US Post Office

Just had a terrible experience in this Post Office. Ms. Banks was at the desk and she was extremely rude and miserable. She was unwilling to politely answer my questions about my shipment and when I asked for a receipt she acted like that was a bizarre question to ask and told me they don’t offer tracking so a receipt had no purpose. UPS and Fedex here I come.

Post office this locate 2311 Cottman Ave
Philadelphia, PA 19 149
United States
always only one employee working. Customers real long line for waiting.

This is the friendliest post office ever. After carting my wedding invitations all around the city trying to find someone to hand-​cancel them, I showed up here and breathed a sigh of relief. They not only accepted my wax sealed invitations joyfully, they asked me about my wedding and acted interested in my big day. They were careful with my invitations, helped me pick out matching stamps, and put a big smile on my face for the rest of the day.
Just make sure you arrive before their 3pm deadline for any hand-​cancelling service.

The first U.S. Post Office! We stopped here after visiting the Ben Franklin Museum and had to mail a letter. Since this is the first post office in U.S. history, it provides only basic services, but the help was friendly and the experience was memorable!

If you are expecting great service, set your standards a little lower. After waiting 10 minutes (We were the only ones in line), we were then rudely interrogated about where our 5 postcards were going. Who cares? Then in the middle of paying, the lady answers a personal cellphone call and forgets that we were even in the building. Like legitamately pretends we aren’t even there. I guess we were expecting great service from this historic place? Nope. Disappointing.

For the 21 years I’ve been going to this location it has always had spotty service but two years ago they transferred a sweat, very friendly and helpful woman. I haven’t seen her lately and the woman filling in is lazy and arrogant with no people skills. Sitting behind the counter refusing to help while not even raising your head to see who it is you’re talking to is not the ideal employee to have at this historic location.

I have been to almost every post office in the city as part of the wedding invitation process. I have never, ever experienced such rude and unhelpful employees as I have at the B. Franklin location. Honestly, the workers there are downright contemptuous at your mere presence. First, on multiple occasions they have told me I need more post than other locations have advised for the same invitation. Second, while waiting in line today behind a woman taking ten minutes to pick between paying debit or credit, the woman behind the counter asked if I was just dropping off the two envelopes in my hand. When I said no, I needed stamps, she rolled her eyes! Then was outright hostile to me when it was finally my turn. Given how many tourists come to this location, they should do a better job of screening employees to weed out those likely to give visitors a bad impression of Philly. I am only giving two stars instead of one for how awesome the hand canceling is.

«This is not the post office you’re looking for…»
If you’re looking to buy the latest stamps or mail a simple first class letter, it’s fine. Other than that, they have a few capabilities that make this location frustratingly close to the function you want and need in a post office. There is no tracking available for any piece of mail (even though they offer priority envelopes). The weight limit is very prohibitive (13 ounces — same as the blue mailboxes on the street). A thick document might put you over the restrictive weight limit. They have the ability to accept cards, but maybe they shouldn’t. Here’s what I mean…
If this post office location is «more a museum than a post office» — as staff have labeled it on a few occasions — then why don’t they take out all of the modern devices (ability to accept debit and credit cards, electric scales, calculators, etc) and turn it into a more accurate museum, while still possessing the same basic level of functionality? Think of a Franklin Fountain style treatment (and remove the electronics and modern post office trappings).
Make it cash only. Allow people to buy stamps and mail basic letters. That is all. Then, the message will be super clear: essentially, this is a museum that celebrates the history of the post office with the added benefit that it still handles regular mail, but not in a way that detracts from its historical importance and décor.
As it looks and functions right now, they integrate the modern post office with the historical museum function in a way that’s a lame compromise between the two.

I took my rather large wedding invitations to get hand cancelled her this past week. These ladies are amazing. They appreciated my excitement and really made me feel special. They painstakingly stamped each envelope and everyone looked beautiful. Thank you so much for helping make that moment extra special :)

I went to Ben Franklin Post Office today to mail my wedding invitations. This was a huge milestone in our wedding planning and I was so excited! I hoped that the staff there wouldn’t be grumpy like most post office employees and kill my buzz. I was so grateful to have Tina Beckham and Maryann help me and be so excited for me and let me watch them hand stamp my invitations. Tina even told me a little bit about the history of the post office while I watched. She was such a pleasure to deal with and she made the experience that much more special. Thank you Tina and Maryann!!!
FYI — if you have more than 50 pieces to hand cancel it’s 5 cents a piece for everything over the first 50. You also need to bring them there by 3 pm for hand canceling.

