As many people know, Detroit's Metroplex mail processing facility opened a year or so ago. This facility now processes most outgoing mail from not just Detroit and suburbs, but basically everywhere from Luna Pier to the thumb. Mail is cancelled and killed at this facility for all destinations both around the D and far beyond.
But what about incoming mail?
I just mailed something from my home state of Connecticut back to my family in Dearborn through certified mail, allowing me to track it as it goes. The most recent entry is
Processed through Sort Facility, April 09, 2011, 3:06 am, DETROIT, MI 48233
48233 is listed as the Main Post Office on Fort Street. Despite the Metroplex being in service out in Pontiac, the Main PO loading docks are still full of postal trucks coming and going all day and night. Is this still where most/all incoming mail is brought for distribution to the Detroit area? What other functions are still being carried out at the main PO besides the retail branch on the main floor and the Postal Police?
On an unrelated note, prior to the construction of this PO in the early 60s, where was Detroit downtown Post Office? I know there was a fantastic Romanesque post office building on Fort downtown around the turn of the 20th Century downtown, but where was it located between the demolition of this grand building [[depression era, I believe) and the construction of the new one out next to Fort Street Union Depot?
