The building that had served as Hawleyville’s post office for decades was swiftly torn down this week by a town crew wielding an excavator.

The structure fell to the ground in pieces at the site where the Hawleyville Volunteer Fire Company plans a redevelopment project starting next spring.

Hawleyville Fire Chief John Basso said that site improvements will start in the spring when area asphalt plants reopen. The fire company plans to pave the area where the post office stood, expanding an existing parking lot.

In the future, the fire company may put the land where the post office stood to some other use, according to the chief.

The fire company purchased the old post office and adjacent land at 30 Hawleyville Road (Route 25) from Housatonic Railroad Company, Inc in September.

The sale price for the building and about three-quarters of an acre was $180,000, according to town real estate records.

The site is in the Hawleyville Center Design District (HCDD) zone. The fire company’s firehouse is at 34 Hawleyville Road, about 175 feet northeast of the post office site.

The circa-1924 wood-frame structure served as Hawleyville’s post office until February 2009, when its postal operations were transferred to the town’s main post office at 5 Commerce Road. Hawleyville postal operations were later transferred to new facilities in a retail center at 23 Barnabas Road in Hawleyville.

The 30 Hawleyville Road site will be cleaned up and its appearance will be improved, Chief Basso has said. “We’re trying to beautify downtown Hawleyville…We want to make the place look nice,” Chief Basso has said of the fire company’s desire to improve the area’s appearance.

Hawleyville Center focuses on a cluster of commercial/industrial buildings amid an area with a railroad grade crossing, truss-style high-tension electrical towers, and a rail terminal for building materials.

It was necessary for the fire company to buy the real estate when considering its need for suitable parking, according to Chief Basso. In the past, the fire company had rented the use of the land behind the former post office from the railroad for fire company parking.

The Hawleyville fire company is one of five volunteer fire companies that serve the town.

In the area east and northeast of the firehouse, the Housatonic Railroad operates its building materials terminal known as the Shepaug Reload & Distribution Center, a facility that generates much tractor-trailer truck traffic.