Sunday, May 29, 2022

The Menlo Post Office (Small Towns in Washington 01)

Menlo Post Office (Kodak Gold 200 film, Retina IIa camera, 50mm ƒ/2 Xenon lens)

Menlo is an unincorporated community in the Willapa Valley of Pacific County, Washington. It is on WA state route 6, which takes you to the Pacific coast from I-5 in central west Washington near Chehalis. Interesting note: the 56-mile Willapa Hills State Park Trail follows Rte 6 on the former Northern Pacific Railroad line. What an incredible ride. 

"Reach for the batter-whipped bread" (Gold 200 film)

We wanted a drink and looked in the Post Office/store. This proved to be an interesting place. I always love to visit small stores like this.

Have a seat, a soda, and some petrol

The store/Post Office had an impressive collection of snapshots of generations of high school graduates,  babies, and miscellaneous townsfolk. This must be the town archive. The post mistress said the original store burned in the 1920s, This was the "new" store - from 1924.  

The first two photographs are from my new/old 1950s Kodak Retina IIa camera on Gold 200 film. It has the right vibe for this type of subject matter, and the optical quality is excellent.

3 comments:

Suzassippi said...

My favorite kind of place! The photographs are excellent with so much detail to study!

kodachromeguy@bellsouth.net said...

Yes, I love these funky little places, too. I want to explore more of them in Mississippi.

Mike said...

Seems like combining drink serving with postal services might offer a partial solution to the USPS financial issues. At the least it could make people feel better about the situation.