Former U.S. Post Office

Aurora began amid an east-west rivalry rooted in its earliest settlement. In 1834, founder Samuel McCarty arrived from New York state, built two mills on the east bank of the river, and the community of McCarty Mills grew around them. When an official U.S. Post Office was established there in 1837, the settlement took the name Aurora, honoring Aurora, New York, from an area that had supplied many of the original settlers. Across the river, West Aurora developed, and the two communities united as the City of Aurora in 1857. The Post Office had no permanent home until then, when Joseph Stolp donated land on centrally located Stolp Island. After a temporary wooden structure, it moved into the first floor of the new City Hall in 1865, then into a larger separate facility next door in 1895. In 1932, a new building costing $250,000 rose on Benton Street near Stolp Avenue, with floors made of two-by-fours cut into end-up blocks to lessen the strain of standing while sorting mail, along with repeating arched windows, terra cotta detailing, and gargoyle water spouts. Aurora's Post Office remained there until 1988, when it relocated from downtown to a new facility on North Broadway.

Aurora, Illinois · United States