Former Grocers-Post Office in Gravesend

The white house with the half-moon window below the front gable at 66 Gravesend Neck Road once served as a combination grocers' shop and post office. An historical photo from 1879 in the collection of James Ditta shows this building with an open-air, 1-story front porch where the enclosed porch is now (see the link below). A sign above the porch roof read "Post Office Grocery, Flour and Feed Store." Steps led up to the central doorway from the front and from one side of the porch. A number of men were on the porch in the photo, while a horse-drawn wagon with a man and boy was stopped on the dirt road in front of the store. Gravesend's first post office opened in 1843. The postmaster from 1869 to 1889 was Dr. Richard Lawrence Van Kleek, who also ran a private practice in Gravesend; he became physician to the Health Home in Coney Island in 1889. The building has been a private residence since the 1890s.

Up until the early 1840s, mail headed to Gravesend was routed to the Flatbush post office, where folks would go and retrieve it themselves. Sometimes the local newspapers would print a list of who had mail to be picked up. A post office was eventually set up in Gravesend in 1843, kept by the first postmaster, Martin Schoonmaker in his general store on Gravesend Avenue next to the Reformed Church. Gilbert Hicks, a young fisherman, took over in 1854. Next was a merchant in Gravesend named John Bergen. By the 1880s, the postmaster was Dr. R. L. Van Kleek, a position he held after Bergen left in 1869. The Town of Gravesend, which extended from Coney Island to the outskirts of Prospect Park, had enough residents or seasonal visitors by 1878 for a second post office to be opened at Brighton Beach.

The Gravesend area remained largely rural through most of the nineteenth century, but, towards the end of the century, visitors swelled the population each summer when transportation improvements made it easier to get to the shore. Someone robbed the Gravesend Post Office in mid-July 1892, reportedly getting away with $300 in cash and stamps. When the suspected robbers - six men and a woman - were caught in the Bowery in Manhattan a couple weeks later, they confessed to stealing $85 from the Gravesend P.O., but were soon accused of several other robberies in the New York area. In 1894, the Town of Gravesend became part of the City of Brooklyn; two years later, the Gravesend Post Office became a branch of the Brooklyn Post Office. Brooklyn became a borough of the City of New York in 1898.

Gravesend's newly-built Post Office building on the northeast corner of Ave. U and Fourth St. opened in early 1927. The $100,000 structure was meant to serve 50,000 residents. The brick, two-story plus basement building measured 100 ft. across the front and 60 ft. on the sides. Peter F. Ralph was appointed the station's superintendent. By that date, the station employed 27 mail carriers, nine clerks, and one laborer. The carriers were provided second-floor facilities with showers, a clothes dryer, and individual lockers. The station planned to deliver mail three times every day to more populated areas and only twice daily in less dense areas.

A soldier returning from duty in World War I lived at 66 "Neck Road" (but this may be a different Brooklyn street) in 1919. John Aspermonte, of Battery E, arrived on the ship the Duca d'Abruzzi. The Valentino family lived at 66 Neck Rd. in 1949 when 26-year-old Barbara Valentino applied for a marriage license with 32-year-old Walter Cataldo of 53rd St.

The house at 66 Gravesend Neck Rd. has become a two-family home with a total of six bedrooms and two bathrooms. The bath and kitchen on the first floor have been recently remodeled. The fully detached home with over 2,000 square feet has a full basement with high ceilings. The garage and spacious driveway can reportedly fit 20 cars.

Anonymous. "More Evidence Against Them." Brooklyn Daily Times (Brooklyn) August 1st 1892.1-1.

Anonymous. "Gravesend P.O. Opens to Public." Times Union (Brooklyn) February 27th 1927. 5A-5A.

Anonymous. "Marriage Licenses." Brooklyn Daily Eagle (Brooklyn) August 8th 1949. 10-10.

Anonymous. "Arrivals on Leviathon and Duca D' Abruzzi." Brooklyn Standard Union (Brooklyn) February 12th 1919. 2-2.

Brooklyn Daily Eagle. Brooklyn Daily Eagle Almanac. Volume 8. Brooklyn, NY. Press of Brooklyn Daily Eagle and Job Department, 1893.

Ditta, Joseph. Gravesend, Brooklyn. Then and Now. Charleston, SC. Arcadia Publishing, 2009.

Ditta, Joseph. Letter from Gravesend, The Gravesend Gazette. blog. August 1st 2011. Accessed April 5th 2022. https://gravesendgazette.com/category/postal-history/.

Ditta, James. Gravesend Characters Past: Richard Lawrence Van Kleek (1839-1896), The Gravesend Gazette. blog. February 10th 2015. Accessed April 5th 2022. https://gravesendgazette.com/tag/coney-island/.

Kay, John L. Smith, Chester M. New York Postal History: The Post Offices and First Postmasters from 1775 to 1980. State College, PA. American Philatelic Society, 1982.

Nonko, Emily. The Multi-Million Dollar Real Estate of Brooklyn's....Gravesend?, 6sqft. April 28th 2015. Accessed April 5th 2022. https://www.6sqft.com/the-multi-million-dollar-real-estate-of-brooklyns-gravesend/.

Realtor.com. 66 Gravesend Neck Rd., Brooklyn, NY, Realtor.com. January 1st 2022. Accessed March 27th 2022. https://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/66-Gravesend-Neck-Rd_Brooklyn_NY_11223_M46833-83182.

Stiles, Henry Reed. Brackett, Linus Pierpont. The Civil, Political, Professional and Ecclesiastic History, and Commercial and Industrial Record ...Brooklyn...1663 to 1884. Volume I. New York, NY. W. W. Munsell & Co., 1884.