Throughout its years, Boone’s post office has developed alongside Boone, Watauga County and the High Country. The post office has grown from a humble shack in North Carolina’s isolated northwestern lost provinces, which were at the time closed off from the rest of the state, to a modern institution in a vibrant town.
“Remembering Boone” by Eric Plagg wrote Boone’s first post office was established in 1823. The first postmaster was Jordan Councill, a prominent landowner who also owned a general store. When the North Carolina Legislature formed Watauga County in January 1849, they chose Councill’s site to be the county seat, and built a courthouse two years later, bringing the town of Boone into existence. Since 2022, there has been a historical marker for Councill’s store near Boone town hall.
With the founding of Watauga Academy, now App State, in 1899, the town’s needs grew, prompting the construction of a new post office to accommodate the town.
An article from a local Watauga County newspaper, which was unclear from the archives, gives an account of the grand opening of the current post office on King Street on July 22, 1939. The new building, which was built by the Works Progress Administration using native stone as a part of the New Deal, was described as showing “the progress that has been made in the last century,” when compared to the town’s old post office. The article listed prices for “a single sheet of paper” as 6 cents for trips under 80 miles, 12 cents for trips under 150 miles, 18 cents for trips under 400 miles and a quarter for trips over 400 miles.
The article also listed the past postmasters of Boone, including prominent figures in Boone’s history such as Henry Hardin, William C. Coffey and D.D. Dougherty.
In 2008, the post office’s existence fell into jeopardy when the U.S. Postal Service took steps to sell the building. According to a 2008 clipping from the February 1-3 issue of the Watauga Democrat, “Comments open up new ideas for downtown post office,” Boone natives sent 124 letters and phone calls to Realty Asset Management in Colorado, who managed the acquisition, to ensure postal service would be maintained in Watauga County.
As the Postal Service solicited clearance from the North Carolina State Historic Preservation Office to sell the building, a coalition of community officials, citizens, members of the Boone Historic Preservation Commission, the Downtown Boone Development Association, the Watauga Arts Council and other parties met in the Watauga County Public Library on Jan. 28, 2008 to “gather factual information and discuss options for maintaining the post office and protecting the historic building,” according to the Watauga Democrat.
A major reason the town of Boone had for its efforts to preserve the building was its mural of Daniel Boone, which in 2008 was one of only 38 murals created by the New Deal left in North Carolina. The town council passed a resolution requesting postal services remain in the county. Still, the postal service maintained its intent to sell the building, citing they were a for-profit institution, according to the 2008 Watauga Democrat article.
In 2009, the town purchased the property from the Postal Service for $1.25 million and signed a 20-year lease in order to ensure the downtown site could continue for the next generation.
According to the High Country Press, the town renovated the building to remove asbestos and lead paint as well as preserve the building’s architectural components, including the original stonework and the weather vane. The project finished in 2013 and the town hosted a reopening ceremony.
In May 2012, the Postal Service announced 234 rural post offices, including the downtown Boone location, would remain open for the “foreseeable future.”
