Here’s a fun piece of historical trivia that you might not have known about West Virginia: our state was home to the first five rural free mail delivery routes offered by the US Postal Service in the nation.

Rural free delivery, a United States service providing free mail delivery to residents of rural areas, was first introduced as an official offering of the United States Postal Service (USPS) in 1896.
Smithsonian Institution / Wikipedia
Although city residents received free postal services, before rural free delivery, residents of rural areas had to travel long distances to the nearest bigger city post office to receive their mail.
Antony-22 / Wikipedia
The Fayetteville, West Virginia Post Office.
All that changed in 1896 with the introduction of the novel Rural Free Delivery to improve mail delivery to rural areas.
Magnolia677 / Wikipedia
The post office in Julian, West Virginia.

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The very first five experimental rural mail routes were all in Jefferson County, West Virginia: near Charles Town, Halltown, and Uvilla. 
Coal town guy / Wikipedia
The Baker, West Virginia Post Office.
They were a success, and rural free delivery service spread from West Virginia around the nation, although nationwide RFD service took several years to implement remains the costliest project ever put into place by the USPS. Even today, rural route delivery has made it possible for residents of rural areas to receive their mail directly at their doorstep, eliminating the need for rural residents to travel long distances to pick up their mail.
Antony-22 / Wikipedia
The post office in Meadow Bridge, West Virginia.
One of the major challenges of rural free delivery has always been the cost of providing the service: in 1930, for example, the 43,278 rural routes serving about 6,875,321 families (which translates to about 25,471,735 persons) cost $106,338,341 in federal funds.
Thomas M. Rösner / Wikipedia
The Rippon, West Virginia Post Office.
Still, rural mail delivery is an important service in many areas of West Virginia and the nation, and overall, though costly, it has been a positive game-changer for residents of rural areas, improving their access to communication and boosting their economic opportunities. And it all started right here in West Virginia!
Idawriter / Wikipedia
The USPS office in Nettie, West Virginia.

And now, as Paul Harvey might say, you know the rest of the story of how West Virginia came to be the very first state in the nation to pilot the United States Postal Service’s rural free delivery routes. If you found this interesting, you might also want to know about some of West Virginia’s other “firsts”!

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