This ancient mailbox can be found on Palisade Avenue near the Riverdale Station in the Bronx. At one time, small mailboxes like these were standard issue in the five boroughs, but as mail gradually increased in size, larger mailboxes became necessary. For the most part, small mailboxes were mounted on telephone poles as seen here, but they were also mounted on short concrete poles, which also can be found in certain areas.

As you can see, these mailboxes had very small slots which only admitted letters or the thinnest of packages.

Photo by John Halabi

These two views of the same mailbox were taken about three years after the first picture. The paint has faded just a bit more, and there is a little more graffiti.

I'm not even sure the post office, other than the mailmen assigned to this route, even know this box is there--it would have been removed long ago!

The Carlisle Foundry in Carlisle, VA made this box.

Another box in rural Riverdale, by the Danville Stove Manufacturing Company of Danville, PA, can be found at Independence Avenue, Hudson River Road and West 254th Street.

2003: the curse of modernity has claimed this box.

Ancient, one-slot mailbox still in use at Union Turnpike and 268th Street in Glen Oaks, Queens. This one was from the Bridgeport Castiron Company in Connecticut.

Photo by Jeff Saltzman.

2003: This one appears to be gone as well.

This ancient mailbox used to be found at Fingerboard Road and Summer Street in the Rosebank section of Staten Island. It's also from the Carlisle Foundry. Unfortunately it was replaced by a standard box in 1999.

Photos courtesy Steven Isler.

Meanwhile, in Tottenville...

This ancient mailbox is on the corner of Richmond Valley Road and Madsen Avenue. A US Mail sticker with a modern eagle logo has rather redundantly been placed on the side of the box...right under the embossed US Mail sign. This one was also from the Bridgeport Castiron Company in Connecticut.

Here's another ancient slot mailbox, with an alternate design, at the Staten Island Historical Society Museum in Richmondtown.

This concrete pole, in Brooklyn's Prospect Park South, once held a small mailbox like the one in the above photo.

A similar pole in Whitestone, Queens.

Comments? Arguments? Offers? E mail me at erpietri@earthlink.net.