Broomall (not Marple): A History of the Township’s Post Offices

Posted On October 2, 2020

By Sam Pickard

Even old New York was once New Amsterdam
Why they changed it I can’t say
People just liked it better that way

“Istanbul (not Constantinople),” by They Might Be Giants

Introduction

Richard Caton Woodville Sr.’s 1848 painting, War News from Mexico shows the central role post offices (often located in a store or hotel) playing in disseminating news among the American public (Courtesy of Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas, 2010.74).

Most residents of Marple Township have a Broomall, Pennsylvania mailing address with a 19008 Zip Code. No one has a “Marple, Pennsylvania” mailing address. Despite this, there is not, nor has there ever been a township, borough, or city by the name of Broomall (in Pennsylvania at least). What brought about this peculiarity? The Post Office.

The United States Postal Service (USPS) traces its origins to the U.S. Constitution, which authorized Congress to establish postal roads and post offices.1 In the early 1800s, the Post Office was the largest department of the federal government and employed more individuals than even the peacetime armed forces. The number of post offices grew quickly during the first and second quarter of the century, rising from approximately 3,000 in 1815 to around 8,000 by 1830. The vast majority of these post offices would have been a far cry from the purpose-built facilities staffed by workers in blue uniforms we know today. In many of the small towns and villages across the United States, the position of postmaster was part-time, often held by a store owner or hotel keeper, with the post office located inside their store or hotel.2

By the late 1840s, Marple Township residents looking to obtain newspapers or mail were served by post offices located at the Farmer’s Wagon Inn in Newtown Square, at the Eagle Hotel in Havertown, Providence (currently Media) or at Ithan in Radnor.3

Marple Post Office, 1849-1903

The building which housed the Marple Post Office from 1849-1903 (Author’s photograph).

Ebenezer R. Curtis was appointed as the first postmaster of the Marple Post Office on August 30, 1849. The 36-year-old Curtis ran a store located at the corner of what is now Old Sproul and Springfield Roads, across from the Springfield Friends Meeting House. While the literal edge of a township might initially seem like an odd location for a post office, the site made a lot of practical sense. Unlike locations further north or west in Marple, there was no nearby post office. Additionally, with a store, blacksmith shop, Quaker meeting house, and the nearby Lamb Tavern, the crossroads was a location that residents of both Marple and Springfield Townships were likely to frequent.4

Ebenezer R. Curtis (Courtesy of Linda Hunter and Brett Burrowes).

Curtis continued to run his store and the Marple Post Office with his wife Jane Dunwoody and their growing family, which included their son Penrose D. Curtis, born in February 1852.5 Ebenezer R. Curtis served as Marple’s postmaster through changes in presidential administration, the Civil War, and the establishment of the Broomall Post Office three-miles down Sproul Road in 1870. Finally, in February 1892 at age 79, after 42 years as postmaster, Curtis died. He was buried across the street from his store and post office in the Springfield Meeting’s burial ground.6

In December 1892 Ebenezer’s son Penrose D. Curtis, now 40 years old, was appointed to succeed his father as Marple’s postmaster. The younger Curtis’ tenure as postmaster was much shorter than his father’s, lasting just about a decade. On September 24, 1903, it was announced that mail would be redirected to the Media Post Office and six days later on September 30, 1903 the Marple Post Office was closed.7

Broomall Post Office, 1870-present

Across the township, another crossroads community complete with a tavern, church, and store was developing. If there was a name this crossroads was known by it has been lost to history.

According to an article published in the Delaware County Daily Times in 1959, Rev. Beriah B. Hotchkin, the pastor of Marple Presbyterian Church, and local resident John F. Taylor who spearheaded the establishment of a post office at the crossroads. The two men appealed to their congressman, John M. Broomall, for assistance in establishing a new post office to serve the northern half of the township. When the new post office was established on January 28, 1870, they chose to name it Broomall in honor of their congressional benefactor.8

The general store which served as the Broomall Post Office from 1870-1944 (Courtesy of the Marple Historical Society).

