Vienna Post Office

Vienna became a post town--authorized as a mail delivery point--in 1808. Between 1808 and 1915 mail came to Vienna under the care of 26 successive postmasters. In 1915, mail delivery was changed and letters came from Warren. The post office returned to Vienna in 1941.

Not all Vienna residents were served by the Vienna Post Office. From 1811 to 1906 some residents received their mail through Brookfield. This service was taken over by the Sharon, Pennsylvania, post office between 1906 and 1930. The service was returned to Brookfield in 1930 and continues today.

Vienna Mail Wagon.Image from the archives of Fred L. Martin.

Letters were delivered postage due the carrier and paid by recipient. The post office kept a running account of the charges due. The usual amount of postage due varied from 15 to 30 cents in the years before the postage stamp was introduced in 1842. Letters were delivered to this area between 1835 and 1840 with as much as 37 cents due the recipient. These high rates were reduced in 1845. By 1851, a letter traveling 3,000 miles carried a 3-cent stamp. By 1855, the sender was required to prepay, but as late as 1880 newspapers were still printing notices listing mail that had not been claimed. Everyone retrieved their mail at the Vienna Post Office until Rural Free Delivery was begin in 1896.[1]

The Vienna Post office in 2020.Image courtesy of Christine Novicky

Throughout the nineteenth century and into the twentieth, a postmaster provided the facility and whatever equipment was needed for handling and distributing the mail. Post offices moved with the postmaster and at times depended on whether the postmaster ran a business and the mail was just a sideline. For example, in 1856 N. B. Tyler operated the post office from his hotel and gun works at Vienna Center. The first building constructed as a post office was built in 1966 by A. J. Swift[2] and was leased to the United States Post Office.

The change of Rural Free Delivery mail service from the Warren and Brookfield offices to a route emanating from the Vienna Post Office occurred in 1951. In a rather unusual move, the Postmaster General, after being approached by U.S. Representative Michael J. Kirwan, agreed to give the rural delivery route responsibilities to the local post office. Local pressure by Vienna residents and the owners of Viets Motor Company was brought to bear on the move. Harry Hyde canvassed the Township, gathering signatures on a petition.

The Vienna Post Office is currently located at 4411 Warren-Sharon Road. Before the business was moved to its current location, it was located in the building on Youngstown-Kingsville Road where Kennedy TV briefly was.

Vienna Postmasters

Ambrose B. Mannix is mistakenly named "A. B. Manning" in this announcement.Marietta Daily Leader, April 22, 1897.
Updated 10/25/2024
This article is adapted from Carley Cooper O'Neill, "Government," in Vienna, Ohio, "Where We Live and Let Live": Town 4, Range 2 of the Connecticut Western Reserve (Apollo, PA: Closson Press, 1999), pp. 111-113.  Additional names of postmasters supplied by the United States Postal Service.
[1] Information on early post office history provided by The American Peoples Encyclopedia, Volume 15, p. 205.
[2] A. J. Swift was born July 24, 1908, and died October 2, 1987.
Postmasters by city may be found at https://webpmt.usps.gov/