At first the western mail was carried from Albany once a week, in a valise on the shoulder of a footman.
As late as the year 1810 there was only a weekly mail between Canandaigua and Genesee River, carried on horseback, and part of the time by a woman!
In 1730 notice was published to this effect:—“Whosoever inclines to perform the foot-post to Albany this winter is to make application to Richard Nichols, the postmaster.” Only think of this, ye modern letter-carriers!
The carrying of the mail between New York and Philadelphia previous to the Revolution was a very small matter: it was hardly an affair to be robbed. It was carried by a boy, who took the whole in saddle-bags, on horseback, three times a week. Next it was carried in a sulky;—next in coaches. What is it now?
In 1753 the post-office at the Bowling Green, Broadway, was, as announced, “opened everyday save Saturday afternoons, and Sundays from eight to twelve A.M. and from two to four P.M.”
NEW YORK POST-OFFICE.
The original office was situated at the corner of William and Garden Streets, in which house resided the then Postmaster-General, Theodorus Bailey. It was also the residence of Sebastian Ballman, the first postmaster of the city subsequently to the Revolution, who was appointed to the office by General Washington. The room used as an office was twenty-five to thirty-five feet in length, and contained one hundred boxes. In 1827 it was in the basement of the “Merchants’ Exchange,” occupying two-thirds of that extensive space. The Merchants’ Exchange is situated on Wall Street. It is built of white marble. Its front on Wall Street is one hundred and fourteen feet, and its depth, extending to Garden Street, one hundred and fifty feet. The portico of the building, to which a flight of marble steps ascends, is ornamented with Ionic columns twenty-seven feet high.
In 1844 the post-office was removed to a new building,—the first, we believe, ever erected in that city expressly for postal purposes.[25] It is situated on Nassau Street, and reflects but little credit to the city either for its architectural or business-like appearance. There is many a lager-beer establishment can compete with almost any post-office in this country in point of those attractive qualities in architectural design in which they are so totally deficient. In this, however, we are not surprised; for the former has become an institution that may well claim precedence over almost any other in the country. Lager-beer saloons are institutions dedicated to death: hence their motto should be the Dutch word for beer,—Bier.
INDEPENDENT POST-OFFICE.
An independent post-office was established in New York in 1775. It was suggested by William Goddard, the publisher of the “Maryland Journal,” and John Holt, the printer, was appointed postmaster. It went into (partial) operation on the 11th of May. The office was kept at Holt’s printing-office.