These are just magnificent.

 

From Atlas Obscura,

 

 

New York City’s Mail Chutes are Lovely, Ingenious and Almost Entirely Ignored
by Luke Spencer

 

“If you have ever worked in an old building, the chances are you will have at some point walked past a small mysterious brass box. Located about halfway up the wall, it is notable for a flat length of glass leading both into and out it, disappearing into the ceiling and the floor below. Often painted over, ignored and unused, they are a relic of the golden age of early skyscrapers called the Cutler mail chute.

 

The Cutler mail chutes flourished during the advent of the first multi-story buildings in the turn of the 20th century. The invention was fairly simple: the glass chutes would run internally the length of the building, with a mailing slot on each floor. Rather than having to make the trek downstairs to find the nearest mail box or post office, you would simply pop your letter into the chute from whichever floored you worked on, and gravity would swiftly carry your letter to a mailbox in the lobby, for daily collection from the postman. In an era when people were sending handfuls of letters each day, the convenience of the Cutler mail chute was a godsend…”

 

For the rest, click here.

 

 

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