Reviewing mostly for the historical aspects, not the Post Office service itself. (The PO does have an oldschool homey feel about it, to be sure.)
The building is a fine brick 1852 church on the National Register of Historic Landmarks, which went through several other uses before ending up as the US PO for Newtonville. Unfortunately the inside's been gutted and refitted to the Post Office's needs - in mid-20th century stasis - so you can't see much on the inside. It's a very narrow counter dominated by old-school brass combination PO boxes (cool enough) but quite cramped. So what there is to see of the architecture, you can see from outside.
We went to see the Chester Arthur "Exhibit" (see photos) which is basically a collection of clippings about forty or fifty years old. It's an oddity, here based on the tenuous connection to Arthur's father, who by local legend lived nearby for a number of years. The locals swear it was Arthur's "childhood" home, but given he was 26 years old when his father first took up residence and practicing law in Kansas and New York City during those years, it's a bit of a stretch. Arthur's father, a minister, may have preached at the church briefly. This local legend was ballooned to include renaming a nearby street "Arthur Street" and was probably enhanced by the fact Arthur's buried in the nearby Albany Rural Cemetery, but the actual historical significance for one of our most obscure Presidents is somewhere between low and non-existent. That said: there's just something really touching about the fact this little display has sat here unchanged for half a century. If you go in to buy stamps, admire it, but I wouldn't plan your vacation trip around it. read more