This building, located on Union Valley Road near the current West Milford Post Office building at 1560 Union Valley Road, was the first location for Dr. Joseph Masessa’s dermatology office before he established other professional offices along the East coast. He was killed piloting his vintage military airplane at an air show in another state. (
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Before 1965, there was no house numbering system in the Township of West Milford. The successful delivery of mail throughout the large municipality was dependent on rural mail carriers. A dozen or so “mailmen” delivered letters and packages to mailboxes on their routes along primary roads throughout the township, just as mail carriers do today. The difference from earlier times is that the only identification the postman had was the name of a road, town and state. House addresses weren’t on the address because no house numbering system existed. To empty their mail delivery bag, mailmen had to know the name of every resident on their route and be familiar with the house where the person lived to correctly distribute all the daily mail. To illustrate situations that mailmen encountered is an envelope that was mailed to “Red headed Gene next to the gas station on Echo Lake Road”. My Uncle Gene Mathews received the letter in a routine delivery to the Mathews home without incident.
I remember two of the mailmen. Growing up at my parent’s home with an Echo Lake Road (later renamed Macopin Road), was delivered by mailman Walter Snel in his personal car. He was a Butler High School graduate in the class of 1921 with my mother. He delivered mail to our home that included mail order packages as well as letters and even live baby chicks from Chicago in the spring. The family name appeared on the package with the name of road, followed by Butler NJ. There was no house number on the envelope and Zip Codes were not established across the nation until 1963. Snel delivered mail out of the Butler Post Office to Apshawa, Echo Lake, Mt. Glen, Gordon Lake, Lindy’s Lake areas and Echo Lake Road homes from the intersection at Hamburg Turnpike into Bloomingdale through its Mariontown Hill section and along the present Macopin Road in West Milford. Mailman Leslie Post carried Newfoundland Post Office mail along Union Valley Road as far as the Hewitt intersection of Union Valley Road, Greenwood Lake Turnpike and Lakeshore Road. His route included Pinecliff Lake deliveries. There were post office boxes available in the first West Milford Post Office located in the building that housed the medical office of the late Dr. Joseph Massessa, (killed when flying his vintage military plane in an air show).
In 1965, the Township of West Milford Committee (as the five-member local governing board was named) voted 3-2 to award a contract to G. Waldo Rude Engineering Associates to create a house numbering system for the township for a price of $11,000.
Stressing that they favored establishing a house numbering plan Warren Brogan and William Dunnigan (Democrats) did not want Rude to have the job contract. Brogan complained it was “cut and dried” for Rude to receive the contract. He and Dunnigan wanted Paul Emilius Associates to do the job, noting their bid price was $100 lower than Rude’s.
Mayor Wilbur Fredericks preferred hiring the Rude firm because Rude had many years of experience and success creating house numbering programs in other communities. House numbers were created and Snel continued delivering mail out of Butler along his former route. Post, when he retired, lived with his sister in Arizona where he died. Before the West Milford Post Office building was built in its present location on the former Wiggins property, it was in the store front in the ShopRite complex that now is the location for Frank’s Pizza business. The present post office is built at 1560 Union Valley Road on what was known as the Wiggins farm property.
In January, Hewitt Post Office customers were advised to use the West Milford Post Office until further notice. In addition to the West Milford Post Office, there are township post offices on Route 23 in Newfoundland and at Oak Ridge on Oak Ridge Road.
