Orr & Painter mailbox

Union Foundry & Manufacturing · late 1870s - 1880s

In 1889 Boston, Massachusetts, had over eight hundred street collection boxes. This Orr and Painter box is one example. The boxes were color-coded and were either red or green. Residents considered the red boxes more convenient because mail was picked-up every hour, but the green boxes only had collections four to five times a day and twice on Sundays.