Post Offices

Scottsville, New York is a quaint little village in the town of Wheatland. You’ll find this one located in the southwestern corner of Monroe County. The village founded their first post office in 1820. At that time, it was located at 7 Rochester Street, in the home of their first postmaster Dr. Freeman Edson. From his house, he operated both the local medical practice and the Scottsville Post Office.

As the position of Postmaster changed hands, it appears that the location of the Scottsville Post Office did, too. Each Postmaster was allowed to choose where their office would be. As a result, the post office moved around a lot and at one point was even in a liquor store.

For a more detailed version of the post office histories in the town of Wheatland, checkout this history on the town of Wheatland website.

The Post Office you’ll see today in Scottsville was build in 1961, and the plain brick facade and font on the building seem to match that era.

The hamlet of Lakemont is located in the town of Starkey, New York which is in Yates County. It’s not far from the western edge of Seneca Lake, so this one can be found almost exactly in the center of the Finger Lakes Region.

According to some sources I’ve found online, the population of Lakemont is less than 6,000, which actually sounds really high after having spent some time there. This part of the state is super rural with lots of rolling hills and landscapes as far as you can see. Since their population is lower, I imagine they felt having a smaller Post Office would suffice.

I’m not sure that this is the smallest Post Office in the state, but it’s gotta be close!

Wyoming, New York is a village located in the town of Middlebury in the northeastern corner of Wyoming County. The village of Wyoming is pretty unique, as it’s the only “gaslight village” remaining in New York State. Most other municipalities moved their public utilities over to electric in some cases a century ago. But, Wyoming didn’t.

Today, you can see the gaslit lamps all up and down the sidewalks of the village of Wyoming.

At the Post Office, which serves zip code 14591 and the village, you can see a gaslit lamp right out front. This stop was a quick one while driving up Route 19 from Letchworth. At the time of my visit, the Post Office was closed, so just seeing the outside would have to do.

The building is fairly nondescript, but the sign way up on the second floor looks like it may have been hand-painted. If not, at the very least it certainly looks vintage!

Silver Springs, New York is a small village in Wyoming County that you may have driven through on a trip to Letchworth State Park. In fact, that’s how I encountered this post office! After a stop through to see the “ice volcano” in Letchworth, I made my way up the western edge of the Genesee Valley along Route 19 to get back home. To get to Route 19 though, I started off from Route 19a which pulls right through Silver Springs.

Alton, New York is a hamlet in the town of Sodus in Wayne County. If you’ve gone to the famous Chimney Bluffs by way of Route 104, it’s likely that you took a route north from the highway that brought you through Alton, and this little post office building.

While on a road ramble with my pal Michael of Naturally Green, we stopped for lunch next door at Karma’s Cruisin’ Cafe. Then, a quick snapshot of the vintage-looking Alton Post Office. Just look at that mid-century-ish font on the front!

And, it appears that they thought ahead with the blue and white color scheme so that it properly matched the winter snowfall.