Tag Archives: Post Office

Old New York in Postcards #5 – Broadway & Fifth Avenue

Postcards of Old New York – Featuring Broadway and Fifth Avenue

These postcards generally depict New York from 1900 – 1920. We are concentrating this batch on the well traveled areas of Broadway and Fifth Avenue.

As the brief description on the card says we are looking south and east along Broadway from Warren Street. The trees on the left belong to City Hall Park. The wide building with the large central rotunda is the main branch of the General Post Office, which was demolished in 1938. Behind the Post Office stands The Park Row Building, which at 391 feet was the tallest office building in the world when completed in 1899. The Singer Building surpassed the height of The Park Row Building in 1908. To the right of The Park Row Building stands the 26 story St. Paul Building built in 1896 and demolished in 1958.

Interesting to note: the flags are at half-staff on the Postal Telegraph and Cable Company Building on the right. Continue reading →

First Pneumatic Mail Delivery In New York 1897

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The Pneumatic Mail Tubes And The “Age of Speed”

Pneumatic Tubes Produce Exchange Post Office 1897

Reading Howard Wallace Connelly’s highly entertaining 1931 autobiography Fifty-Six Years In The New York Post Office– A Human Interest Story of Real Happenings in the Postal Service (self-published) the following anecdote begins Chapter VI:

When the pneumatic tubes were installed at the General Post Office, October 7, 1897, we Supervisors were given a fine treat after the ceremonies were over. A rough hastily constructed row of steps (circus show style) had been erected facing the tubes. Senator Chauncey M. Depew was Master of Ceremonies. Probably over a hundred friends and Post Office officials were spectators. The first tube contained only a large artificial peach. The roar of laughter that greeted it was heartily joined by the Senator. A Bowery audience that had attended a political meeting at which he was the principal speaker, instead of trying to break up the show, took quite a liking to the speaker and a loud voiced man yelled, “Chauncey, you’re a peach.” Hence the laugh when the first tube arrived. From the second tube, a cat was taken. How it could live after being shot at terrific speed from Station P in the Produce Exchange Building, making several turns before reaching Broadway and Park Row, I cannot conceive, but it did. It seemed to be dazed for a minute or two but started to run and was quickly secured and placed in a basket that had been provided for that purpose. A suit of clothes was the third arrival and then came letters, papers, and other ordinary mail matter.

Hah-ha very funny. The postal officials must have had a ball putting a cat into the tubes. Can you imagine the public outcry if something like that was done now?

Connelly omits that the first parcel actually sent through the tubes was sent by Depew to the Produce Exchange Post Office which included Continue reading →

Christmas Starts Early – New York, 1931

Old New York in Photos #11 – Broadway & The Post Office 1898

Broadway Street Scene Looking North From Fulton Street, 1898

A scene of New York life, just before the turn of the century. Two things to note:

1) Everyone wears a hat. Continue reading →

Old New York in Photos #10 – Rapid Transit 1905

Crosstown Rapid Transit, 1905, New York City

It probably made the crosstown trip faster than we currently do.

I like the sign in the background – Milk, Cider, Cream Soda, Buttermilk, Lemonade 3¢.

And I love old handwriting:

Tuesday A.M. Dear Mamma, What do you think of this for rapid N.Y. Please send my letters to Aunt Emma’s. Came Monday, will write to-day Love, Evan(?)

According to Appleton’s Dictionary of New York in 1905, there were 7-8 mail deliveries per day and the postal service made a profit. Continue reading →

Stuff Nobody Cares About

A not so random collection of observations about things you should care about