Today Ric, Tony, my mom and I traveled to Quincy to do a wheelchair accessibility review of the Quincy Main Post Office. This Post Office is an Historical Building and registered as an Historical Building. We were delighted to see how very wheelchair accessible this old and Historical Post Office is.
There is a handicapped parking space in the side parking lot. There is a wide wheelchair accessible ramp that leads to an entry door in the front of this Post Office and it blends nicely with the architecture of the Historical Post Office Building. The slope of the ramp is easy for a person to wheel their wheelchair up or down. There are also stairs that lead to the main entry door as well.
There is an automatic door opener on the outside entry door that I was especially happy to see. The interior entry door has an automatic door opener too! Both these doors are automatic from the inside and outside. Once inside this Post Office is very spacious and very easy to maneuver your wheelchair around. It is also very beautiful, well maintained and historical looking. Today I was in my manual wheelchair because my Quantum Power Wheelchair is broken so my friends pushed my manual wheelchair for me.
To the left is a room with Post Office boxes that is very easy to access for there are no doors. To the right there is a Postal Store that is also very wheelchair accessible for there are no doors and the entry is very wide and open. The center of the post office has five customer service windows and the first window at the end of the line is wheelchair accessible. I waited in line until it was my turn and wheeled over to the wheelchair accessible customer service window. My Mom and friends asked a Postal Employee if we could speak to the Postmaster.
Mr. McDermott, the Postmaster came out to meet with us. We explained that we were here to do a wheelchair accessibility review. My Mom told him how impressed we were that this Historical Post Office is very wheelchair accessible. Mr. McDermott told us that it has been wheelchair accessible for the past 11 years. This Post Office COMPLIED with the ADA regulations that were passed into law in the 1990s. He told us that the newer part of post office in the rear for employees is also wheelchair accessible.
I told Mr. McDermott that I was here to buy a stamp and he was kind enough to get Charlie, a nice postal employee to sell me my stamp. The Wheelchair accessible window was of a good height for my wheelchair and I completed my postal business. We saw Mr. McDermott again as we were leaving the Post Office and again we told him how impressed we were with the accessibility.
Mr. McDermott told us that this Post Office Building is very old and before it became the Quincy Main Post Office it was offices for Congressman on the second floor and offices for the Military on the first floor. He wasn’t quite sure how old it was or what date it was built and we couldn’t see a date inscribed on the outside of the building.
I had such a great feeling when I left this Post Office today. It’s so nice to know that there are some Historical Post Office buildings that are very wheelchair accessible. The Taunton and Fall River Post Offices are not wheelchair accessible and say it is because they are historical buildings. I hope that one day soon they will realize how important it is that they become wheelchair accessible so they are accessible to ALL.
I give the Quincy Main Post Office FIVE STARS PLUS for Wheelchair accessibility. I also give Mr. McDermott and Charlie FIVE STARS for being so kind to take the time to speak with us today and I give the City of Quincy FIVE STARS to ensure that their Public Buildings are wheelchair accessible.