Michael Glaser delivers the United States mail to some of the oldest buildings in Smithtown, whose post office, established in 1794, was among the first on Long Island.
His route includes the 1740 Franklin O. Arthur Farmhouse, the 1740 Epenetus Smith Tavern and the 1918 Roseneath Cottage, Smithtown Historical Society properties off Middle Country Road. Tenants in Society buildings get personal mail. The Society’s business mail, which sometimes includes inquiries from far-flung Smiths seeking information about their famous ancestors, goes to the cottage.
“You feel something just by walking in” those old buildings, Glaser said one afternoon last week. On weekends, he watches the occasional old-time baseball game played on the Society’s meadow — “guys with old gloves, old hats, shorts and a flat wooden bat” — but he has little time for historical musing while working. “I come in with my smile…I say ‘Good morning,’ I keep moving.”
Glaser’s boss, Frank Anzaldi Jr., the officer in charge of the Smithtown post office, said the ambience was one of the job perks for letter carriers. “Just seeing the building and knowing the history behind it makes it special, knowing you’re going to an address that people have delivered to for 200 years.”