The Mailbox, Fading in Function, Still Boosts Curb Appeal
When was the last time you actually wrote a letter to a friend with pen and paper, placed it in an envelope, sealed it, affixed a stamp, left it in your mailbox and raised the red metal flag to let the mailman know that you were making use of the U.S. Postal Service?
For most of us, that activity has completely vanished, and the mailbox today serves mainly to receive bills, junk mail and promotional pieces from politicians.
Oh, wait, the mailbox also serves to notify drivers of the number assigned to our house and perhaps our family name.
But the primary function of the mailbox, even its necessity, has diminished significantly since Al Gore “invented” the Internet and we first heard the term e-mail. Add to that the advent of Facebook, Twitter and texting and what need is there for a mailbox?
That question is intensified by the recent announcements of yet another hike in first class postage and that Saturday delivery would soon end. Add the Great Recession and the competition created by Fed Ex and UPS for express mail and delivery of packages and you may not be surprised to learn that use of the postal service has decreased by 29 percent in 10 years.
Does this mean that the mailbox as we know it will eventually disappear?
It would be a shame for that to happen, considering that since the 1860s when the postal service as we know it originated, the mailbox has become an accepted part of the landscape. Today, it offers yet another opportunity to create curb appeal, distinguishing the look of our property from that of our neighbors.
But that wasn’t always the case.
At my home, I have a larger tunnel-shaped mailbox. Both my wife and I have loved it since we moved here more than 30 years ago because it holds so much, including packages. When we received all of our business mail here before the age of e-mail, it was frequently stuffed to the brim. But no more.
I learned that this particular style of mailbox was designed by a postal worker named Roy Jorolemen in 1915 and was soon adopted by postal regulations for universal use. By 1923, when it became mandatory for every household to have a mailbox, that shape dominated the roadside landscape for many years.
I have found photographs of my house from the 1920s taken from the vantage point of my mailbox and, incredibly enough, I think I still have that original mailbox, protected through the years by layers of paint, a replaced wooden bottom and a sturdy metal pole supporting it.
In 1978, postal authorities approved a “contemporary” mailbox specification for alternative designs and, today, our local post offices don’t care much about how our mailboxes look. In checking with my local post office, I was told that the only requirements now are to place the bottom of the box three and a half to four feet from ground level so the door can be easily accessible from postal vehicles, and it must be directly on the line of the curb, even if you don’t have a curb. Also, a mailbox should have a signaling device–that red metal flag–to indicate mail is ready to be picked up. My flag fell off about 10 years ago.
Because we now have all this leeway in mailbox design, a new cottage industry has developed where specialty mailboxes can be designed to a homeowner’s whim. Design options range from a John Deere tractor or puppy dog to an exact replica of one’s home. Of course, they may be ordered online.
Lately mailbox design has been influenced by the increased risk of vandalism with mailboxes made of composite plastic, heavy-gauge steel or aluminum plate. Some composite mailboxes made of resilient polymer plastics and mounted on ground spikes can withstand severe impacts from baseball bats or even being run over by a vehicle. Also, you may have noticed that some homeowners have built solid brick or stone pillars on each side of their driveways with a metal box lodged securely inside one of them.
There was a time when anticipation, even heart flutters, accompanied my six weekly trips down my driveway to the mailbox, either with the dread of receiving a negative response to a proposal or, in at least one fond memory, the ecstatic news of my firm winning the largest account in its history.
But today, the excitement of my mailbox is mainly to cultivate the sweet peas climbing its pole.
Bill Primavera is a Realtor® affiliated with Coldwell Banker for both residential and commercial sales, as well as a marketer and journalist who writes regularly as The Home Guru. For comments or questions about home maintenance, or for information about buying or selling a home, he can be emailed at Bill@PrimaveraRealEstate or reached directly at 914-522-2076.
