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Garnier Post Office Museum
One of the area's oldest mail handling facilities, the Garnier Post Office
was built in 1918 and used until 1953.
It was originally built of cypress with a shingled roof. The exterior walls,
where every board is recessed, weathered to a soft gray. Inside the two-room structure are the 36 mail slots with the names
of voters from the 19th Precinct who came to place their ballots in a locked wooden ballot box.
Included in the
display case are old periodicals, a mailbag and a typewriter. Framed documents, photos and paintings hang on the wooden walls
of the two rooms. A beautiful display of historic stamps is also framed on the wall.
Euphrates A. Mooney was appointed
postmaster in 1906. The first post office was in the E.A. Mooney Mercantile Store on Garnier's Bayou. When mail came overland
from Crestview, Florida instead of by water from Pensacola, the Garnier Post Office building was constructed on the junction
of Mooney and Garnier Post Roads. After the passing of Mr. Mooney, his wife Julia became the postmistress.
The
City of Fort Walton Beach and the Junior Service League restored the Garnier Post Office in 1979. The Post Office is now located
behind the Camp Walton Schoolhouse Museum in the City's Heritage Park & Cultural Center and is open the same hours as
the schoolhouse.
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A peek inside the front room
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Watercolor Painting
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