St. James City’s first post office was constructed in 1886 on stilts at land’s end of the wharf in the same building that also housed the city’s first general store, Whitesides.  It was a location of social gathering and gossip, whether you were expecting a parcel or not.  For a resident in Pineland or Bokeelia, you would start walking in the morning to St. James City for your mail and would return the next morning.  The few residence of the other nearby islands would sail or row to St. James City to retrieve their mail.

The general store and post office 1886 at the base of the wharf

View of the post office from the wharf.

Photo Credit Museum of the Islands

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