By Fred Miller
One hundred and thirty-nine years ago, March 2, 1881, the United States Post Office in Ocean City opened for its first day of business. It was located in the Ocean City Association building on the southeast corner of Sixth Street and Asbury Avenue. William H. Burrell, one the city’s founders, was the appointed the first postmaster. Establishing a U. S. Post Office in Ocean City was a great accomplishment for the young city.
The local Post Office, which was located in five different buildings between 1881 and 1910, moved to a new building at 410 Eighth Street on August 1, 1910. It occupied a 35’ x 79’ space on the first floor. The upper floors of the building contained four apartments.
Postmaster Edward M. Sutton found the 2,765 square foot space adequate to serve the city’s year-round population of 1,950. Twenty years later, 5,463 people called Ocean City home and Postmaster J. Reeves Hildreth needed a lot more space. His requests for a spacious new building were always denied.
Surprisingly, it was during the darkest days of the Great Depression that money became available for new post offices. President Franklin D. Roosevelt believed the post office department was the most visible form of the federal government in every community and to every citizen. He also believed that post office construction could play a significant role in revitalizing America.
Suddenly, new post offices were being built all across America, including Ocean City. In 1936, Leroy Jeffries, Ocean City’s postmaster, negotiated the deal which saw the federal government pay $45,000 for 150’ x 200’ lot on the corner of Ninth Street and Ocean Avenue for the new post office building.
On July 17, 1936, Mayor Joseph G. Champion, Postmaster Jeffries, and local dignitaries broke ground to begin the building.
The new Ocean City Post Office opened for business on Monday, June 28, 1937, and the next day the Ocean City Sentinel-Ledger reported, “Post office employees accomplished the big feat of transferring the base of their operations from the old quarters on 8th street to the new $100,000 building at 9th Street and Ocean Avenue over the weekend, practically with no break in postal service.”
John B. Kelly Sr. served as chairman of the Post Office dedication ceremony on Saturday, August 7, 1937. The day included a four-event program: 12:30 p.m., Ocean City Mayor Champion led the formal dedication from the steps of the new building; 1:15 p.m., luncheon at The Flanders Hotel; 3:30 p.m., re-enactment of the first air mail flight in New Jersey made between Ocean City and Stone Harbor on August 5, 1912; 8:30 p.m., 12-event lifeguard water show at The Flanders’ pools.
The 139th anniversary of the Ocean City Post Office is a good time to salute and thank our local postal employees.