Like the Marple Post Office, the Broomall Post Office was established in a general store with the storekeeper as the postmaster. In this case, George Esrey, who ran a store on the northwest corner of what is now West Chester Pike and Sproul Road (the location of a McDonald’s in 2020). Unlike Ebenezer Curtis however, Esrey served less than three months as postmaster before he retired from both the store and post office. The new proprietor of the store, 26-year-old Garrett Williamson, was appointed as Broomall’s second postmaster in April 1870. Williamson in turn sold the store to brothers Philip Moore Jr. and Samuel Hale Moore. Probably due to the experience he had obtained while working as a clerk in the Curtis store during the 1870s, Philip Moore became Broomall’s new postmaster in January 1878. In 1881, he bought his brother out of the business. Incidentally, Samuel H. Moore took over a store in Haverford and served as postmaster for Haverford and then Manoa.9

Broomall Postmaster Edgar D. Bonsall photographed in 1942 for the Evening Bulletin (Courtesy of the Special Collections Research Center. Temple University Libraries. Philadelphia, PA).

In 1904 Edgar D. Bonsall and his brother Harry Bonsall purchased the Broomall store from Moore. Edgar Bonsall had worked as a clerk in Samuel Moore’s store (and the Manoa Post Office) and thus became Broomall’s new postmaster. Bonsall held this position for four decades, finally retiring at the end of October 1944.10 Shortly before Bonsall had retired, the post office moved across Sproul Road to the building that had once housed the Drove Tavern. Just two years later, in 1946, the post office moved next door into a building occupied in 2020 by Armenian Delight.11

Taking over as acting postmaster upon Bonsall’s 1944 retirement was Charles J. Tumelty. Initially a newspaper reporter for the Philadelphia Public Ledger, he joined the post office in the 1930s. After a year-and-a-half as acting postmaster of Broomall, Tumelty was appointed permanently to the post in March 1946.12 With an expanding suburban community, Tumelty oversaw the move of the post office to larger quarters at 2591 West Chester Pike in 1946 and the implementation of home delivery of mail in July 1949.13

The second and third locations of the Broomall Post Office in the second and third storefronts from the left, respectively (Courtesy of the Marple Historical Society).

By 1957, as more and more of Marple Township’s farm fields were replaced by suburban developments, the Broomall Post Office was once again ready for a larger facility. Bids for a new post office building, which would be owned by the builder and leased by the Post Office, were solicited in autumn 1957. At least five or six bids for sites were submitted, including one by Lawrence Park Shopping Center. No contract was awarded from this round of bids, however, and the project was re-bid in the summer of 1959, with a contract awarded in August of that year to Robert and Norman Leventhal of Boston.14

A June 1960 photograph for the Evening Bulletin of the newly completed Broomall Post Office (Courtesy of the Special Collections Research Center. Temple University Libraries. Philadelphia, PA).

While the $106,000 project was supposed to be completed by February 1960, ground was not broken until the end of January due to a steel strike. The new post office began operations in June 1960 and was officially dedicated on July 23, 1960.15 The Broomall Post Office was just one of many new postal buildings opened in Delaware County’s rapidly expanding suburbs in the late 1950s and early 1960s, and reflected new sensibilities. In the years following World War II, post offices “became prominent examples of the architectural tenant ‘form follows function’,” and often employed clean, modernistic, and utilitarian designs.16 Newspaper reports noted that the new Broomall building had a “contemporary-design” and its façade would feature large, aluminum-framed windows with enameled panels and brick-and-stone facing.17 Those stopping by the post office in 2020 can see that its exterior has changed little in the past 60 years.

Broomall or Marple?

