MAILROOM

 

       Mail and parcel posts to the Samoan islands originated with sail and steamship visits during the 1830’s and developed into commercial and Samoa Government Postal Service stamps by 1877. With the start of U.S. Post Office services to the Territory in 1902, mail was distributed directly by the U.S. Navy or the Local Island Government. Government, public and commerical civilian mail was generally received by ship at the Customs House and made available at a small U.S. Post and Telegraph Office established on the Fagatogo shoreline near the Radio Station. By the 1930s, this had moved to a new public Post Office building on the Fagatogo Malae. When the Naval Station closed in 1951 this Post Office was then moved into an ex-Naval Commissary. This in turn became the Jean P. Haydon Museum in 1972. The Post Office then moved to it’s current location, the Fagatogo Lumana’i Building, which was built in 1972. The current ASG Mail Division therefore seems to have derived from U.S. Navy mail and/or the Local Island Government mail services.

 

     Information from historical microfilm holdings suggests that over the years, officials or designees of the Local Island Government would pick up, log and deliver mail to respective Local Island Government departments/divisions. During those times, two separate governments; the Local Island Government and the U.S. Navy, appear to have handled their mails separately. The current ASG Mailroom service then seems to have otherwise originated with the Dept. of Interior around 1952, when the original Dept. of Adm. Services was formed. After a local electorate was established in 1978, the ASG Mailroom continued under the ASG Dept. of Adm. Services.