THE POST-OFFICE.
The General Post-office of the city is located on Nassau street,
between Cedar and Liberty streets. It was formerly the Middle Dutch
Church, and was built long before the Revolution. It was in the old
wooden steeple of this building that Benjamin Franklin practiced those
experiments in electricity, which have made his name immortal. When the
British occupied the city, during the War for Independence, they
occupied this church for military purposes. The building was very
greatly injured by the rough usage to which it was put, by its
sacrilegious occupants. The pews and pulpit were broken up for
firewood, and the building was used first as a prison, and then as a
riding school. It was repaired in 1790, and again used for religious
services. Some years later, it was purchased by the Government, and
fitted up as a post-office. The growing business of the office has made
it necessary to make so many additions to the structure, that it is
hard at present to distinguish the original plan of the edifice. The
building is much too small to accommodate the business required to be
transacted within its walls, and efforts are being made to secure the
erection of a larger and handsomer building, at the lower end of the
City Hall Park. It is supposed that the movement in this direction will
be successful, though the Government would seem, by its delay in the
matter, not to consider it a matter of much importance to accommodate
the citizens of the metropolis in this respect.
The Post-office being situated so low down in the city, it has been
found necessary to establish branches, called "Stations," in the upper
part of the island. They are distinguished by the letters "A," "B,"
"C," etc. Many persons receive and mail their correspondence here. The
drop letter system places an immense amount of business in the hands of
these stations.
Street boxes, for letters, are scattered through the city. They are
never more than a block or two apart, in any of the streets below
Fifty-ninth street, and the distances are not very great in the other
portions of the island. Letters dropped in these boxes are collected
seven or eight times during the day, and there is a delivery of letters
and papers by the postman every hour. These are left at the houses of
the parties to whom they are addressed, without additional charge. The
system is excellent, and is a great convenience to all classes of the
population.