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Post office in Ben Franklin's house may close

A post office that predates the American colonies is on the Postal Service's list of branches that could close. The post office in Philadelphia's historic Old City neighborhood is located on the former home of Ben Franklin.
The post office in Philadelphia's historic Old City neighborhood is the only one in the country that doesn't fly a U.S. flag. That's because there wasn't one in 1775, when Benjamin Franklin founded what has evolved into today's Postal Service.
The post office in Philadelphia's historic Old City neighborhood is the only one in the country that doesn't fly a U.S. flag. That's because there wasn't one in 1775, when Benjamin Franklin founded what has evolved into today's Postal Service.B. Free Franklin Post Office
/ Source: The Associated Press

A post office that predates the American colonies is on the Postal Service's list of branches that could close.

The post office in Philadelphia's historic Old City neighborhood is the only one in the country that doesn't fly a U.S. flag. That's because there wasn't one in 1775, when Benjamin Franklin founded what has evolved into today's Postal Service.


There's also a postal museum upstairs from the so-called B. Free Franklin Post Office, located in a house once owned by Franklin. It opened as a post office in 1975, 200 years after Benjamin Franklin was appointed the country's first postmaster general.

The cash-strapped Postal Service said Tuesday that it is considering whether to close 3,653 offices, branches and stations nationwide. That's more than 1 in 10 of its retail outlets.