While the Marple Post Office closed in 1903, the debate between the Marple/Broomall identity continued. In 1992, local historian Hilda Lucas pushed to have the Broomall Post Office renamed Marple but was met with a response by John M. Broomall’s great-great-grandson.18 Some Marple commissioners backed Lucas’ proposal, but other parties, such as real estate agents and even then-postmaster Robert Byrne opposed it. The Philadelphia Inquirer summarized Byrne’s argument as “it would create lots of confusion while accomplishing little.”19 According to Delaware County Heritage Commission Chairman A. Richard Paul, the USPS rejected the idea,20 likely for the reasons outlined by Postmaster Byrne. It appears that the name-change idea was eventually dropped—the Broomall Post Office had more pressing concerns in the 1990s, such as a lack of physical space.21

The dual identity of Broomall/Marple has led to some confusing names (Broomall Fire Company vs. Marple Township Police Department, Broomall Little League vs. South Marple Little League, etc.) but it likely doesn’t affect the average resident in any meaningful way. If anything, it gives the township a richer history and demonstrates how decisions far in the past continue to shape the world we live in.

Citations

  1. Constitution of the United States, Article I, Section 8, Clause 7.
  2. Daniel Walker Howe, What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815-1848 (New York: Oxford University Press, 2007), 225-226.
  3. Joshua W. Ash, Map of Delaware County, Pennsylvania (Philadelphia: Robert P. Smith, 1848); “Post Office To Move In May,” Delaware County Daily Times, Marple Newtown Springfield edition, 6 April 1962, 15.
  4. Ash, Map of Delaware County; Henry Graham Ashmead, History of Delaware County, Pennsylvania (Philadelphia: L. H. Everts & Co., 1884), 581; Entry for “Ebenezer R Curtis” in “Pennsylvania and New Jersey, Church and Town Records, 1669-2013,” Ancestry.com, [online database], original data from Historic Pennsylvania Church and Town Records (Philadelphia: Historical Society of Pennsylvania); Entry for “Ebenezer R. Curtis” at Marple, Delaware, Pennsylvania, vol. 15, 1843-1857, in “U.S., Appointments of U. S. Postmasters, 1832-1971,” Ancestry.com [online database], original data from Record of Appointment of Postmasters, 1832-1971. NARA Microfilm Publication, M841, 145 rolls. Records of the Post Office Department, Record Group Number 28 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives).
  5. Ashmead, History of Delaware County, 581; Entry for “Penrose D. Curtis,” died 7 August 1913, in “Pennsylvania Death Certificates, 1906-1967,” Ancestry.com, [online database], original data from Pennsylvania (State), Death Certificates, 1906–1963, Series 11.90 (1,905 cartons), Records of the Pennsylvania Department of Health, Record Group 11 (Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission).
  6. “Ebenezer R Curtis” in “Pennsylvania and New Jersey, Church and Town Records, 1669-2013,” Ancestry.com.
  7. Entry for “Penrose D. Curtis” at Marple, Delaware, Pennsylvania, vol. 64, 1889-1900, in “U.S., Appointments of U. S. Postmasters, 1832-1971,” Ancestry.com; Entry for “Penrose D. Curtis” at Marple, Delaware, Pennsylvania, vol. 96, 1900-1930, in “U.S., Appointments of U. S. Postmasters, 1832-1971,” Ancestry.com; Elizabeth C. Lodge, Marple’s Heritage 1684- (Philadelphia: T. A. McElwee (printer), 1969), 26.
  8. Allan Cleaves Dodge, “First Broomall Postoffice Located in Old Landmark,” Chester Times, 10 August 1949, 11; Clarissa Smith, “Long-Awaited Broomall Post Office Delayed Further by Steel Strike,” Delaware County Daily Times, 20 November 1959, 17.
  9. Dodge, “First Broomall Postoffice”.
  10. Dodge, “First Broomall Postoffice”.
  11. Dodge, “First Broomall Postoffice”; “Soon To Go,” Chester Times, Marple-Newtown-Springfield Final Suburban edition, 28 September 1957, 10; Smith, “Long Awaited”.
  12. Dodge, “First Broomall Postoffice”.
  13. Dodge, “First Broomall Postoffice”; Smith, “Long Awaited”; “Delivery of Mail Started in Broomall,” Philadelphia Inquirer, 19 July 1949, 25.
  14. “Soon To Go,” Chester Times; “Gallagher Is Granted Exception To Erect Post Office Building,” Chester Times, Marple-Newtown-Springfield Final Suburban edition, 19 October 1957, 10; “Delay Seen on Post Office,” Delaware County Daily Times, 17 November 1959, 12.
  15. “Delay Seen on Post Office,” Delaware County Daily Times; “Lawrence Muroff Wins Science Award,” Delaware County Daily Times, 21 January 1960, 25; “First Run,” Delaware County Daily Times, Final edition, 28 June 1960, 11; “Milliken to Dedicate New Broomall Post Office,” Delaware County Daily Times, Final edition, 20 July 1960, 17; “New Glory,” Delaware County Daily Times, Final edition, 25 July 1960, 11.
  16. “New Clifton PO Ready In October,” Delaware County Daily Times, Final edition, 7 April 1960, 23; “New Post Office Bids Sought,” Delaware County Daily Times, Final edition, 19 April 1960, 4; Beth M. Boland, National Register Bulletin 13: How to Apply the National Register Criteria to Post Offices (Washington, D.C.: National Park Service, 1984, revised 1994), 5.
  17. “Lawrence Muroff,” Delaware County Daily Times; “Broomall Post Office Rites Set,” Delaware County Daily Times, 28 January 1960, 4.
  18. Rob Wingate, “Broomall or Marple? Let history decide,” Philadelphia Inquirer, 20 February 1992, 6-M.
  19. Bridget Mount, “A name change or a lame change?,” Philadelphia Inquirer, 6 September 1993, MD1, MD2.
  20. A. Richard Paul, “Where is Broomall?,” Endeavour 1, no. 1 (July 2019): 3, [newsletter, 1696 Thomas Massey House and Marple Historical Society].
  21. Chani Katzen, “Post offices get squeezed all around,” Philadelphia Inquirer, 29 December 1999, B1, B4.
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6 Comments
  1. Patti Sanderson

