{"id":3252,"date":"2026-07-14T10:04:20","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T10:04:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/charlotterelocationguide.com\/?p=3252"},"modified":"2026-07-14T10:04:20","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T10:04:20","slug":"a-california-man-has-been-returning-postcards-for-50-years-he-just-sent-one-to-york-county","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/charlotterelocationguide.com\/?p=3252","title":{"rendered":"A California man has been returning postcards for 50 years. He just sent one to York County."},"content":{"rendered":"

Lowell Joerg is called The Postcard Man.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s been rummaging antique stores and flea markets for nearly 50 years, flipping through old post cards and purchasing ones that depict old buildings or landmarks.<\/p>\n

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Joerg packages the postcards into an envelope, slips in a short letter and sends them back to where they came from.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s sent postcards to a hospital in Wisconsin. A library in New Hampshire. A law firm in Ohio.<\/p>\n

In June, York County was the benefactor of his goodwill.<\/p>\n

Joerg mailed an envelope from California to the York County Clerk of Court\u2019s Office. Inside was a postcard of the historic York County Courthouse; he estimated the postcard was about 80 years old.<\/p>\n

The photo was captured by Ernest Ferguson, a popular South Carolina postcard photographer who died in 2016<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome years ago I was at an antique store and found this circa 1945 picture card of your beautiful courthouse,\u201d Joerg said in the letter, dated June 17. \u201cLots of changes, I suppose. How the card got to California we\u2019ll never know.\u201d<\/p>\n

The letter was extra special for Angie Bryant, a lifelong York County resident and member of the courthouse\u2019s renovation committee.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was just blown away by the letter,\u201d Bryant said, who serves as the county\u2019s clerk of court.<\/p>\n

Joerg said in a phone interview with The Herald that he first picked up the hobby in Minnesota in the 1980s, where he owned an insurance agency.<\/p>\n

He saw a postcard in an antique store with a Pennsylvania church and decided to mail it back. The hobby stuck.<\/p>\n

Joerg estimates he\u2019s sent 15,000 to 20,000 postcards. Now 98, he lives in an assisted living facility in Stockton, California.<\/p>\n

Although he\u2019s unable to freely peruse antique stores anymore, he keeps boxes of unmailed postcards he\u2019s accumulated over the years.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s always great to receive something positive in the mail,\u201d he told The Herald.<\/p>\n

Joerg acknowledges he\u2019s gained some notoriety and media attention for his hobby, and has even been featured<\/u><\/a> on the United States Postal Service\u2019s website.<\/p>\n

\u201cI tell people when I write to them to look me up on Google,\u201d Joerg said.<\/p>\n

Joerg always packages his postcards with a short letter explaining where he found the card and why he decided to send it back.<\/p>\n

He also adds in a request for a bit of compensation to cover the cost of the postcard and stamps.<\/p>\n

Read more NC behind on inspecting old dumps, landfills for hazards, new audit finds<\/a><\/p>\n

Joerg said he receives a response about one out of every 10 postcards he sends, but he\u2019s grateful for the ones who do send something back.<\/p>\n

Bryant said she plans to mail him some courthouse mementos, including pamphlets and a piece of the building\u2019s old marble. She did some research on Joerg\u2019s hobby, and was happy \u201cThe Postcard Man\u201d decided to strike York County.<\/p>\n

With thousands of postcards mailed, Joerg\u2019s letters follow a similar formula. He often concludes his correspondences with a tagline he\u2019s given the five-decade old hobby.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like to call my hobby a redistribution of happiness,\u201d Joerg wrote in his letter. \u201cOur world sure needs it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The courthouse is two-story yellow brick building built in 1914 on the corner of West Liberty and South Congress streets in York. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1981.<\/p>\n

Bryant said the courthouse sat vacant \u201cfor a very long time\u201d and needed extensive repairs and renovations to bring it to compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act.<\/p>\n

The county council opted to repair the old courthouse rather than constructing a new one. Renovations on the historic courthouse began in 2014, the year of the building\u2019s 100th birthday.<\/p>\n

Special teams went in and removed asbestos, mold and lead paint before renovations began.<\/p>\n

Builders added a new entrance, parking, offices and two new elevators. Two courtrooms were constructed, and the main courtroom was extensively renovated.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a big undertaking,\u201d Bryant said. \u201cIt really is a beautiful building.\u201d<\/p>\n

The courthouse celebrated its grand reopening three years later. It was once again a functional courthouse until the HVAC system failed in 2025. Employees were moved out by June 1 of that year.<\/p>\n

The old courtroom\u2019s ceiling will be replaced to make room for the new air conditioning system. Bryant said further repairs should be finished by 2027.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019ll be bigger and better for the county to have for years and years,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Bryant said she didn\u2019t open the letter, but was overjoyed once she received it. She wrote in a Facebook post that the court doesn\u2019t always receive positive mail.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt brought tears to my eyes,\u201d Bryant said. \u201cIt\u2019s very meaningful.\u201d<\/p>\n

This story was originally published July 14, 2026 at 5:00 AM<\/span> with the headline “A California man has been returning postcards for 50 years. He just sent one to York County..” <\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Read more The Hornets are ESPY finalists. Here\u2019s what earned them a chance at the award<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A 98-year-old California man who\u2019s been sending postcards back to where they originate for 50 years recently sent one to the York County Clerk of Court.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3251,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3252","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-read-todays-edition"],"yoast_head":"\nA California man has been returning postcards for 50 years. 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