Millwood Post Office Has History and HOPE

This is the second in a series on rural post offices in the Middleburg area

by Dulcy Hooper

Millwood’s post office was once a gas station and service center, and apparently a very popular place to spend an afternoon.

“It had a wood stove and a pool room,” said Laura Rodgers, Millwood’s postmaster. “Locals would hang out and play pool and keep warm by the fire.”

In the National Register of Historic Places, the building is described as “a sizeable early-20th-century brick service station . . . the hipped roof is clad in pressed tin shingles, and the deep porte cochere that once sheltered the gas pump island is supported by heavy square brick columns.” That porte cochere no longer serves as a gas pump. Instead, it’s the post office’s quintessential blue collection box.

Prior to 1985, the Millwood post office was located across Bishop Meade Road, adjacent to Locke Store. The first floor was used as the post office, while the upstairs housed a barbershop with its own entrance in the alley. In a letter dated Jan. 26, 1979, however, the U.S. Postal Service informed the local post office that Project HOPE would soon be coming to town, and that the current space would not be able to handle the 200,000 or so pieces of mail that

would be coming and going on an annual basis.

“They knew they couldn’t handle that much mail where they were,” said Rodgers, “and so it was time to move.” A 1985 letter details a rental agreement between the post office and the then-owner of the building: “$3,600 annually for 15 years.”

The current building is now owned by John Staelin, husband of Elizabeth Locke, whose jewelry business is just down the road and is one of the post office’s steadiest customers.

“We have a few other big customers here,” said Rodgers. “There’s still Project HOPE, of course. And then there’s the Masters of Foxhound Association – they use us all the time. And Blue Ridge Wildlife Center, Long Branch, and recently, Wildlife Veterinary Care.”

Millwood also has 271 individual boxes inside. On one recent morning, the post office was the scene of friendly banter between Rodgers and local residents stopping by to pick up their mail. When one regular customer mentioned that he was thinking about buying a car, Rodgers cheerfully offered to tally up the cost of a five-year car loan.

Rodgers has served as Millwood’s postmaster for nearly ten years.

“I guess I asked for it,” she said. “I kept saying to my husband, ‘Oh, I could do your job!’” After all, her husband, Ross Tomblin, is a mail carrier in Purcellville and their son, Damian Tomblin, is a mail carrier

in Berryville. At the time, Rodgers was finishing up her college degree, raising the couple’s children and substitute teaching at Clarke County Public Schools.

“So he took me up on it,” Rodgers said, “and here I am.”

Rodgers’ first introduction to the post office was in “relief help” where she was called in to help out at various post offices in the area.“I really got a lot of experience doing that,” she said. Rodgers had stints at post offices in Cross Junction, Middletown, Boyce, Berryville and White Post before signing on as Millwood’s postmaster.

“First thing in the morning, I get Project HOPE’s mail ready for them,” she said. “We kind of cater to them, because they’ve done so much to keep us here.”

Project HOPE also played an important role in 2012 when the post office system was trying to cut back Millwood’s hours.

“They were upset when we got cut back to 6 1⁄2 hours, but it could have been much worse. They really came through for us, and so we sort their mail first thing and always have it ready.”

Many in the Millwood area have admired the community garden located behind and on one side of the post office. Last year’s crop included a flower garden with zinnias and a vegetable garden with squash, zucchini, tomatoes, beans, cucumbers and spinach. Community volunteers worked Tuesday and Thursday mornings, donating produce to the local pantry.

“I think we might have just lost one of those volunteers,” Rodgers said. “Toward the end of the season, she dug up a lot of bulbs and did a lot of replanting. She gave me some of the bulbs. I don’t think she’ll be coming back.”

The Millwood Post Office is located at 2009 Millwood Road. It’s open daily from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and 1:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m., and Saturdays from 8 a.m. to noon.