The Pelham Manor Post Office

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Few in Pelham realize that there once was a Pelham Manor Post Office that served the neighborhood that became today's Village of Pelham Manor.  It was the center of business activity in the area.  This is a brief history of that tiny post office.  

By the early 1870s, the Branch Line began offering regular railroad commutation services to allow travel (using various supplemental means) between Grand Central Depot and Pelham Manor Depot.  The Pelham Manor Depot was a tiny wooden structure located near the southern end of today's Esplanade along the railroad tracks.  Mail was delivered via the railroad to the Depot.

By 1882, as the real estate development created by the Pelham Manor and Huguenot Heights Association began to grow, a local resident named Joseph English was appointed station agent and also served as the Pelham Manor postmaster.  He distributed mail from his office at the Pelham Manor Depot.  That same year, two local residents ("Messrs. Cochran & Mulvey") who operated a telegraph office in the Depot, also opened a grocery in the building.  An article in a Mt. Vernon newspaper at the time said "The young men have put in a nice stock of selected groceries, and are deserving of liberal patronage."  Source:  Pelham Manor / City Island, The Chronicle, Jul. 14, 1882, p. ?, col. 4 (no page number is printed on the newspaper page).

The tiny little Depot was in a rather secluded area with few homes nearby.  It seems that it was constantly the target of burglars.  By the mid-1880s, a local vigilance club known as the Pelham Manor Protective Club worked with the railroad to install a burglar alarm that would alert residents in a local dwelling if the Depot were broken into.  

One evening, for example, that burglar alarm awoke R. C. DeWitt who raced to the Depot with his pistol and soon found himself in a gun battle with the burglars. An Account of the incident appeared in the January 10, 1884 issue of the New-York Tribune.  For a full account of the burglary and the gun battle, see Mon., January 28, 2008:  1884 Burglary and Gun Fight at the Pelham Manor Depot.  On another occasion, burglars blew open the station safe and stole $1,000 worth of stamps and other valuables from it.  A published account of the incident notes that this was the seventh time the post office at the station had been robbed.  See Fri., March 06, 2009:  Burglars Blow the Safe at the Pelham Manor Post Office in 1894.  

In 1897, the Village Clerk of the Village of Pelham Manor, Gervas H. Kerr, became Pelham Manor postmaster.  He oversaw the post office in the Pelham Manor Depot until 1904, when it was moved out of the Depot to a nearby residence on Terrace avenue, a roadway that no longer exists due to the construction of Interstate 95 during the 1950s. 

The post office remained in that residence (a home later owned by F.C. Allen, Jr. of Pelham Manor) for only three years.  Postmaster Kerr built a new post-office building nearby, near the front entrance to the nearly-new Pelham Manor Train Station built of stone, designed by noted architect Cass Gilbert and opened in about 1908.  

Immediately below is a 1910 post card image of the Pelham Post Office as well as an image reflecting details from a local map of the area also published in 1910.  (I have marked those map details to provide identifying information and source details.)

Not long after the construction of the new post office building, a local resident named Fred Bergman was hired as a post office clerk (in about 1911).  A year later, he was named Superintendent of the Pelham Manor Post Office.  

When Mr. Bergman became Superintendent of the Post Office, there were two carriers on staff.  According to one account, there were only 196 residences in the Village of Pelham Manor at the time.  The post office did an average business of $6.00 per day.  That quickly changed.  According to the same account, by 1923, there were 700 residences in the village requiring five mail carriers.  The post office did an average business of $20.00 per day.  Bergman lamented, however, that "the figure could be doubled if the residents of the Manor would patronize the local office. . . . a large number of Manor residents are not aware of the fact that there is a post office station in the village.  'Every day we receive a sack of mail from the Pelham office containing letters consigned to Pelham Manor, but which have been addressed to Pelham. . . . This means delay in the delivery of mail.'"  Source:  Progressive Pelham, The Pelham Sun, Jan. 5, 1923, pg. 8, col. 1.  

In 1910, the Pelham Manor and Pelham post offices were designated as branches of the New York City post office.  Superintendent Kerr was to have become superintendent of the Pelham Manor branch post office, but as a consequence of the change, he resigned.

Over the years, a small grocery known, unsurprisingly, as Pelham Manor Grocery opened in the building and shared space with the post office.  For a short while, the little post office and the beautiful stone Pelham Manor Depot designed by Cass Gilbert were the central hub of the Village of Pelham Manor.  The death knell of the post office, however, was sounded when the Branch Line ended commuter service to Pelham Manor in the 1930s.  One account states:

"The Pelham Manor post office continued as a regular branch of the New York Post office with full carrier service until about four years ago [i.e., in 1932], and then the carriers were transferred to the Pelham branch.  Gradually business fell off until the receipts became so small this year that there was little reason for continuing the station.  The lease on the quarters expires on Thursday [i.e., December 31, 1936] and there has not been a renewal."

