U.S.

Post office in N.H. celebrates 200 years in business

/ AP

HINSDALE, N.H. -- The small town of Hinsdale, New Hampshire, is celebrating its 200-year-old post office as the nation's oldest to operate continuously from the same building.

The post office runs out of a wooden building on Main Street in the town of 4,000 in southwestern New Hampshire.

Postmaster Cindy Mason poses behind the window at the oldest continuously operating post office in the U.S., the Hinsdale Post Office in Hinsdale, New Hampshire,Thursday Aug. 4, 2016. Jim Cole, AP

It serves as bright spot in a town where the paper mills, local movie theater and even the downtown gas station have shut down. Residents say they take great pride in the post office and the history it lends to the town.

The hundreds of brass mailboxes that line the front walls are originals from the 1800s, with letter combination locks.

Postmaster Cindy Mason says the post office once shared space with a general store and barber shop but expanded as the town grew larger.

© 2016 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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