Point 14

Hi! Welcome to point number 14 on the Lihue Loop Audio Tour, the Lihue Post Office. My name is David Braman and I am in the 7th grade in the advanced media productions class at Chiefess Kamakahelei Middle School. This post office has been through a lot over the years. Let me tell you about it.

The very first post office on Kauai was housed in Nawiliwili. But Lihue had become the distributional hub for mail by the 1860’s.

In the early 20th century, the Lihue post office moved into a former tailor’s shop, a bank, and then a room in the Tip Top Building. As the population in Lihue grew though, the public developed a longing for a more permanent location.

The USPS chose a building spot in the middle of Lihue and began the design process. But when the public saw the construction plans they protested the design. It was called a monstrosity by the Garden Island newspaper. Floyd Williams, a postal engineer, came to Kauai and saw why the public wanted it changed. The design process was already fairly deep so he had his work cut out for him. With some help from the Chamber of Commerce and Lihue residents, he was able to pull off a miracle and change the plans.

The USPS ultimately designed something that the public liked. It was a beautiful building and became a social gathering place. Fast forward a bit to the Postal Service Act of 2006, and we begin to see some big changes in the USPS. This act required the USPS to pre-fund 75 years’ worth of health care benefits for employees which cost billions and billions of dollars. The USPS went from making a profit in 2005 to debt from 2006 and on. This led to cutbacks which included shutting down post offices around the country.

Here is Pat Griffin, a local historian, to talk more about this.

A few years ago, the community again had reason to protest when the postal service publicized a notice that it was closing this location. Almost in one voice folks objected. People came out in force to public meetings, wrote letters to the official in San Francisco, sent him hundreds of save our post office postcards, and even mailed over a hundred coconuts with that message. The mayor, governor, and legislators also fought to keep our post office here on Rice Street.

About a year later, the mayor received notice that our letters, testimony, and coconuts worked! It was no longer in danger of being closed.

So now we have our beautiful, historic post office that stands not only as a post office but as a symbol that peaceful protests really can work. Thank you for listening and learning more about this historic site and enjoy the rest of the Lihue Loop!