Mailing a letter will be just a smidge more pleasant at the Fields Corner Post Office starting next summer, when construction crews finish upgrading the storefront to go with an interior revamped in 2005.

"It worked out well," said Evelyn Darling of Fields Corner Main Streets, an organization that worked with the United States Postal Service on crafting the final design. "Originally, they thought [Americans with Disabilities Act] access would be a real challenge. Now they have an access ramp across the front, from the left side of the building, and they're sort of hiding it with an iron fence."

Not only will the new design create a storefront with the historic look and feel of the building, said a statement from FCMS, it might also trigger a chain-reaction.

"It certainly has been a catalyst to get the landlord to meet with us," said Darling. "He has expressed an interest in doing the three other storefronts in the building. This is the project we needed to get things started."

The building the post office occupies, at 218 Adams St., was originally built in 1890 for O'Hearn Moving and Storage.

Main Streets programs across the city assist businesses in getting storefront improvement grants that pay as much as half the costs of individual façade renovations, thus forwarding their goal of preserving and vitalizing traditional business districts.

- PETE STIDMAN