Morristown poised to buy Post Office building for $3M

TOWN 'CENTERPIECE' ? Mayor Tim Dougherty says the post office could be transformed. Photo by Kevin Coughlin
The Morristown Post Office. Photo by Kevin Coughlin
3

For awhile it looked like the Morristown Post Office would be a dead letter office for a municipal administration keen on buying it.

But after years of up-and-down talks, the town is poised to acquire the 106-year-old structure for $3 million.

Postal workers demonstrate outside the Morristown office of Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-11th Dist.). They were urging passage of House Bill 1351, which would let the Postal Service tap surplus funds to avert closing post offices. Photo by Kevin Coughlin
Postal workers demonstrating in 2011 outside the Morristown office of then-Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-11th Dist.) against proposed closures of post offices. Photo by Kevin Coughlin

The town intends to move municipal operations there, and issue bonds for the purchase, according to an ordinance slated for introduction at Tuesday’s hybrid council meeting. The Postal Service plans to lease a portion of the first floor.

Town officials have been eyeing the Post Office, at One Morris Street across from the historic Morristown Green, since at least 2016. They toured the building the next year, and the town bid $1.5 million, according to then-Councilwoman Alison Deeb. The offer was rejected.

Laying the cornerstone for the Morris Street post office in 2015. Photo courtesy of the North Jersey History & Genealogy Center at the Morristown & Township Library.
Laying the cornerstone for the Morris Street post office in 1915. Photo courtesy of the North Jersey History & Genealogy Center at the Morristown & Township Library.

Constructed in 1916, the 17,000-square foot facility lacks central air conditioning and Mayor Tim Dougherty has estimated it needs $2 million in renovations.

“We can bring it back to its glory,” Dougherty said in February. The mayor has characterized the building as a future centerpiece of Morristown.

Morris County has awarded a pair of historic preservation grants totaling about $640,000 toward the Post Office purchase. In January, the council budgeted another $150,000, transferring funds set aside in 2016 to buy an decrepit former bar in the Second Ward.

Town Attorney Vij Pawar and town Planner Phil Abramson in lobby of Morristown Post Office. Photo by Kevin Coughlin
Then-Town Attorney Vij Pawar and town Planner Phil Abramson in lobby of Morristown Post Office during 2017 tour. Photo by Kevin Coughlin

The council approved a $116,220 contract in February for Historic Building Architects LLC of Trenton to assess the condition of the Post Office and potential uses for it.

At the time, town Administrator Jillian Barrick said the Postal Service moves “glacially” but described negotiations as being in the “home stretch.”

Those talks were rekindled by the Postal Service early in the pandemic, according to Barrick.

Terms of a sale/purchase agreement between the Postal Service and town call for two deposits of $50,000 apiece from the town, with the bulk of the money due at closing.

Historic designation plaque on Morristown Post Office. Photo by Kevin Coughlin

In 2020, Barrick pegged the building’s value at $2.1 million, based on a re-appraisal requested by the town.

The Post Office is on state and national historic registers, according to a marker placed there by the Morris County Historical Society in 1984. The half-acre site is near Municipal Lot 10, but has only nine parking spaces of its own.

Area officials fought to save the Post Office from closure in 2012, even though most local mail is processed at a postal center on Ridgedale Avenue in Morris Township.

Morristown Mayor Tim Dougherty, addressing seniors at Zebu Forno, says the Morristown post office has been spared from closure. . Photo by Berit Ollestad
Morristown Mayor Tim Dougherty, left, addressing seniors in 2012 at the now-defunct Zebu Forno café, informs them the Morristown post office had been spared from closure. Photo by Berit Ollestad

The Morristown Post Office second floor has been vacant for at least 16 years. “It’s in very terrible shape,” then-Postmaster Janice Peters told residents in 2016.

Morristown’s administration also intends to lease unused space in the present town hall at 200 South St. to Morristown Medical Center’s parent company for a family health clinic.

Some 3,000 square feet on the second floor would be rented to the Atlantic Health System for $6,000 per month, according to a resolution before the council.

morristown town hall file photo
Morristown town hall. Photo by Dan Beards

If you’ve read this far… you clearly value your local news. Now we need your help to keep producing the local coverage you depend on! More people are reading Morristown Green than ever. But costs keep rising. Reporting the news takes time, money and hard work. We do it because we, like you, believe an informed citizenry is vital to a healthy community.

So please, CONTRIBUTE to MG or become a monthly SUBSCRIBER. ADVERTISE on Morristown Green. LIKE us on Facebook, FOLLOW us on Twitter, and SIGN UP for our newsletter.

3 COMMENTS

  1. What’s wrong with the current town hall? With the multi-trillion dollar spending packages supported by our congressional representative, she couldn’t get a few million to preserve this building?

LEAVE A REPLY