Washington Heights Postal Station, Chicago, Illinois, 1895.

Washington Heights Postal Station, Chicago, Illinois, 1895.

In 1894, the delivery area of the Chicago Post Office almost doubled with Chicago annexing many suburbs. This provided free home delivery to nearly 97% of the city's inhabitants when 59 independent Post Offices "now within the City of Chicago boundaries" were consolidated within the Chicago Post Office.

Most of the discontinued Post Offices, like Washington Heights, were converted to stations of the Chicago Post Office which provided full service to customers but were administratively subordinate to the Chicago Post Office a technicality which allowed the stations’ customers to receive free home delivery of mail.