Mrs. Nellie M Hamilton - Postmistress
Another First for Nuroad/Berkeley, MO!
This post office was located in the front of our grandparents living quarters which had served previously as a bakery shop and was located as the intersection of Graham and Airport Roads. Some of our classmates will remember having to pick up their mail at this Post Office. For a very low sum, you could rent a Post Office Box which had your name on it and it had a combination lock which you could unlock and get your mail after hours. If you didn't have a P.O. Box, your mail was sorted to the General Delivery bin and you had to pick up your mail personally from the Postmistress during the regular business hours. She would then thumb through the stack until she found your mail and hand it to you through the clerks window. Mail service had a personal touch in this Post Office and it also served as a meeting place where many exchanged the local gossip and happenings of the town. My how things have changed today as a trip to the Post Office is akin to "A walk on the wild side".
The payment a Postmaster received in those days was the amount of stamp cancellations each day. A letter's postage was 3 cents postage at that time and if you received 10 letters to be mailed that day, you received 30 cents for your days pay. The article below makes reference to this method of payment and the paltry sum she received each month.
The attached newspaper article pays tribute to the Nuroad, MO Postmistress upon her passing away in October 1954 while I was in Korea. It portrays the lovable person she was as well as the matriarch of our family. During the "Hard Time 30's she helped our entire family through those tough times.
Locksmith Hendon
ReplyDeleteServicing homes and cars, or a combination of the 2, as a locksmith can be a promising and lucrative small business. Though you have to invest some time and money in tools, such as lock pick sets and locksmith training, the profit could be well worth it.
The Nuroad post office was located near the Berkeley streetcar line. The route still exists south of Airport Road as Hanley Road. North of Airport Hanley follows a short portion of the line to where it terminated at the Wabash railroad tracks. The line originally crossed the tracks, turned west on Frost Avenue, then north on what now remains of Hazelwood Avenue and headed all the way to Florissant. I rode on the Berkeley line; it was quite a trip, mostly through woods. Here and the cement posts which lined the tracks can still be found.
ReplyDelete