Hawleyville Post Office Reclaims A Piece Of History

By Nancy K. Crevier

“This is fantastic. Boy, it brings back such memories,” said Jane Payne, who served as a clerk and officer in charge of Hawleyville Post Office from 1977 to 2000. What Ms Payne was admiring Wednesday morning, May 30, was the newest bit of history installed in the ultramodern new Hawleyville Post Office facility at 23 Barnabas Road.

Salvaged from its longtime postal home at 30 Hawleyville Road, two years ago, a refurbished white oak stamp window was installed Sunday, May 28, in the service area of the new space. The stamp window joins other relics from the 165-year-old business that work together, said Postmaster Mark Favale, to soften the “cookie-cutter, Walmart feel” of the post office. A second stamp window had been salvaged, he said, but already in rough condition, it had been irreparably damaged during the move.

“U.S. Post Office Hawleyville Connecticut” is burned into a wooden sign above a row of mailboxes in the lobby. The sign hung for years above the outside window at the former location, said Mr Favale. Familiar to those who have frequented the Hawleyville Post Office for the past 30 years is the mural that spans the doorway leading into the new facility’s service area. That folk art landscape was painted and donated to the post office in 1983 by artist Diane Voyentzie, and had graced the border between mailboxes and ceiling in the old building. The forms table, with sturdy oak legs, is also a “rescue” from the move.

It took a little detective work on the part of Mr Favale to determine the history of the stamp window. Stenciled on the backside of one oak panel he found “1929. CAB’T LOCK CO” and partial lettering that appeared to be “...TAIN, CT.”

“I went online and found out there was a Corbin Cabinet Lock Company in New Britain at that time,” said Mr Favale, and Ms Payne, the unofficial post office historian, confirmed that it was indeed a Corbin product.

The stamp window started out its life in the post office when it was located in the Honan Store, now the Hawleyville Deli on Route 25. In 1981, the Hawleyville Post Office relocated to the Lloyd’s Lumber Company (formerly Platt’s Lumber) building next door — the original post office space, prior to moving to the Honan Store. The stamp window moved there and customers leaned against the oak and brass counter, ordering stamps and mailing packages until 2009, when it was determined that a new facility was needed to meet safety and customer needs. Mr Favale made sure that the stamp window made one more move.

“The history is too important to let it go,” he said. “That’s why we tried to keep as much as we could.”

It has taken two years, though, and the skill of woodworker and builder Chris Jerace, a partner of Naturally Wood in Newtown, to restore the stamp window.

“Chris is a customer of ours, and I asked him one day if he would restore it, and he took it on. It was a job,” Mr Favale said, adding that Mr Jerace had donated his time and materials for the project.

“It was pretty messy,” said Mr Jerace. “I took the finish all the way down to bare wood, got rid of all the old, bad finish. There was paint and holes, and this and that wrong with it,” he said. Years of wear and tear required that the warped oak kick panels be reinforced and realigned.

The wood was sanded, stained, and urethaned to protect it, the brass counter plate was polished and reattached, the pebbled glass side windows that flank the barred service window were cleaned up, and then the biggest challenge came when the refinished stamp window was moved into the new location. “Trying to figure out how to mount it on the wall was a little problem,” Mr Jerace said. Additional oak end pieces were attached to the original panels, and the end pieces screwed to blocks against the wall.

“I love working with wood,” said Mr Jerace, “but the main reason I took this on is that it was such a fabulous community effort to save this particular post office. I did this for the community, and because I am part of this community.”

The antique stamp window is not a functional window. Merely decorative now, it reminds all who enter of the long history of the Hawleyville Post Office, and of the perseverance of the residents and post office employees whose efforts to Save Hawleyville Post Office ensured that local homeowners and businesses can continue to do their postal business on Route 25.