| Deletions are marked like this. | Additions are marked like this. |
| Line 4: | Line 4: |
|
---- ''["Adirondack Daily Enterprise"]'', June 23, 1965 '''Postmaster Retires After Long Service''' Leonard E. L'Ecuyer, of Gabriels, has retired from the Post Office Department, following 4 years of service. Mr. L'Ecuyer entered the postal service at Keeseville and served under three postmasters in that village. He became assistant postmaster under the term of Harvey A. Boisseau. In 1928, due to ill health, he entered Gabriels Sanatorium. In 1930 he became a postal clerk at Gabriels, under Sister ["M. Mercy McCue"] who was postmaster because the office was then under the supervision of the Sisters of Mercy. Since 1930 he has served continually at the Gabriels Post Office. Mr. and Mrs. L 'Ecuyer expect to reside in Carthage. |
This Post Office, located at the entrance to the Gabriels Sanatorium, burned in 1972. The Brighton Reporter, February 2007
The Gabriels Post Office was initally established in 1898 in Gabriels, run by the Sisters of Mercy — undoubtedly for the benefit of their patients at Sanatorium Gabriels. In 1920 the post office moved to the sanatorium farmhouse, where — according to Geraldine Collins — it was still located in 2002. In 1946 the Sisters of Mercy gave up the Post Office to Mr. Martin.
Adirondack Daily Enterprise, June 23, 1965
Postmaster Retires After Long Service
Leonard E. L'Ecuyer, of Gabriels, has retired from the Post Office Department, following 4 years of service. Mr. L'Ecuyer entered the postal service at Keeseville and served under three postmasters in that village. He became assistant postmaster under the term of Harvey A. Boisseau.
In 1928, due to ill health, he entered Gabriels Sanatorium. In 1930 he became a postal clerk at Gabriels, under Sister M. Mercy McCue who was postmaster because the office was then under the supervision of the Sisters of Mercy. Since 1930 he has served continually at the Gabriels Post Office.
Mr. and Mrs. L 'Ecuyer expect to reside in Carthage.
Adirondack Daily Enterprise, November 27, 1972
Gabriels Post Office burned; $2,500 looted
GABRIELS — The Post Office was gutted by fire early Sunday morning, and afterward it was discovered that the safe had been "peeled" and robbed of $2500 in stamps and an undetermined amount of cash. BCI Investigator R.H. Garrand said he is assuming the possibility of arson to cover up the theft.
The fire was noticed about 8:15 a.m. by Mike Peer of Saranac Lake who was returning from Malone. He told Bloomingdale firemen that the fire was well underway at that time. Peer drove to the home of Robert Tummons which is about a mile from the post office but one of the closest residences, and called the fire department. By this time it was
about 3:30 and the building was completely engulfed when the firemen arrived.
Paul Smith's College Fire Department also was called and arrived on the scene shortly before the two Bloomingdale trucks.
Twenty-four Bloomingdale firemen answered the call. They used 600 feet of 2 1/2 inch hose to pump water from the reservoir at the college buildings behind the post office. The reservoir and college buildings were formerly Gabriels Sanatorium property.
The Saranac Lake Fire Department stood by at Bloomingdale until the trucks returned to the fire house around 6 o'clock. A few firemen remained in Gabriels until the fire was declared officially out at 8 o'clock.
Fire Chief Thomas Glover said today that he noticed that the safe was open and called State Police. In addition it is mandatory to notify the State Police when there is a fire at United States government property.
"Peeling, one of the firemen explained, is removing the outer cover of the safe door and then using a torch to get at the contents." Investigator Gerrard said that Mrs. Rita Lancto, the postmaster, will use her home as a post office until a temporary mobile unit can be provided by the united states Post Office Department. Only the four brick walls of the former post office are standing today.
Adirondack Daily Enterprise, January 30, 2007
Fire consumes post office
Blaze also cuts Time Warner Internet cable line for Tri-Lakes
By JACOB RESNECK
Enterprise Staff Writer
GABRIELS — An early morning conflagration consumed the Gabriels post office and attached three-bedroom residence early this morning.
A neighbor across the street said she awoke at 4 a.m. and remembered seeing nothing amiss. But a little after 6 a.m. she could see an orange glow coming from the green building across the street.
"I looked out the window and said, 'Oh my God!' — it was fully engulfed in flames," recalled Mary Ellen Sails, 72, who has lived there for more than 40 years. Her husband, Jerry, 69, also witnessed the fire.
The blaze reached overhead wires along the highway, bringing down a power line as well as cable connections. A National Grid crew was on scene assessing the damage.
"There was a power line down between the fire and the road, so until NiMo got there, they couldn't get to that side," said Jerry Sails as he stood on his porch watching firefighters work in subzero temperatures.
Damage to the overhead wires has left the Tri-Lakes area without cable Internet. The fire damaged the main line that originates in Potsdam, a Time Warner a spokeswoman said. She did not know when it would be repaired.
Dispatchers in Saranac Lake received a call at 6:06 a.m. and paged the Paul Smiths-Gabriels Volunteer Fire Department. Firefighters from Paul Smiths-Gabriels, Saranac Lake, Lake Placid, Bloomingdale and Tupper Lake responded with mutual aid. More than 20 firefighters fought the fire in the early dawn twilight as the sun rose from a pink and orange horizon.
The house was rented to a young couple with a small child, and everyone was evacuated safely, said Paul Smiths- Gabriels Fire Chief Tom Tucker.
The building's owner, Mark Tucker, whose late wife, Rita, was the postmistress from the 1950s up until her retirement in 1984, said the structure was built in the late 19th century.
"When we remodeled, we found newspapers in the wall dating from about 1890," the 78-year-old Gabriels native said from his winter home in Florida. "There was also once a barroom in there, but of course, back then many houses had barrooms."
The elder Tucker said the post office was moved to his property after an arson fire destroyed its predecessor. That post office, housed in a stately brick, building that was on the property or what's now Camp Gabriels state prison, had been robbed and set on fire in the mid-1970s, he recalled.
After that fire, the people of Gabriels got their mail from a trailer in the parking lot of the Catholic church until the present post office was moved to the Tucker's property in 1976.
U.S. Postal Service spokeswoman Maureen Marion, in Syracuse, said the approximately 200 box holders in Gabriels will be able to get their mail at the post office in Vermontville.
Mark Tucker's 30-year-old granddaughter, Michelle Shanty, said the building has been in the family for quite a long time; she had the unfortunate job of breaking the news to her grandfather in Florida.
"My mom grew up in that house," Shanty said. "And when I was born, I grew up in that house."
