Drive out Crowley Road near the Lewiston-Sabattus line and you might notice a peculiar thing. An unusual number of the roadside mailboxes here are made of hard plastic instead of flimsy metal. One resident in Sabattus took things a bit further, completely encasing his mailbox in brick so that it resembles – quite a lot, actually – an old-style pizza oven.

Why these drastic measures for such a mundane item? Why, to make them vandal-proof, of course – the ageless pastime of mailbox-baseball is alive and well on  Maine’s back roads. Have your mailbox obliterated by some punk with a Louisville Slugger once and you’ll likely forget about painting pretty pictures on the side of it. You want it sturdy and stable so you can get your mail. Who cares about how pretty your mailbox is, or how original.

That said, as it turns out there are still a few folks putting artistic effort in the design of their mailboxes. For some, the mailbox is a reflection of what they do and who they are. For some, curb appeal doesn’t stop at the edge of the yard, it begins there.

Dee Dumais has been a postal carrier in the Lewiston area for nearly 30 years. She’s seen mailboxes with bird nests and live chicks inside them, but her own mailbox at her Auburn home was perfectly ordinary, just a receptacle for bills, advertisements and the occasional letter.

It was, that is, until somebody finally took care of that egregious wrong. For her 60th birthday, she received a custom mailbox in the shape of a – wait for it – postal truck. It just went up in front of her Chicoine Avenue home in the early part of June.

Linda Barschdorf of Vining Street in Lisbon Falls has the coolest mailbox you’ll never see. You won’t see it standing out beside the dusty street where it would be subject to vandals and snowplows, anyway.

“Although I have no ‘exes that live in Texas,’ I do have a fantastic mailbox,” she says. “In George Strait’s earlier days on the road, I and my significant other experienced many visits to his Silver Eagle bus (outside only!!). Comparable to dedicated Deadhead fans who go from show to show to hear the Grateful Dead in concert, my significant other and I traveled miles and miles of Texas, and all over the U.S.A., to hear George Strait, the King of Country Music — many times dragging our closest friends with us!

“One year, for Christmas,” Barschdorf says, “I found this beautiful replica of George’s bus under my tree – from George? Nope, it was from my fantastic significant other, Mr. Ken Lord! Needless to say, its place of honor is not outside for my mail, but atop my refrigerator, where I can see it daily!”

We asked if she’ll ever consider putting the mailbox outside so it can perform its proper duty.

“I’ll never put it outside!” Barschdorf said.

Never?

“Never!”

In Andover, Wendy Hutchins sent in a photo of a mailbox owned by an acquaintance in the shape of a boat motor. An Evinrude, to be specific. So, you’re thinking, the mind behind this one must belong to a fisherman or boater, right? Wrong you are.

“As far as I know, Ernie Severance is not a fisherman,” Hutchins says. “He is a serious collector of junk! My husband goes to visit Ernie once in awhile as the snowmobile trail crosses Ernie’s property and hubby is the trail master. As a matter of fact, the club is currently working on a new bridge up there. Ernie lives in Florida part of the year. When the mailbox shows up in the spring, we know he’s back in Andover.”

Mert Ricker of Topsham doesn’t have his own funky mailbox, but he does have a favorite out there.

“It’s a mailbox being held by a lovely female pig, always dressed for the season (costume changes every year!) down near Boothbay,” he says. “Coming out of Boothbay Village, it’s on the right, up a little rise, just up the road from the Boothbay Railway Museum.”

Known locally as Miss Piggy, the character is dressed in proper attire each year for the Fisherman’s Festival.

In Topsham, on River Road near Route 196, an old chopper sits at the roadside, lending an “Easy Rider” air to the mailbox hanging off its back. With its extended forks, two-tiered seat and gas tank painted in the colors of the flag, the mailbox holder stirs a sense of nostalgia for some travelers.

“It makes me think of Peter Fonda,” said Bill LePack, who saw the chopper mailbox recently while taking a back-road shortcut to Route 196. “Or Peter Max.”

We had trouble connecting with the owner of that mailbox, but folks who travel that road often say the old chopper has been there for years.

In New Gloucester, there’s a red mailbox being clutched by a bright yellow being constructed of . . . well, we don’t really know what because, although the Bangor Daily News published a photo of the gangling mailbox man last year, we haven’t been able to find it.

In Pittston, an enterprising machinist named Tim Gay invented a mailbox that swivels as a means of escaping the wrath of vandals and snowplows.

“The time-tested MailSwing will help prevent snowplow damage and vandalism to your mailbox for many years by swinging away upon impact,” according to the MailSwing website. “Its heavy-duty, fully adjustable construction can be installed virtually anywhere and is built to last!”

The MailSwing also adheres to USPS policy, which is good because: “Mailboxes, attachments or support systems not consistent with this policy are considered “Deadly Fixed Objects” and are in violation of 23 MRSA §1401-A,” according to the website.

Deadly Fixed Objects!

The Postal Service is fairly rigid about mailbox standards. One cannot simply screw a breadbox oven to a tree stump, for instance, and call it good. There are heights to consider. Distance from the road. There is post size and anchoring depth.

Which may explain why fanciful mailboxes are not exactly common things. You have to search for them, winding your way out onto the back roads, scanning the roadside as you go. It’s a fun time and you should go out searching on your own.

Just do us a favor and bring a camera. Leave the baseball bat at home.

Who invented the mailbox?

First, some background. In the early 1800s, most letters in the U.S. were taken by the public to their local post office to be mailed, and recipients had to retrieve their mail from their local post office. It wasn’t until 1863 that mail was delivered to homes of people who lived in cities, without additional charge. By 1890, hundreds of cities delivered mail to residents’ homes, thus leading to a need for mailboxes.

While not the earliest, in 1892, George E. Becket of Providence, R.I., was granted a patent for his “house-door letter-box,” an improved mail slot that was permanently mounted on the front door of a house.

The first letter box (where the public could leave its letters) sanctioned by the U.S. Postal Service was patented on March 9, 1858, by Albert Potts. His design incorporated a lamppost (which his company made) with a letter box. His receptacle was rather small and required frequent emptying. It was not the first in history, however; that honor goes to Renouard De Valayer. In 1653, he set up a short-lived postal system using collection boxes on street corners around Paris.

Source: infoplease.com