The "Landis Valley Gets On The Map" Story

This image is the only known photo showing the Landis Valley
House Hotel with the post office sign above the right-side door.

It was an ordinary day.  Walking around the small, historical Landis Valley Farm and Museum looking for the Landis Valley House Hotel.  Wasn't long before I came upon a neat red house with steps leading to the porch in front of the house.  Landis Valley House Hotel was built in 1856 by Jacob Landis Jr. at the intersection of Reading Road and Kissel Hill Road.  Not long after that the area was referred to as  Landis Valley, thus the name of the hotel.  The hotel served both local patrons as well as travelers and was a regular route for the Conestoga Wagons that traveled the roads.  Then on April 29, 1872, Landis Valley House Hotel was given one more designation: Landis Valley Post Office.  It served as a United States Post Office until 1913.  The hotel served as a popular bar and restaurant, as well as a hotel, until the late 1960s when it became part of the historical Landis Valley Farm and Museum.  

Old photo showing postmark of Landis Valley, 1907.

The hotel could accommodate up to 65 guests and had a parlor room, card room and naturally, a post office for many years.  One of the main reasons for placing a post office in the hotel was the long-standing tradition in colonial Europe of utilizing taverns and coffee houses as mail stations.  It's a fact that the first post office established in America was in Richard Fairbanks' tavern in Boston in 1639.  

Building as it appears today.

Governor William Penn established Pennsyl- vania's first post office in Philadelphia in 1683 and Benjamin Franklin served as General Postmaster there for many years before becoming the first Postmaster of the United States.  Jacob Landis Jr. joined a profession which had many illustrious members.  Guy by the name of Abraham Lincoln was postmaster in New Salem, Illonois from 1833 until that post office closed in 1836.  

Interior shot of the post office in the hotel as it appears today.

Other famous postmasters include abolitionist John Brown, novelist William Faulkner, Viee President Adlai Stevenson and President Harry Truman.  At the time the post office opened in the Landis Valley Hotel, postal rates were totally determined by weight and how far a letter or package would travel.  A half-ounce letter at the time would cost $.03.  Quite a bit difference from the $.49 it cost today.  As I walked through the post office in the Landis Valley Hotel which has been preserved, I noticed the size to be extremely small.  Noticed that there were 36 mail boxes for residents of the area to claim their postal letters and packages.  The post office wasn't a big moneymaker for the postmaster in charge, since the first year the postmaster made $21.33.  When the post office first opened, mail went from post office to post office with patrons renting a box to receive their mail.  Around 1910 the post office mailboxes were replaced with free rural delivery.  For years now, Landis Valley Museum and the Landis Valley Hotel post office has operated its "Letters to Santa from Landis Valley" program.  Young visitors to the museum can bring letters to the post office and mail their letter to the North Pole for $1.00.  Takes about two weeks for delivery!  The hotel now incorporates an old time General Store as part of it and as I wander around the place I find items that I used when I was a child.  Funny how one happens to grow old so quickly.  I did post a few stories a few years ago about my journeys around Landis Valley Museum.  You can find it by typing in "Landis Valley" in the small white search box at the top left of my blog page.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.