Option 2: Some neighbors down the road hired a mason to build an enormous brick surround, probably 4' square and 5' high, that encases their dinky little mailbox. I can't imagine how much they paid for this; it's nicer than their house.

Option 3: There is another place not far from here...the owners put their mailbox on a clothesline/pulley type thing. They send the mailbox out in the morning, and reel it in when the mail comes in the evening. Now there's some Appalachian ingenuity! (Or laziness.)