The Oldest Post Office in Hinsdale, NH

If you were standing right in the middle of Main Street in Hinsdale, New Hampshire, (population 1700) facing south toward the Asheulot (pronounced Ash-wheel-lit) River, you would be looking at the oldest, continuously-operating post office in the United States.

When the big yellow building with brown trim opened its doors in 1816, James Madison, the fourth president of the country was in office; the Pony Express wouldn't come into being for another 44 years, the Civil War was still 45 years away, and Abraham Lincoln was 7 years old.

The building started out as a combination village store and post office, with apartments on the second floor.Can you imagine going up to the barred window ordering stamps, a can of beans, and a dozen eggs as well?

Back then, mail was moved by horse and wagon over unpaved roads that were a sea of mud in the spring, dry and dusty in the summer. They couldn't be seen (or sometimes found) in the winter.

In the mid 1800s the railway made its way to Brattleboro, Vermont, a town eight miles away. Outgoing mail was taken there and put on a train; incoming mail was picked up.

In 1894, a woman by the name of Perley (Peg) Harvey was paid seventy five cents a day to make two trips from Hinsdale to Brattleboro, and she was allowed forty-five minutes for the eight-mile journey.

Around the turn of the century, the post office was robbed twice. Thieves blew up the safe both times, destroying valuable records. That's the reason to this day, no one knows who was Hinsdale's postmaster for a 19 year period. (1826-1845)

Prior to 1905 people had to come to the post office to pick up mail that was put in "call" boxes. Then, in that year, a rural route was started, and mail was delivered by horse and buggy. Seven years later, the first mail was delivered by car four times a day: twice in the morning and twice in the afternoon.

Much has changed within the postal service since then, but not much has changed with the Hinsdale Post Office. Call boxes have been replaced with post boxes that have a combination lock, and modern equipment has been added. A stamp costs 3100% more than it did in 1816, and mail is delivered just once a day.

However, the building is the same. It stands now as it did when the shouts in the street were, "Lee has surrendered at Appomattox!" and "Lincoln has been shot!"

The apartments upstairs are still in use. It's a place where friends and neighbors meet and exchange greetings. On its old floors are mixed the tears of a mother whose son fell at Gettysburg and the tears of a mother who lost a son in another battle a hundred or more years later.

Maybe some day you will get to visit Hinsdale. Remember though, if you step into the post office, you'll be stepping back in time.