    I am the grand niece of Helen Sanderson Brooks. Here is a history of the Broomall Post Office, most likely written by Aunt Helen.
    Broomall Post Office was established in 1870 and named for Congressman Broomall. It is the only Broomall Post Office in the United States. At the time of its founding it was located in one corner of a general store, a fourth class office. Three postmasters served from 1870 until April 1904, when the general store was purchased by Bonsall Brothers, and Edgar D. Bonsall became postmaster. Clerk Helen S Brooks was employed in Sept 1923 as a part time bookkeeper for Bonsall Bros. and started her career as a postal worker at that time, help with the mails and the writing of money orders. As the office grew she became a part-time post office clerk. At that time the post office equipment consisted of a small window where stamps, etc. were sold and the general delivery mail handed out, a section of 48 call boxes and 6 lock boxes. A steel box located on a porch post outside the door was used for night collections. The mail in those days was brought out and taken into Phil by the West Chester trolley.
    During the 1930’s individual homes were being built and additional section of 56 boxes were installed, at the postmaster’s expense. In 1938 the post office advanced to third class, and Mrs. Brooks became a substitute clerk.
    With the building of the Edgewood Park Development in 1930 the community increased rapidly in population and more boxes were needed – which the government supplied. Broomall post office thought at that time it had “growing pains”, the small section of the store was over taxed. Each day the children of the community would come in after school and pick up the mail, mostly from general delivery. Helen Brooks recalls getting the mail ready well in advance of school dismissing – some children would pick up mail for almost an entire street – so it was quite a help to have it put up in bundles. A number of the boys for who she prepared the bundles of mail in the 1940’s and later are now carriers in the Broomall post office and are still “her Boys” – Ralph Bailey, who became our Special Delivery boy, later a clerk, and then carrier, Andrew McKenna, Paul Worthington, Peter Turner, and Tim Wilson.
    Christmas was a trying time – our space was small and the volume of mail was over increasing. It was often necessary to work night sorting out the mail for each home and tying it up in bundles to that it would be ready for the next day.
    Another busy time was March 14th, when income tax time came around. There were no withholding taxes – no banks in the immediate vicinity, so that tax payments were made by using money orders.
    In 1943 the post office had outgrown the general store and was moved across Sproul Road to the eastern part of the old Drove Tavern, a small building which was later used as a real estate office and torn down in 1955 to make way for the new highway.
    During the war we had some very busy times – many letters and parcels went out from the little post office to the boys in the armed forces. She recalls many sad times when wives and mothers awaited word from overseas and came daily to pick up their mail only to leave disappointed.
    One Christmas mailing that stands out in her memory were “Aunt Martha’s” fruit cakes, made by a patron of the office and sent all over the world. “Aunt Martha” brought them in a large market basket and we often had several sacks to insure and dispatch each day.
    In March 1944, Mr. Bonsall, the postmaster, became ill and Mrs. Brooks with the assistance of Franklin Gettz, an employee of Bonsall Bros., assumed the responsibility of the post office until Nov 1944, when the present postmaster Charles J Tumelty was appointed and Mr. Gettz became a clerk. The post office remained the Drove Tavern until 1946 when it moved to its present location and became a second class office.
    The community was ever growing and in July 1949 delivery service was inaugurated, with three carriers making two deliveries a day and serving the entire community. Two of the original carriers are still employed – Ralph S. Bailey and Frank K Horn.
    In July 1955 the post office advanced to first class, and our present Assistant Postmaster, William J Lee was appointed. As more and more homes were built, additional carriers have been added so that we now have fourteen routes, serving a population of approximately 19,000.
    She has thoroughly enjoyed her years of service as a postal clerk. She has seen … both in the growth of the community and also in the system of handling … and is looking forward to moving to the new post office which is being built on the ground on which Mr. Gettz’ home was located and which also fall before progress. Mr. Gettz’ home was town down preparatory to widening of West Chester Pik in 1948.
    In January 1959and as further evidence of growth of the post office, Howard A Bowers was elevated from the carrier ranks to position of Superintendent of mails.
    Counting the forthcoming move into the new, modern edifice, the fourth different building since inception of Broomall post office in 1870 the site has been moved less than 200 yards in the entire 90 years and this situation if not a record could conceivably stand for well over a century. The intersection of Sproul Road and West Chester Pike is fairly well identified with the U.S. Government and it might be added that Helen S. Brooks is also well identified with the same in light of her 37-year postal career.

