The quaint and simple instructions issued by Gov. Lovelace in 1672 for the guidance of the post masters in the early colonial days contrast strikingly with the voluminous laws and regulations required for the conduct of our immense postal business of today. It will be observed that the post masters had other duties to perform besides merely caring for the pacquetts and letters which came into their jurisdiction.

Instructions for Ye Post Mastr (Gen. Entries III., 252, Sec. Office, Albany.)

In the first place, you are to take yor oath of ffidelity wch the Secretary shall administer to you; your duty as to the Generall is included in that Oath. Next, you are to comport yor selfe with all sobriety and civility to those that shall intrust you, and not exact on them for the prices both of Letter and Pacquetts. You are principally to apply yor selfe to the Governors, especially Governor Winthrop, from whom you shall receive the best direction how to forme ye best Poast Road.

You are likewise to advise where the most commodious place will be to leave all the by-Letters out of your Road, which, when having it once well fixt, you are not only to leave the Letters there, but at your returne to call for answers, and leave a Publication of your Resolutions, the wch you must cause to bee disperst to all parts, that soe all may know when and where to leave their letters.

You are to give mee an Acct of your negotiation at this time to the end of May; be satisfied of all your proceedings, and bee able to assist you if occasion shall require. When you think it requisite, you are to marke some Trees that shall direct Passengers the best way, and to fixe certaine Houses for your Severall Stages both to bait and lodge at.

When any persons are desirous to travaile with you, you are to treat them civilly, and to afford them yor best help and assistance, that I may heave noe complaint to you. You shall doe well to provide yor selfe of a spare Horse, good Port Mantels, that soe neither letters nor Pacquets receive any Damage under yor hands.

There are some other considerations, wch I shall forbeare to mention till yor returne and I receive a further accompt of you, and soe God bless all yor honest undertakings.

FFRAN LOVELACE
Ffort James ye 22d of Janry 1672.

You are also to detect & cause to bee apprehended all Souldyers & Servants runn away from these parts.

The Oath Given to the Post Master (Gen. Entries III, 253, Secretary's Office, Albany)

You doe Sweare by the Everlasting God, that you will truly & faithfully discharge the trust reposed in you as a Post Master, and that you will neither directly nor indirectly detayne, conceale, or open any Letters, Packetts, or other Goods committed to your Charge, but carefully, & honestly deliver or cause to be delivered all such Letters, Packetts or other Goods to the Persons they properly belong unto, & that you will make all the Expedition in passing and repassing the severall Stages with all speed, & to make noe more stay than necessarily belongs to the refreshing your selfe and Horse, & in all things truly & soberly to comport yor selfe, so as belongs to the trust reposed in you, and as a Post Master ought to doe, Soe help You God.

Although the mother country had some sort of a postal system it was not until 1692 that any official regulation of the business was attempted by the young colony. In that year an act was passed by the municipal authorities establishing a post office. Previous to this time and even long after, the business was entirely haphazard. Anybody might be a postman. Letters arriving in the little settlement were delivered direct from the ships just as pacquetts or goods were delivered, and the public taverns where the merchants and traders were known to meet were used as depositories for their letter. Sometimes places were agreed upon where letters could be left, and this custom became common enough to give rise to the so-called "Coffee House Delivery", a very good substitute for a post office service in those primitive times, and no doubt the humble source from which has grown our present splendid system. In 1710 the post master general of England established "a chief letter office" in New York and other American settlements and thereafter the business took a more regular course. In 1732 the need of larger accommodation was felt and we read in the New York Gazette of May 3 that "the New York post office will be removed tomorrow to the uppermost of the two houses on Broadway opposite Beaver street."

The post office continued in this uppermost house on Broadway a good many years for we learn that at this place more than twenty years afterward, namely 1753, notice was given that the post office would be open every day except Sunday from 8 to 12 a.m. On post nights the office was open till 10 p.m. The small inland towns or settlements which had no regular postal connections depended on private persons going and coming between points. These carriers who were often only acquaintances or passing travelers were allowed to take the letters by paying whatever postage expenses had accrued, and thus, in time, often quite a long time, these epistles reached their destination.

