Clerks handle some of the crush of Christmas mail in December 1937 in what then was the brand-new main Post Office at 1720 Market Street. The Post Office hired about 3,000 temporary workers to double its workforce to handle mail and packages in the weeks before Christmas. Post-Dispatch file photo
ST. LOUIS • With Christmas approaching in 1930 and the Depression settling hard, the Post Office downtown asked for 1,200 temporary helpers to keep up with the crush of holiday mail. More than 4,800 people applied.
St. Louis Postmaster Athol Michener said it would be futile for more job-seekers to come downtown.
The following year, a line of applicants formed at 5 a.m. outside the hiring office in the old federal Custom House, at Third and Olive streets. The Post Office wanted 2,300 extras to help its 2,500 regular clerks and mail carriers. More than 800 showed up that first morning.
The pay was good — 65 cents an hour (almost $9 today) — even though the job only lasted three weeks. Post Office officials said they gave preference to unemployed heads of households. They had plenty to choose from.
Temporary hires were needed every year to handle mountains of Christmas letters and packages. Sorting was done by hand. At the sorting center, mail went into canvass sacks, then got tossed onto push carts and hauled to trucks and railroad cars. Newspapers published lists of deadlines for mailing packages to Australia, Germany, Cuba or California by Christmas Day. Regular news updates reported the numbers of letters
A Look Back • St. Louis postal clerks wade through mountains of Christmas mail .