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newworldman1070 t1_izcq9xp wrote

R.D. Was an address system before 911 and emergency services wanted every place to have a physical address.

R.D. Stood for rural delivery, then it was changed to R.R. For Rural Route.

I can remember RFD, rural free delivery.

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petefromeastpete t1_izcyis8 wrote

Yep, and as far as I could tell growing up with an R.D. address, it didn’t really correlate to anything directly. It probably made sense for the post office and letter carrier route, but there was no way to find my house based on the address.

Also, if I remember correctly, I at least had some numbers with the address — some time before that addresses could simply be R.D. cityname and the post office just had to know by the name on the envelope where to deliver it. That was before my time, though.

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newworldman1070 t1_izdva8h wrote

You were given a route number, and then later on a box number. So you would be Joe Blow RD 2 Box 1234 Mansfield PA 16933

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