{"nrhp_refnum":"93000997","name":"Salvo Post Office","other_names":["United States Post Office,Salvo,NC"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"NC 12 W side, 0.1 mi. S of jct. with Park Rd.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Salvo","county":"Dare County","state":"NC","lat":35.540144861000044,"lon":-75.47372945899997,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1993-09-23","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Community Planning and Development","Politics/Government","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A tiny wood-frame gable-front post office, measuring eight by twelve feet, on the west side of NC 12 in Salvo on Hatteras Island, Dare County, North Carolina. It was built about 1910 by Lafayette Douglas, husband of the community's postmistress.","why_significant":"The nomination argues it is a rare surviving example of an uncommon Outer Banks building type, a structure built specifically as a post office rather than housed in a store or home. Under Criterion A it represents early twentieth-century postal service as a source of identity for a remote island community. Under Criterion C it is a vernacular building type adapted to an unusual community use.","narrative":"Measuring only eight by twelve feet, this wood-frame building in Salvo on Hatteras Island served as the community's post office for most of the twentieth century. Lafayette Douglas, a fisherman and carpenter, built it around 1910 for his wife, postmistress Marcie Douglas. It stood in a postmaster's yard like an outbuilding, and succeeding postmasters bought it and moved it to their own property, so it occupied three sites. It has a vertical tongue-and-groove exterior, a steep gable roof and two small rooms, a lobby and a workroom. Most Outer Banks post offices of the period were in stores or homes, which makes a purpose-built one unusual. In 1988 the Postal Service ranked it the second smallest post office in the nation. An arson fire in October 1992 damaged it, and community volunteers restored it by May 1993 under State Historic Preservation Office supervision. It is significant for its place in local postal history and as a vernacular building type.","period_of_significance":"ca. 1910-1943","architect_builder":"Douglas, Lafayette","architectural_style":"OTHER: plain gable-front building","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Listed function is vacant/not in use. A fire in October 1992 damaged the building, and it was restored by early May 1993 with community funds and labor; supporters were seeking to reopen it as a post office.","vacant_flag":true,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:57:50.243356-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/93/7198/47719893/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NC/93000997.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/93000997/8d4d5abb25-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/93000997/8d4d5abb25-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"wearlybird","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Salvo_Post_Office_2013-09-26_09-46-24.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">wearlybird</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Salvo_Post_Office_2013-09-26_09-46-24.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/47719893","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salvo_Post_Office","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q18217216"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/north-carolina/dare-county/salvo-post-office-93000997/"}