POST MARK COLLECTORS CLUB - POST OFFICE PHOTOGRAPH COLLECTION

Post Office: Detroit (Detroit River), MI 48222 (Wayne County)
Date of Photo: circa 1969
Contributor: Paul E. Petosky, Postmarks from the Past
Comments: Originally established as DETROIT STATION E, MARINE POST OFFICE, Contract Station of Detroit on July 1, 1895 to December 31, 1916. Name was changed to DETROIT RIVER on January 1, 1917. The J.W. Westcott II - Mail Boat is the only boat in the world with an exclusive Zip Code Number 48222. J.W. Westcott is postmaster of the Great Lakes. Operates 24 hours-a-day from mid-April to mid-December. The Westcott II takes mail from the postal station at the foot of 24th Street just west of the Ambassador Bridge in Detroit and meets Great Lakes freighters and keeps pace with the moving freighter while a crewman lowers a mailbucket down over the side to the mailboat, and then hauls up the mail. This technique is known as "mail-by-the-pail". The Westcott then returns to shore. The deliveries are carried out by the 45-foot J.W. Westcott II, and the Joseph J. Hogan available as a back-up boat.