SUNSET — Sunset post office clerk Melissa Link considers herself a bit of a “history geek,” so she was understandably excited when she found a treasure trove of old newspaper clippings and other items documenting the post office’s past earlier this year while cleaning out filing cabinets.

Left: Clerk Melissa Link is helping honor the Sunset post office’s 110th anniversary this year. Below: Pictured at longtime Sunset post office driver Cleo Chapman in 1991 are, from left, then-postmaster Edna Winchester Barton, former postmaster Essie Barton, driver Sonley Grant, Chapman and Chapman’s son, Eugene, who took over for her when she retired.
Courtesy photos

Upon her discovery of the items — which included an essay written by a former postmaster Edna Barton detailing the history of the office — Link realized this year is the 110th anniversary of the Sunset post office.

“Its history is of great importance historically,” Link said. “The Sunset post office has stood the test of time and is the only office to survive the combining of many small mountain town post offices during the horseback days — from being run out of the postmaster’s home to its current location.”

Now located at 7149 S.C. Highway 11, the Sunset post office was originally established on Dec. 4, 1905, in the home of William Walker Aiken near Antioch Baptist Church. Aiken ran the post office until 1918, when it was moved 800 yards northwest, to the home of A.T. and Flora Winchester. The Winchesters and their daughter ran the post office out of their home until Flora’s death in 1931. The post office then moved a little more than two miles northeast to the home of Essie Barton, directly across the street from the current post office.

Barton ran the post office out of her home until her retirement in 1968, when her daughter-in-law, Edna Winchester Barton, took over as postmaster and built the current post office adjacent to her home. Barton retired in 2001, handing the reins of the post office over to Joyce Heine-Dennis, who remained as postmaster until her 2012 retirement, when the U.S. Postal Service moved mail carriers to Pickens, eliminating the need for a postmaster at the Sunset post office.

“The history is technically complete with all five postmasters, which is amazing that the post office has only had five in its history,” Link said. “If you notice, from 1931-2001, (the post office) was run for 70 years by one family.”

Link, Sunset drivers and the couple who cleans the post office joined forces to create a banner honoring the post office’s history. In the retail lobby, Link created a display of all five former postmasters, with a history bulletin board for all the clippings she found. And in the post office box area, she framed photos of the three homes the post office was run out of before its current facility was built. She also designed a photo collage of past and present Sunset postal workers.

“All the residents seem to enjoy seeing it, and I have had a few travelers stop in just out of curiosity because they saw the banner from the road,” Link said. “So I feel like it’s a little post office with a touch of museum.”

“People need to understand keeping these small-town post offices open is not only important for the locals, but it keeps the history alive,” she added.