The Bank That Was Literally Mailed Brick by Brick

In 1916, the remote town of Vernal, Utah had a problem. They wanted a proper, fireproof bank building made of pressed brick—but the nearest brick supplier was in Salt Lake City, and there was no railroad to Vernal.

Freight wagons would charge four times the cost of the bricks themselves. The dream of a modern bank seemed dead.

Then entrepreneur W.H. Coltharp had a brilliantly devious idea.

The Parcel Post Loophole

Congress had just created a new parcel post service in 1913, allowing Americans to mail packages up to 50 pounds for reasonable rates. Coltharp discovered that Vernal sat within the second postal zone from Salt Lake City—making shipping costs less than half what the freight companies demanded.

His solution? Mail the entire bank.

Well, the exterior bricks anyway. Each brick was individually wrapped in paper, then packed ten to a crate to stay under the 50-pound limit. Over the following months, 1,500 crates containing roughly 15,000 bricks began their 427-mile journey to Vernal.

"Some S.O.B. Is Trying to Ship a Whole Building"

The bricks traveled by railroad to Colorado, transferred to narrow-gauge rail, then loaded onto freight wagons for the final 65 miles to Vernal. The town's postmaster watched in horror as two tons of mail arrived daily.

Bricks piled up outside the post office. Bricks surrounded the building. Bricks everywhere. The overwhelmed postmaster sent a now-legendary telegram to Washington, reportedly complaining that someone was "trying to ship a whole building through the U.S. mail"—though the actual wording was considerably more colorful.

The Postal Service Fights Back

Postal authorities were not amused. They quickly issued a new regulation:

• No more than 200 pounds per day from one sender to one recipient
• Any shipment exceeding this would be considered "large or unusual"
• As Postmaster General Albert Burleson put it: "It is not the intent of the United States Postal Service that buildings be shipped through the mail"

But Coltharp wasn't finished. When the new rules threatened to slow his project, he recruited local farmers, ranchers, and townspeople to serve as recipients for the bricks. The Post Office couldn't stop mail addressed to different people.

Victory by Loophole

By the time the regulations took full effect in November 1916, every single brick had already arrived. The Bank of Vernal opened in February 1917, its gleaming pressed-brick exterior a monument to creative problem-solving.

The building still stands today at 3 West Main Street in Vernal. A bronze plaque installed in 1958 commemorates its unusual origin, officially dubbing it the "Parcel Post Bank."

The total cost of mailing 37.5 tons of bricks? About half what freight would have charged—though the postal workers who processed it all might argue the true price was much higher.