Walpack Township
9 Main Street
Walpack Center, NJ 07881
Phone and Fax: 973-948-6861
Office Hours: 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.
Direct Mail to: PO Box 813, Sussex NJ 07461

Sussex County Board of Chosen Freeholders Historical Marker

Inscription:
"Wallpack Township, formed in 1731 out of Hunterdon County, included the present townships of Montague, Sandyston and the former Pahaquarry.  The Delaware River forms the western boundary and the Old Mine Road, supposedly built by Dutch miners before 1664, traverses the township.  Anna Symmes, Mother-in-law of President William Henry Harrison, is buried in the Old Shapanack cemetery.  In 1757 Jonathan Hampton constructed this road through the village to connect Elizabethtown and Morristown with Fort Shapanack for military supplies during the French and Indian and Revolutionary Wars.  Two early ferries, Decker and Rosenkrans, operated between Walpack bend and Pennsylvania.  Walpack Township is the oldest municipality in Sussex County."

The marker dedicated to the history of this beautiful section of Sussex County is located on the lawn in front of the Walpack Municipal Building in Walpack Center.  This marker was part of the 2007 placement.

New Jersey Herald-Oct. 16, 1986
Walpack Post Office may close

WALPACK — Henry Ford lent a touch of glamour to postal work in 1932 when he produced a film about his automobiles and new V-8 engine outside the Walpack Post Office.
The office then served more than 100 customers and people were as likely to ask for a roll of stamps as for a lump of butter and eggs from the general store that adjoined the Post Office.
For some 60 residents living in Walpack today, despite the federal government’s land buyout in the 1960s for the now-shelved Tocks Island Dam project, one more change in Walpack may take place next month.
The U.S. Postal Rate Commission will decide in November whether to close the wooden office and have customers rent boxes at the Layton Post Office or become part of the rural mail delivery route from Columbia in Warren County.
There are 21 residents renting post office boxes at the Walpack Post Office and 33 served by rural delivery from Columbia, according to Bill Thomas, management sectional center manager/postmaster in Paterson.
When Walpack’s fromer postmaster retired in 1978, officials in Paterson’s regional post office started a study to decide whether keeping the 70-year-old structure open was necessary. Thomas said the government cannot close an office unless it is proven that “equal or better service” can be provided elsewhere.
The study concluded the office should close, a notice was posted, and the Postal Rate Commission has 60 days or until the end of November to reach a decision,
Thomas said. “We looked at the alternatives in Layton and Columbia and saw that Walpack is rather isolated. By using the highway contract (rural delivery) for most of these people, we thought closing the office would probably be an advantage,” said Thomas.
The general store has long been gone, but the post office, leased to the Postal Service by the National Park Service, is still open for 4 1⁄2 hours each day and 3 hours on Saturday.
(used by permission)

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