James Page, reappointed July 9, 1836. John C. Montgomery, appointed March 23, 1841. James Hoy, Jr., appointed June 26, 1844. George F. Lehman, appointed May 5, 1845. William J. P. White, appointed May 9, 1849. John Miller, appointed April 1, 1853. Gideon F. Westcott, appointed March 19, 1857. Nathaniel B. Browne, appointed May 30, 1859. Cornelius A. Walborn, appointed April 20, 1861. The past history of our city shows that the post-office was but a minor consideration on the part of the historian who attempted to speak of its institutions. Even those whose business it was to furnish statistics and local facts invariably overlooked the post-office. A glance back through the vista of time presents to the eye a panoramic view of the buildings which were used for postal purposes; and a more motley architectural picture scarcely ever presented itself to sight. From the time Benjamin Franklin had his office in a portion of his printing-shop to the present, we cannot find the department ever blessed with even a decent building for postal purposes until the one now occupied for that special service was erected. True, the Old Coffee-House on Second Street was the centre of trade, and merchants often met there to discuss commercial matters and secure their foreign papers and letters: still, it was not calculated for the general business of the postal service. From 1793, passing along from street to street, we at last come to Dr. Jayne’s gloomy building, where, amid the sound of steam-engines, the fumes from eating-houses, and the _dead-rat_ smell from lager-beer saloons, we find the operations of the great postal business of the city moving on. The very atmosphere was as injurious to the health of the employees as its dark and dingy appearance was painful to those who visited it. Emerging from this, we come into a new and beautiful building, erected on Chestnut Street below Fifth. For this edifice, so conveniently situated, so light and airy, so admirably adapted to postal business, the community is solely indebted to Postmaster CORNELIUS A. WALBORN, Esq. _A GLANCE AT THE PHILADELPHIA POST-OFFICE FROM AN ARCHITECTURAL POINT OF VIEW._ The Philadelphia post-office was completed and ready for the transaction of business on the 23d of March, 1863. It is situated on Chestnut Street, between Fourth and Fifth Streets, adjoining the custom-house. The contrast between these two buildings is most remarkable: one presents the view we have in classic illustrations of the Parthenon of Athens; the other, disdaining all the associations which the history of Greece and Rome throws around our ideas of classic architectural beauty, looms up before us, blending the style of the rural districts of France (_Alaon_) with that of the city of Paris in the seventeenth century.