The Revolution worked havoc in the post office. New York was in the hands of the British many years and the exactions of the provost-marshall were so severe that the post office seems to have disappeared altogether. Alexander Colden had been Post Master for about twenty years, but when the Revolution broke out we lose sight of him and all his works. Under the presidency of Gen. Washington the first American post office in New York was established. President Washington appointed Sam Osgood Post Master in 1788 and we find the post office once more at the old stand on Broadway and doing a thriving business.

In 1804 the post office was removed from Broadway to 29 William Street at the corner of Garden Street, where the business was conducted in a room measuring about 12 by 15 feet. Gen. Theodore Bailey, who was post master at this time occupied the upper part of the house with his family. He had one clerk only and between them they managed the entire mail business of the bustling little town and had time besides to take an hour or an hour and half at midday for dinner and general repose. The office was closed then. At this period the entire Southern mail, consisting of two bags, was carried from Paulus Hook in a little row boat. during the yellow fever scare of 1822 the post office was taken to Greenwich village which seems to have enjoyed a mysterious immunity from that dread disease, and it remained there until the scourge abated.

Business was increasing fast and in 1825 the government leased a two-story building in Garden Street (now Exchange Place), formerly used as an academy, where the facilities for doing business were much greater and room for growth was obtained. The clerical force had increased to eight and the business had taken an impetus which has never since ceased. Here it was that perhaps our New York crowds had their beginning, for Post Master Bailey was persuaded to erect a shed over the sidewalk to protect the people from the rain and snow when they collected at the windows for the sending and receiving of mail.

About this time a building was being erected which was to eclipse anything, from an architectural point of view, that had been accomplished before in New York, with possibly the exception of the City Hall, and that was the Merchant's Exchange in Wall Street. This building was finished in 1827 and was no disappointment to the inhabitants of the city. Nothing would suit the business community but that the post office should be situated in this splendid building and consequently it was removed from the old wooden building in Garden Street to this new location, where it occupied a part of the basement.

In the great fire of 1835 the Merchants' Exchange was destroyed. The post office was removed temporarily to Pine Street. Heretofore it had been the desire of the commercial and financial interests to keep all public buildings in close proximity but as the city expanded and business interests spread it was not always feasible nor indeed necessary and the idea fell into disuse. The city had by this time extended as far uptown as Washington Square and vicinity, which was being rapidly built up. The business part of the city, however, was still below the City Hall and only the retail business had moved up as far as Canal Street. The great magnet of business at that time was Wall Street, just as it is today, and around it rotated all other interests as they do at the present time. Front, Water and Pearl Streets were occupied by wholesale merchants, and strange to say, most of these wholesale businesses, especially the coffee, sugar and commission houses, still monopolize this district.

It very soon developed that the temporary post office in Pine Street was entirely inadequate for the business it was required to handle and a building large enough for the purpose was not to be found, and the authorities were at their wits' end to know what to do. The only building which could pretend to meet the requirements was the Rotunda in the Park, and the Common Council considered it the part of wisdom to offer that building to the Federal Government. The Post Master was quick to accept, the necessary alterations were made and in a short time the post office was moved into this odd-looking building, occupying a place in the park for the first time. Had the citizens of New York known that this initial venture to use the park for public buildings was to result in later years in the erection of the ugly building which now occupies the best section of the park lands, they would certainly have objected strenuously and prevented it at any inconvenience or cost to themselves. Let us hope, however, that the day is not very distant when this later invasion of the peoples' sacred domain will be rectified and this beauty-spot of New York restored to its original condition and so kept for all time.

In these days they spoke of the park as uptown, and a genuine "kick" was made by the business interests of Wall Street and its dependencies. It was altogether too far away. Meetings of protest were held, vigorous resolutions passed, committees formed to take drastic action and a hub-bub such as New York had never seen was stirred up. A committee of the leading merchants of the city adopted the following resolutions:

"That this meeting wholly disapproves of the removal of the post office to the rotunda; that, in the opinion of this meeting, great inconvenience and injury will be inflicted on the mercantile community by its location even for a short period at so great a distance from the center of business.

