February 5, 1869--Monmouth Junction Post Office Established

The first Post Office in Monmouth Junction was located in a small house on Hillside Avenue near the train tracks.  It opened on February 5, 1869.  Its first Postmaster was Charles A. Griggs.  He lasted a bit more than a year before Stryker Rowland took charge on May 5, 1870.  The Post Office relocated to the Emens Seed and General Store, located on the corner of Railroad Avenue and Walnut Street.  The store was in operation into the 1920's, and was managed by three generations of the Emens family.  Thereafter, most of the other space around the Post Office was turned into apartments.  Clifford C. Emens served as Postmaster, starting in 1951.  Under his leadership, the Monmouth Junction Post Office came to serve more South Brunswick residents than any other post office serving the 40-square mile Township.  This aging facility was proving inadequate for the volume of mail and number of patrons it served.  The Township Planning Board recognized this and made plans in the early 1970's to give the township a new post office in Monmouth Junction.  However, Planning Board members wanted to call the new one, "South Brunswick P.O."  In the end, the planners got the new post office built, but the Monmouth Junction name remained.  The old Emens place was not forgotten, however.  Locals had always joked about how the structure looked like it might have been in an old western movie.  That idea came to fruition in 1967, when a brace of Columbia University students visited Monmouth Junction a half-dozen times as part of a film-making seminar.  Old Monmouth Junction had been chosen for one reason only--from across the railroad tracks, the old Emens building, which had housed the Post Office, closely resembled a vintage western-style saloon.  During all the action scenes that were shot, there was one aging, past-her-prime actress that really stood out--the building which had once housed the Monmouth Junction Post Office.  Perhaps, one day, the South Brunswick Public Library will be able to round up a copy of the film from Columbia University.  We may have to form a Monmouth Junction posse to track it down or hire a bounty hunter from Ringoes!