I have been thrilled to be welcoming visitors to the Sheridan House this summer, and have been given the starts of a few great stories I hope to share over the year. One question that keeps coming up is, “What do you know about the Post Office?” I’ll have to admit – not that much, so I needed to do a bit of research. I did know that the Hinsdale Post Office is the “Oldest Continuously Operating Post Office,” but it was that recognition that made me wonder – what makes a Post Office?
I started with Hinsdale, and found an article from 2016, as they were celebrating their 200th Anniversary (making this August 4th their 208th Anniversary). Then-Postmaster Cindy Mason explained, “The first postmaster here, Nathan Babbitt, was appointed in 1815. He was the one who had this building built. There was a general store here, and the post office occupied a small corner in the front. There were other businesses here, and as Hinsdale grew and the needs of the post office increased, we started taking over more of the building, and now we have the entire downstairs.”
This article also explained that while other towns across the early US had Post Offices before 1816, none of them remained in the same building. Which made me wonder – what was “usual” for an early American Post Office? To my delight, I discovered that the Smithsonian has a National Postal Museum, which opened in 1993 and will be on my agenda for my next trip to Washington, D.C.
The National Postal Museum site has a great virtual exhibit on the history of postal operations, available at https://postalmuseum.si.edu/exhibition/about-postal-operations. In the section where they talk about post office buildings, they write:
In the late eighteenth century, postmasters received, sorted, and distributed mail from taverns, coffeehouses, print shops, and even old churches. Stand-alone post office buildings were uncommon; rather, post offices were an integral part of multi-use buildings.
As we remember the state of towns and villages in the 1700s, there was a distinct lack of cranes, bulldozers, and other machines to help the average farmer build a home quickly and safely, let alone a fancy building that served only one purpose. This is one reason early churches, like our own Center Church, were commonly used as the Town Hall. No other building could fit the whole population, so they became a gathering place for everyone.
So in Hinsdale, the first Post Office opened in the general store. By chance, they were able to remain in the same building over the years, though other Post Offices were not as lucky. So, as I’m starting my research into Post Offices in Winchester and Ashuelot, I have a little bit of information to start with from USPS.com (the US Post Office’s official site).
In Winchester, Henry Pratt (yes, I believe it was the organ builder) was the first Postmaster to submit a financial return on January 1, 1812. (The USPS doesn’t have a record of when he was commissioned, just that he submitted a financial return for Winchester.) Ashuelot was originally set up as the “West Winchester” Post Office in 1833, with Horace Chapin serving as the first Postmaster. When the Post Office was officially renamed to Ashuelot, Delos C. Ball served as the Postmaster. As for where they kept their Post Offices… Stay tuned!
Originally published August 2024
