The Town With the Wrong Mail
A mix-up over naming rights between two Kitsap County towns leads to a mail delivery crisis.
The Fourth Assistant Postmaster General has a knotty problem. When the Navy Yard at Port Orchard was located, the town of Charleston changed its name to Port Orchard to capitalize on the prestige. However, the rival town of Sidney, across the bay, quietly petitioned to change its name to Port Orchard as well. The Department approved, causing significant mail delivery delays. Mail addressed to the government facility is often sent to the post office on the opposite side of the bay, requiring it to be forwarded back through Seattle. Complaints are now piling up in the Postmaster General's office as residents and workers struggle with the confusion.
“The postmaster there sends it back to Seattle, from whence it must be again sent out, and a considerable delay is thus occasioned.”
Bureaucratic naming disputes are timeless. In the modern era of GPS and digitised shipping, the frustration of local mail being routed to the wrong 'Port Orchard' serves as a reminder of how vital local identity and clarity are to civic infrastructure.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.