Crystal Beach Florida - A Little Postal History
Crystal Beach Florida, that lovely community that runs along the shores of the Gulf of Mexico, has a rather unique history. Palm Harbor, our big sister next door, has attempted to incorporate little Crystal Beach into their town, as they have done with little Ozona to our south. The citizens of Crystal Beach constantly vote against being incorporated into Palm Harbor, since we want to remain an independent community.
As far as the post office is concerned, it is all very confusing. Since we do not have mailboxes in Crystal Beach, residents get free post office boxes at our local Crystal Beach Post Office on Crystal Beach Avenue. Our zip code is 34681. However, if people want to come to your house or send a package to you with FedEx, you need to know your street mailing address, which uses Palm Harbor and the zip code 34683! This can be extremely confusing for new residents. They don’t understand how they can have two different zip codes!
A Little More Crystal Beach Florida Postal History
J. C. Craver established the first post office in NW Hillsborough County back in 1878. Back then Pinellas County did not exist and the entire peninsula that is today Pinellas County was part of Hillsborough County with Tampa as the governing city. Mr Carver’s post office was on Bay St Joseph in an area called Yellow Bluff (now Ozona). Yellow Bluff had its name changed to Sutherland in 1888 when the City of Tampa had a Yellow Fever outbreak.
The post office was later moved to two other locations in current day Palm Harbor as the need for a larger building grew. The old downtown section of Palm Harbor is still called Sutherland and the little town of Yellow Bluff (Ozona) was eventually incorporated into Palm Harbor.
Crystal Beach, which is surrounded on three sides by Palm Harbor, has remained fiercely independent. While Ozona does have a small post office that locals use, non-residents all flock to the main post office on Alt. 19. Both of these post offices have the 34683 zip code while our little post office in Crystal Beach has its own unique zip code!
I will write more about the history of our little post office and how the current building started it's interesting usage in another post.
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Barbara-Jo Roberts Berberi, MA Charles Rutenberg Realty Serving the Greater Palm Harbor Florida Area, including Crystal Beach, Dunedin & Tarpon Springs Florida Waterfront condos & homes Your Real Estate Specialist 727-512-0910      |
If you are thinking of purchasing in the Palm Harbor, Crystal Beach, Safety Harbor, Dunedin, Tarpon Springs area or along our pristine Gulf Beaches, give me a call! With years of experience in the local real estate market, I am here to assist you in making one of the most important purchases of your life! Give me a call today! Find out for yourself why living along the Gulf Coast is indeed living in Paradise!
So many little towns have really interesting histories. I love hearing about them. Part of my family lived in Mount Morris, PA, a very small town. Everybody knew everybody else. One grocery (not a supermarket), a bank, some churches, and great front porches.
Howdy and evening Barbara Jo
Barbara Jo my friend, you sure have done an outstanding job of posting about the Postal History of Crystal Beach. Its really a shame that bigger Towns do their best to incorporate and take over smaller Communities the are around them.
Y'all there in Crystal Beach, keep Voting not to let them take your Community over!
Have a good one
Dale in New Hampshire
Okay, that is just entirely too confusing without many cups of coffee or more sleep, I would have trouble keeping this straight each day.
Neat story Barbara-Jo. We have an area here with a Stuart zip code, actually in Port St. Lucie (different county), but they go to Stuart schools. I guess Florida can be confusing!
Margo - I have been spending time collecting our local history for posts here and on my website.
William - it is an interesting history and the two zip codes is unusual for our area
Dale - independent, that is what I love about this community!!!
Kevin - well, for those of us who live here it is worth the confusion to be where we area
Gabe - indeed it can be and I am sure there are other areas with similar stories.