Fields Corner post office announces lease extension

Local News

The extended lease comes amidst a series of post office closures in the Boston area, including Allston and Watertown.

The U.S. Postal Service announced a lease extension for the Fields Corner post office on Friday — three days before it was scheduled to temporarily close without firm plans to reopen. 

The Dorchester post office’s lease will now run through April 27, 2027, with the hope of acquiring a long-term lease, according to the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Services.

Local, state, and federal officials lauded the lease extension as a win for the community in the midst of a series of closures in the Boston area, including in Allston and Watertown. 

Rep. Ayanna Pressley wrote in a statement that she is “glad” the USPS is “heeding our calls.”

“This welcome reversal by USPS is a testament to public pressure and what is possible when we come together and raise our collective voices to defend our essential postal services,” Pressley said.

Local leaders held a rally in Allston three weeks ago to protest the closure of these post offices. Pressley painted the closures as an attempt by President Donald Trump’s administration to target Massachusetts and, ultimately, privatize the country’s postal services.

“I find it hard to believe that this is just a coincidence,” Pressley said at the rally. 

So, when the USPS first announced the Fields Corner post office would temporarily close without firm plans to reopen, alarm bells sounded for some.

“It’s straight out of that playbook where they’re dismantling it piece by piece,” said City Councilor John FitzGerald, who represents Dorchester. “We can’t let that happen.” 

FitzGerald credited the community for coming together to “fight for the services our neighborhoods depend on” in a statement.

Mayor Michelle Wu vowed to push for a long-term lease extension at Fields Corner, according to a statement from the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Services.

Other pending post office closures

Meanwhile, post office locations in Allston and Watertown are trapped in USPS purgatory, with the agency threatening to permanently shutter both locations. 

The Allston branch, located at 47 Harvard Ave., is the subject of a yearslong shutdown dating back to December 2019. The location closed for structural repairs, funneling the neighborhood’s residents to the Brighton branch on Washington Street.

The Allston branch made headway towards reopening in 2023 when Eden Properties submitted a proposal for a multi-use complex with 170 residential units and a post office. However, USPS backed out in April. 

Then, in September, USPS proposed a permanent shutdown.

The situation is a near copy to the proposed permanent shutdown in Watertown, which is following a temporary two-year shutdown in January 2024. The USPS sent residents a “discontinuance feasibility study” around August.

“The postal service’s continued silence to our request to meet and find solutions together speaks volumes,” Watertown Council President Mark Sideris said at the rally. “Why are they picking on us?” 

Sens. Ed Markey and Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Reps. Katherine Clark, Stephen Lynch, and Pressley all signed a letter to Postmaster General David Steiner urging the USPS to “cease [its] campaign to close post offices in Massachusetts.” 

Wu went as far as to threaten a legal contest to the agency’s decision during the rally — a statement with bite to match its bark after the city filed a separate lawsuit against the Trump administration in September over cuts to infrastructure funding.

A history of reversing course

The Dorchester lease extension is the latest example of the USPS acquiescing to community and public pressure. Earlier this year, the agency reversed its decision to close a branch in Shutesbury following months of advocacy, according to a statement by Markey.

Similarly, the USPS changes its mind on a branch in Mission Hill following official and public intervention in 2024. 

“While today is an important victory for our community, we continue to call on the USPS to stop gutting postal services across Massachusetts,” Pressley said in the release. “It can start by reopening the Allston branch and restoring daily service to those who need it.”