Glenwood Landing: It's a trip to get mail

It seemed like the obvious accompaniment to the American dream: the new home with the mailbox out front.

Or so Tara Fabiilli thought when she moved to Glenwood Landing nearly 15 years ago. But the mailbox, displayed proudly at the end of her driveway, remained oddly empty.

A neighbor finally told her why. The quaint hamlet on the shores of Hempstead Harbor is one of only two communities in Nassau County without home mail delivery.

"I was shell-shocked," Fabiilli recently recalled as she made the necessary post office visit to retrieve her mail. "Coming from Queens, it was something I was not aware even existed."

Today, many Glenwood Landing residents say they've come to tolerate, even appreciate, the small-town quirk. Postmaster Caprice Henkel and her three clerks greet customers by name; they chat about their cars, their dogs and the planter placed outside the door.

But what of the inconvenience?

"You can say that about anything," Fabiilli offered. "Like shopping for food."

Other than Point Lookout, a barrier beach hamlet south of Freeport, the rest of Long Island's 17 ZIP codes that require a post office box as a mailing address are in Suffolk County -- most on the less-populated East End.

None are larger than Glenwood Landing, according to U.S. Census survey data. The community, split between Oyster Bay and North Hempstead towns, has a population of more than 3,300.

The U.S. Postal Service, however, bases its decisions on "points of delivery." It says Glenwood Landing falls below the generally required 750 delivery addresses per route.

"It's just a very small community that never grew anywhere near the point where a route would be justified, economically or otherwise," said Tom Rizzo, spokesman for the postal service's Long Island district.

Routes are added when a community experiences rapid growth -- common in the U.S. South and West, but unlikely in built-out Nassau. That leaves little hope for residents like Susan Wiedmer.

Any time she mentions not having mail delivery to outsiders, "they look at me like I've got six heads."

Wiedmer said she understands the charm some people may see in having to visit the local post office, but with her family's schedule, they're lucky to make it twice a week before the lobby's 5 p.m. close. Often, she said, her mail is crammed inside a small box or held behind the counter for overflow.

"It's amazing to me that no one is complaining or wanting to address this," said the Glenwood Landing resident of 22 years. "They just grumble to themselves."

Petitions to dissolve the community into neighboring Glen Head and merge its delivery routes haven't caught on. Wiedmer figured the lack of delivery in Glenwood Landing would be a significant deterrent to prospective home buyers, but a local broker says no.

"It is quirky, but I've never had anybody not buy a house because of it," said Marilyn Jenney, of Daniel Gale Sotheby's International Realty in Sea Cliff. "It's like Mayberry. They see it as charming."