Friday, October 26, 2012

Berkeley Heights Old Houses & Sites: the Post Office

Berkeley Heights Post Office circa 1885 - 1900
In the 1880's, the front porch of this house served as the post office for the town of Berkeley Heights. According to the local history book, From the Passaiack to the Wach Unks,(203 - 205) there was a post office at 220 Plainfield Avenue in 1885 with a Mr. Brown serving as postmaster, but at some point the house was moved to 182 Plainfield Avenue. From 1885 - 1900, Mrs. Hannah Wahl served as postmistress from the front porch of the building pictured above. The home is now part of Vito Mondelli's Nurseries.
In the remainder of the 20th century, the post office continued to move about town from place to place and house to house until it came to rest at the current 465 Springfield Avenue in the local shopping center.

This picture was scanned from the library's vertical files (aka: photographic and clippings archives). Several more pictures from the 'Old Houses and Sites' binder can be viewed on the library's Picasa album. Here is the link
Pictures and information will be added to the Picasa album as part of an ongoing local history project of the library Reference Department and library volunteer, Matthew Taylor.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Makes sense because when I was kid living on Plainfield Ave. there stood a beautiful home across from the ballfield which would put it next to the Mondelli's. At that time the woman living in that house was a Mrs. Wahl. Perhaps the daughter of the postmistress.