The US Postal Service began using five digit ZIP Codes in 1963 and the four digit extension was added in the 1980’s. The term, ZIP code, stands for Zone Improvement Plan. Today’s ZIP code photo features pillows from Design Archives at 342 South Elm Street. While Design Archives vendors have been selling North Carolina and Greensboro T-shirts for a while, the ZIP code pillows are relatively new. Since, 27401 is the code for downtown Greensboro, that is the one that we are featuring in today’s post. (Several other codes are available inside).

The Guilford County ZIP code with the largest population is 27410- the western part of Greensboro, within the city limits- with over 50,000 residents . The ZIP code with the most land area is  27358  in the northwest corner of the county (the Oak Ridge and Stokesdale area) with 54.5 square miles.

Today is ABC Wednesday and with today’s letter Z, Round 14 is drawing to a close. For our A-Z Alphabet Soup Round,  Z is for ZIP Code and here is Greensboro’s ZIP code map. See GDP’s Alphabet Soup A-Z entries, here. It is worth a look, if you have time.

 See some general ZIP Code history, here.