Source:  Pelham Manor Loses Its Post Office; Once Center Of Business In Village, The Pelham Sun, Dec. 29, 1936, pg. 1, col. 7.  

Below are transcriptions of the entirety of the two news articles referenced above.

"Pelham Manor Loses Its Post Office; Once Center Of Business In Village
-----

The old Pelham Manor post-office station will pass with 1936.  Postmaster Albert Goldman of the New York City post-office has informed The Pelham Sun that business in the sub-station situated at the southern end of the Esplanade, just across the street from the abandoned Pelham Manor railroad station, has proven to be insufficient to warrant keeping the office open.  Time was when the Pelham Manor post office was the center of business activity in the village, but there has been a definite trend against business in the residential village, so in recent years there has been little need for the office.

The Pelham Sun sought information relative to the Pelham Manor post-office from one of the older citizens.  Alfred L. Hammett recalls that when he came to Pelham Manor in 1882 Joseph English, the station agent, was postmaster, and he distributed mail from his office in the station.  

Gervas H. Kerr, now village clerk of Pelham Manor, became postmaster in 1897, and he continued the post-office in the station until 1904, when it was moved to a residence on Terrace avenue, which is now the home of F.C. Allen, Jr.

In 1907 Mr. Kerr built the present post-office building, and for years that was the only business block in the village.  The branch line of the New Have railroad was operating on 30-minute service to Harlem river, and there was much activity in the vicinity of the Pelham Manor post office.

In 1910 when the Pelham and Pelham Manor post offices were taken over by the New York City post office, in order that the Pelhams might have carrier service, Mr. Kerr was to have become superintendent of the office, but with the change, he resigned.

The Pelham Manor post office continued as a regular branch of the New York Post office with full carrier service until about four years ago, and then the carriers were transferred to the Pelham branch.  Gradually business fell off until the receipts became so small this year that there was little reason for continuing the station.

The lease on the quarters expires on Thursday and there has not been a renewal."

Source:  Pelham Manor Loses Its Post Office; Once Center Of Business In Village, The Pelham Sun, Dec. 29, 1936, pg. 1, col. 7. 

"PROGRESSIVE PELHAM
-----

'What?  In Pelham Manor a string of chicken farms?' a Sun reporter asked in astonishment.  'Yes, sir.  Why, twelve years ago there was only one house on Highbrook Avenue from Monterey to Colonial Avenues, four houses on Pelhamdale from the Boston Road to Colonial Avenue, a scattered few houses on Manor Lane, and around Wolf's Lane there were the Iden Estate and some chicken farms,' said Superintendent Fred Bergman.

Bergman has been superintendent of the Pelham Manor post office for eleven years.  He came to the office as a clerk twelve years ago, and from the records on the books of the office he can show how Pelham Manor built up.  When he became superintendent there were two carriers on the staff.  The total number of houses then were 196.  Now five carriers have more than 700 to take care of.

The post office at that time did an average of $6 per day.  Now the Manor office averages $20 per day and Bergman claims that the figure could be doubled if the residents of the Manor would patronize the local office.  The superintendent stated that a large number of Manor residents are not awarre of the fact that there is a post office station in the village.  

'Every day we receive a sack of mail from the Pelham office containing letters consigned to Pelham Manor, but which have been addressed to Pelham,' said the superintendent.  'This means delay in the delivery of mail,' he finished."

Source:  Pelham Manor Loses Its Post Office; Once Center Of Business In Village, The Pelham Sun, Dec. 29, 1936, pg. 1, col. 7. 

For additional information about the early days of the Pelham Manor Depot and the Pelham Manor Post Office, see, e.g.:  

Wed., Feb. 10, 2010:  Train Station Safe at Pelham Manor Was Blown Open with Dynamite Yet Again on April 24, 1902.  

Tue., Nov. 17, 2009:  1883 Advertisement by Pelham Manor Protective Club Offering Reward for Information About Pelham Manor Depot Burglary.  

Tue., Aug. 11, 2009:  News of Pelham Manor and City Island Published on July 14, 1882.

Fri., Mar. 6, 2009:  Burglars Blow the Safe at the Pelham Manor Post Office in 1894.  

Mon., Jan. 28,, 2008:  1884 Burglary and Gun Fight at the Pelham Manor Depot.  

Fri., Jan. 18, 2008:  Studies Created by Noted Architect Cass Gilbert for the Pelham Manor Station.  

Tue., May 22,, 2007:  Photograph of Pelham Manor Station on the Branch Line Published in 1908.  

Tue., Mar. 29, 2005:  The Earliest Telephone in Pelham Manor?  

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