Near Site of Azle Post Office

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the near site of the Azle Post Office, up in Tarrant County. Now, every town's got a beginning, and this one started with a name that didn't stick. When the post office first opened in 1881, this place went by O'Bar.

O'Bar. Not exactly the kind of name you'd chisel into a courthouse, but it was what it was. Then 1883 rolled around, and somebody made a decision that would echo a good long while, the name was changed, and it was changed for Dr.

Azle Stewart, who gave the land for the townsite itself. The town got the doctor's name, and the doctor got a kind of immortality. That's a fair trade if I've ever heard one.

Now, the post office didn't start out in any grand building. First it was tucked into a store, modest as you please, handling the mail while somebody nearby was probably selling dry goods and lamp oil. But things have a way of growing in Texas, and when Postmaster Cora Lovell took the reins, she moved the whole operation into a frame building at 141 West Main.

That address became home to the Azle Post Office from 1916 all the way to 1953. And here's where the story gets a little warmer. That post office wasn't just a place to pick up your letters.

It became a community gathering place, which, if you think about it, is exactly what a good post office ought to be. And during the thirty-eight-year term of Postmaster Elsie Gipson Parker, it went one better than that. She kept a small public library right there inside the post office.

You could drop off a letter and pick up a book. You could tend to your correspondence and feed your mind all in the same stop. Thirty-eight years, that library tucked in alongside the mail.

Eventually, Azle grew into something that demanded more. The town attained the rank of First Class Station, and a larger postal facility was erected in 1970 and '71 to meet it. The little frame building at 141 West Main had done its work.

But the story of how a place called O'Bar became Azle, and how one post office quietly held a whole community together for decades, that's the kind of thing worth remembering on the side of a road.

What the marker says

Originally named O'Bar, the Azle Post Office opened in 1881. The name was changed in 1883 for Dr. Azle Stewart, who gave land for the townsite. Initially the Post Office was located in a store. Postmaster Cora Lovell moved the operation to a frame building at 141 W. Main, where it remained from 1916 to 1953. The Post Office became a community gathering place. During the 38-year term of Postmaster Elsie Gipson Parker, it also housed a small public library. A larger postal facility was erected in 1970-71, after Azle attained the rank of First Class Station. (1979)