A century-old symbol of island life received a crowd of visitors this weekend when the historic Salvo Post Office was officially rededicated as a local landmark on October 18.
Over the course of three hours, about 100 people stopped by to tour the tiny white structure — one of the smallest and most recognizable buildings on Hatteras Island — now restored and displayed at the corner of N.C. Highway 12 and Roth Road.
Alex McCune, owner of Alex’s Shrimp Shack in Salvo, spent the last several years carefully refurbishing the long-closed post office, and said he was “very pleased” with the turnout.
The dedication ceremony featured remarks and a history lesson by Jimmie Hooper, nephew of the last Salvo postmaster, Edward Hooper, and a descendant of nearly every person who ever ran the post office. Hooper shared a detailed and often humorous oral history tracing the village’s postal service back to its beginnings in 1901.
As Hooper told the gathered crowd, the village where the post office stands wasn’t always called Salvo. “A lot of you know the original name wasn’t Salvo — it was Clarkston,” he said. The current name, he explained, likely came near the end of the Civil War when a ship’s captain, noticing an unmarked community on his map, supposedly ordered his crew to “fire a salvo” toward it — and the name stuck. “Not exactly sure it’s true or not, but we like to think so,” said Hooper.
The Salvo Post Office became official in 1901, when blind Methodist minister Kenneth R. Pugh was appointed the first postmaster. Without a building of his own, Pugh ran postal operations from a shed attached to his porch, assisted by Hooper’s grandmother, Maria, who was only six or seven years old at the time.
By 1908, Marcie Douglas became the area’s first female postmistress, running mail service from her home until her husband built the tiny wooden post office that is famous today. Hooper said this original structure likely dates to around 1910.
From that point on, the post office remained firmly in family hands. Douglas’ assistant was young Edward Hooper, who later became postmaster himself after years of delivering mail by foot and boat. “He started his postal career delivering the mail when he was only six or seven years old,” Jimmie recalled. Melvina Whidbee followed in 1947, buying the building for $100 and moving it across the road, where community members helped repair it. She served until her retirement in 1977, after which Edward Hooper served as postmaster until the office’s closure.
In October 1992, the little post office was badly damaged by fire, burning roughly 40 percent of its structure. Still, because of its historic importance, the building was later placed on the National Register of Historic Places. When Hurricane Irene swept through the Outer Banks in 2011, it caused further damage and forced the remaining operations to be relocated. Edward Hooper, by then in poor health, made clear his final wish: that the post office be “given to the community.”
“Actually, no one owns it — the community itself is the one who owns the building. There’s no one owner anymore,” Jimmie explained. For years, the small building sat weathered and unused — until McCune offered to help bring it back to life.
McCune, with help from local volunteers, carefully replaced siding, repainted the exterior, and stabilized the foundation. He also recreated the recognizable hand-painted “U.S. Post Office, Salvo, N.C.” sign over the doorway. The result is a small but immaculate space that captures a century of island heritage — a reminder of the days when mail traveled by foot, rowboat, and ferry, and when community connections were delivered one letter at a time.
During Saturday’s dedication, visitors lingered to take photos, share stories, and step inside the historic one-room structure that once served as a vital link between the isolated village and the rest of the world. Many longtime residents said the rededication brought back memories of visiting the post office as children or picking up mail from family members who served as postmasters.
In closing his remarks, Hooper thanked McCune for his efforts to preserve the building and its story. “Alex said that fixing up the old post office is just another way of giving back, and that’s what he’s done,” Hooper said. “He’s given back his time and effort — and I’m sure he spent some money on this thing, too. But anyway, Alex, we thank you for being here in our community and for helping fix that post office.”
McCune said the project was a labor of love and one more way to support the island that has supported him. The restored Salvo Post Office will remain open to the public as a museum, a simple structure that continues to represent more than a century of island communication, connection, and care. “It’s part of who we are,” Hooper said, standing beside the building. “And now it’ll be here for a long, long time to come.”
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