    • marplehistory

      Patti, thank you for sharing this! It’s great hear a first-person account from someone who worked in the post office. Do you know if this was published anywhere?

      • Patti Sanderson

        Comment
        The notes that I shared were from a typed document. I believe it is composed by Helen S Brooks because it was in her style – typed on onion-skin paper. An article was published on December 22, 1966 in the Marple Community Record, entitled “First Broomall Post Office Clerk to Retire”. I have a copy of it but am unable to attach it to this response. It contains some of the details that are in the shared notes. Perhaps Aunt Helen wrote it for the reporter or for a retirement occasion.
        Helen lived her entire life in Broomall, PA. She is the daughter of Thomas Sanderson who owned a farmhouse on Cooperstown Rd (later Marple Rd). She and her husband (Philip Brooks, caretaker for Atwater Kent) lived on Franklin Ave.
        I enjoy the postings of the history of this area as I learn more about my own family history. Thanks for your work.

  2. Bob Ruppel

    Very interesting, I grew up in Broomall but left in 1963 for college. I never returned for more than visits, but I remember the old post office on WCP. Stamps were 5 cents, but I believe Christmas card stamps were less than that.

  3. Lou De Cecco

    Comment
    Not to be forgotten:
    There was a sub-location of the Broomall P.O.
    In the rear of Hobbyland, in Lawrence Park Shopping Center. I was a clerk in the store and assisted, when needed, the P.o. patrons. It would have been around 1959-1961.

    • Tina Carrigan

      Lou, I remember that-it was very exciting that i could use that when I was in LP Shopping Center