That a committee of seven be appointed with full power to proceed to Washington to communicate with the postmaster general, and with his consent and in conjunction with him to make all necessary arrangements for transferring the establishment from the rotunda to a site as near as possible to the new custom house, as soon as suitable premises can be secured and generally to adopt such proceedings as circumstances may require."

The citizens living and doing business in the neighborhood and further north were duly roused and took umbrage at the idea that their interests and importance were to be put aside and ignored utterly, and they, therefore, put on their war paint and went out against the enemy. Meetings of the "citizens" were called to counteract the moves of the "merchants" and the two factions locked horns. The newspapers of the day contained this notice:

"All that friendly to the permanent location of the post-office in the park or its vicinity are requested to meet in their respective wards on January 19, at 7 o'clock, for the purpose of selecting five delegates to represent each ward at a general convention to meet at the Broadway house on the 23d inst."

The big men of Wall Street hid themselves to Washington but they did not succeed any further than getting a branch office opened at Exchange Place and William Street, and this only after two years' effort and agitation.

In the mean time the burnt district was being built up with handsome and substantial buildings. Marble and granite were presaging the era of magnificence and size. The splendid building which is now the National City Bank was erected and many fine brick buildings were put up where formerly little shabby old wooden structures stood.

Until 1845, the post office was in the Rotunda. This building, originally designed for panoramic exhibitions, was by no means an ideal place for the post office business. However, it was the only available building, and notwithstanding continual complaints the business remained here for ten years. Post Master Coddington made alterations and additions to the building, which overcame the disadvantages to some extent. He added a two-story extension which gave more room for the fast growing business but nothing anyone could possibly do could meet the requirements. This building was the first used exclusively for a post office.

In 1844 the Middle Dutch Church in Nassau Street was for sale and the location was one to satisfy the merchants. It was also considered large enough for Post office purposes. The government leased the property for $5,000 a year rental and finally purchased it for $200,000. The site is worth today about $5,000,000. These figures give a very lively idea of real estate valuations and the enormous fortunes which have been made possible to lucky investors in such sections of New York. In this old church, after the necessary alterations were made, the post office was housed for about 30 years. It was 1845 when the post office was finally removed from the Rotunda to this historic old building and old New Yorkers can remember the transformation of this sacred old pile into a center of commercial activity as one which was not altogether to their taste. However, we had to make the best of it and certainly, from a business point of view, it was an immense improvement on the Rotunda.

Business in New York leaps forward with such bounds that no one can safely predict what the conditions may be in a few years. The Dutch Church was ready for the scrap heap within a short time and complaints arose about the inconvenience and inadequacy of the building. The people, however, had to grin and bear it because there was no site to be had that would suit. Toward the end of the sixties the agitation for a post office commensurate with the size and importance of the city became so insistent that the city authorities offered the government the plot of ground in the City Hall Park, and the government speedily and eagerly accepted it. This aroused strong opposition which was expressed in public meetings and by agitation in the press. It has continued until the present day.

A good many lovers of Old New York will never cease to make themselves heard in condemnation of this perversion of their beautiful park. Give us back our park, they say, and take away the monstrous pile that stands there now and is an eye sore to the multitudes that surge about it every day. The building is ill ventilated and uncomfortable within and the exterior is unsightly in the last degree. There are no reasons now why it should not be removed. Sites have been found for the new Hall of Records and the Municipal Building and it is quite possible to find a site for a handsome and practical building in the neighborhood of its present location which would serve the requirements of the large and important interests of downtown business men. New York has endured this infringement of its precious park land for a whole generation-since 1875, when the post office was opened, and now that opportunity offers the people are going to demand that their park land be restored to them. There is now no good argument that it should not, the important down town business can be accommodated better, much better, elsewhere.

The magnificent building of the Post Office, occupying the block on Eighth Avenue, between 31st and 33rd Street is the largest for this purpose in the world. No mistake has been made in this splendid building. It is beautiful to look at, magnificent in size, appropriate in design and comfortable and convenient in all its appointments. Here for a generation at least the enormous business of the New York Post Office will center. The contrast of this magnificent building and its enormous business, with the little dingy office in Garden Street gives New Yorkers a lively conception of the marvelous transformation which has taken place in this wonderful city of ours.