising rent and operational costs served its last customer on 31 December 2004. Since 2006 the building has been renovated as the Dublin Square Irish Pub.

In 2018, a $100 million plan was announced to redevelop the area north of Albert Avenue between Abbot Road and Evergreen Avenue with two large buildings to include space for retail, offices, apartments, and a twelve-screen movie theatre. The Old Post Office was among the buildings that would have been demolished. City Council rejected the proposal and the East Lansing Historic Commission has urged preservation of the post office building, but its days are likely numbered.[East Lansing Info, 17 Aug 2018, 15 Oct 2018, 9 Oct 2019]