This building was at one time the site of the Dallas Post Office. The first post office in Dallas was established on October 22, 1852 and was located north of the La Creole River at Orchard and Ellendale Avenues. The first postmaster was John E. Lyle. When the city moved to the south side of the La Creole, the post office moved with it and through the subsequent years occupied a number of different downtown locations with Main and Court Street addresses predominating. For example, prior to moving to this Main Street site, the post office in 1920 was located around the corner on Church Street next to the Dallas National Bank. It moved eventually to what was then 512 Main Street (now 947 Main) where it stayed through the 1950s.
The building at 512 Main was constructed in 1915 in a one-part commercial block form with brick cladding. This design emphasizes a public interfacing space for pedestrian traffic with a storefront and direct sidewalk access.
The post office moved out of this location in the to its current location at the northeast corner of Church and Mill Streets. The building then housed Dallas Auto Parts and later a NAPA store. It is currently occupied by the administrative office of the private school located in the Carnegie building.
KEY REFERENCES
- Library of Congress Sanborn Maps
- “Neither Snow Nor Rain”: A Postal History of Polk County, Oregon 1850-1993 by R. Roland Crosair, Published in 1993