This was one of my favorite stops and so memorable!
It’s located near the Benjamin Franklin museum. You walk into a cozy little US post office where it all began. The lady was so knowledgable about this historic site pointing out the original floors and other fun facts. It is the only post office that doesn’t fly the flag… When Franklin started this post office, the flag did not exist! Very interesting!
Another unique quality about this location is they hand cancel every piece of mail sent out from this office. It is stamped with ‘B. Free Franklin’. Luckily I had a few post cards with me. I bought a couple stamps and she stamped them for me. What a great souvenir to take home.
It may seem crazy to visit a post office on vacation, but this one is definitely worth it!

If you are a tourist who is just tourist-​ing around, this place is great! It is cute with historical information, friendly employees, and overall charm. The women working here always seem in a good mood and very friendly with the tourists.
That said, this place is not great as a post office. They don’t ship anything over 13 ounces NOR do they accept pre-​paid packages over 13 ounces. They regularly run out of postcard stamps due to the tourist crowd. Which, while understandable, is annoying.
The worst thing though, is that sometimes they loose things. I have mailed out postcards & letters from here that have never reached their destination. I have shipping out packages that never receive an arrival scan and subsequently didn’t get tracked. These problems are habitual at other Philadelphia post offices, only here.
Whatever, go in look around and mail yourstuff somewhere else.

Such an awesome Post office. Thank you for the history. Do not ever close this location!

Visiting this post office made my trip to Philly. I absolutely loved the history and hope the PO re opens the museum some day… Tina was great! For a 28 year postal service employee she still really enjoys her job. Very refreshing. Keep up the great work! And dont even think about shutting this PO down usps!

This is a post office… so if you have mail and are in the area, it’ll definitely get the job done!

This is hands down the BEST post office I have ever been to!!!
The building itself is extremely charming. But more than that the employees, especially Tina are OUTSTANDING! So friendly. I had to stop and make sure I was at the post office because I never receive service like that at the post office. Tina took care of having our invitations hand cancelled and figuring out the international postage for a couple of them. She was genuinely interested in our wedding. USPS, you have a star in Tina!

Mailing invites for your special Philadelphia event?
Pay attention to your details and visit this post office for the exclusive B. Free Franklin postmark on your envelopes. If you have less than 50 pieces there’s no additional charge to have the stamps hand canceled here.
I stepped foot in this Colonial-​themed post office around 9:30am on a Saturday and was out in less than a minute. The friendly postal worker showed me the first hand canceled envelope and sent me on my merry way. I’ve heard from relatives and friends that my save the dates arrived in Philly, New York, and Florida — it’s a safe bet this office properly handled my mail.
Will definitely be back with my invitations in a month or two. My friend Stephanie S. suggested this service — particularly for invitations that may be flattened by the standard machine canceling process other post offices use. So glad I took her advice and added this special historic touch!

This is the cutest post office that I’ve ever visited! It’s a great place to swing by with tourists during a jaunt through Old City. Be sure to take the obligatory photo out front — and recognize that it’s still in business to this day! Ben Franklin — he sure was the man!

Very cool Post Office! Love their cancel date stamp. They hand cancel the mail. You can buy a post card at a gift shop and send it out as a Philly souvenir. The workers were dressed in normal USPS uniform, but everyone is so nice and they seem to really enjoy sharing this special post office. Went Saturday afternoon and no line. Bought some booklets of stamps and sent out mail. Next to the Post Office is the museum and on the other side a passage that Benjamin Franklin used to walk through.

Very cool place where it all began for the Postal Service and for Ben Franklin.
As Steven B. already mentioned, the two interesting things about coming here are that it’s the only post office in the country where they do not fly the flag because of this location predating the founding of the U.S. and of course the B. Free Franklin stamp that is applied to letters by hand.
It truly is a very unique stop that all tourists and even residents should check out especially with the precarious situation of the Postal Service, the person working yesterday told us that this location has already twice been recommended for closure but local resident and political outcry has so far kept the doors open, who knows if this place will be open in five or ten years.
If you go:
They are open Monday-​Saturday 9am-​5pm.
This location aside of accepting postcards and letters/​items under I think thirteen ounces does not offer any of the traditional services that a regular post office offers due to not having the space/​equipment needed offer those services.
No passport photos, money orders, or bulk packages.
They also more or less stop accepting anything after 3pm so that they can begin hand stamping the items they received that day particularly if they have a large number to cancel.
Overall the two staff members we encountered were great and we’ll definitely stop by to mail something the next time we’re in town.