The history of the United States Postal Service as it plays out in the streets of New York City — from the first post road to the first postage stamps.
From the most beautiful post office in the country to the forgotten Gilded Age landmark that was once considered the ugliest post office.
The postal service has always served as the country’s circulatory system, linking the densest urban areas to the most rural outposts, a necessary link in moments when the country feels very far apart in other ways. The early American colonies knew this. Benjamin Franklin knew this The Founding Fathers who placed the postal service within the Constitution knew this.
And inventions such as the stagecoach, the steamship, the railroad, the pneumatic tube and even the electric car have helped keep the mail steadily flowing over the centuries.
New York has even played a pivotal role in the development of the American mail service, from the creation of the Boston Post Road (the first mail road which snaked through Manhattan and the Bronx) to the first mail boxes. Even the first postage stamps were sold in New York — within former church-turned-post office in lower Manhattan.
Why are there so many post offices from the 1930s? Why is New York’s largest post office next to Penn Station? And why does New York City have so many individual ZIP codes? And who, pray tell, is Barnabas Bates?
LISTEN NOW: A HISTORY OF THE POST OFFICE IN NEW YORK
FURTHER READING
The American Stamp / Laura Goldblatt & Richard Handler
A History of the United States Post Office to the Year 1829 / Wesley Everett Rich Ph.D
How the Post Office Created America / Winifred Gallagher
Neither Snow Nor Rain: A History of the United States Postal Service / Devin Leonard
“A Brief History of the United States Postal Service” / Smithsonian Magazine
“Stations and Branches: A Brief History” / United States Postal Service
“Universal Service and the Postal Monopoly: A Brief History” / United States Postal Service
From prison to post office: The odd fate of a Dutch church
