Saturday, September 26, 2015

THE PARCEL POST BANK

The Bank of Vernal in Vernal, Utah was built in 1916 and is the only known building constructed out of bricks sent through the U.S. Post Office.  It was cheaper to have the brickyard mail thousands of packages (each containing seven bricks) than to have the approximately 75,000 bricks sent down by commercial carrier from Salt Lake City. Due to the extremely rugged terrain between Vernal and the rest of civilization, the Post Office lost huge amounts of money delivering this mail. In response, it finally imposed a requirement which, for all practical purposes, limited a customer to receiving only 200 pounds of mail a day without special dispensation.

The building is still in use as a branch of Zions Bank.

For more information on the "parcel post bank," click here.

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