Cashiers, North Carolina

Grimshawes Post Office

This 5-by-6-foot wooden hut is the smallest historic post office in the U.S.

Tucked within the Blue Ridge Mountains of southwestern North Carolina you’ll find a small wooden hut standing next to an American flag. The interior is marked with yellow letters boasting its claim to fame: the smallest U.S. post office.

The historic Grimshawes Post Office is a tiny 5-by-6-foot building that served the area’s postal needs for 75 years, from 1878 up until 1953. In its day it was reported to be the smallest operational post office in the United States (a title now held by Ochopee, Florida).

The little hut is located in the valley below Whiteside Mountain, and in fact was called Whiteside Cove Post Office when it first opened. It was renamed Grimshawes in 1909 after its first postmaster, Thomas Grimshawe, who owned a grist mill and a large parcel of land in the area.

Grimshawes ceased operation in 1953, when all third class post offices were closed under President Eisenhower. It was used for a spell as a ticket booth and postcard stand at the top of Whiteside Mountain, but eventually fell into disrepair. The little landmark was happily restored by a group of locals and is located just off the picturesque Whiteside Cove Road.

The interior is adorned with little more than a tattered American flag and a single small wooden chair. In the old building’s new life as a quaint roadside attraction, it is open every day to visitors from the nearby towns of Cashiers and Highlands—you’ll just have to take your postcards somewhere else.