This vintage real photo postcard features the Robbins General Store in Middleville, New Jersey. The store also served as the town’s post office and as an Esso gas station. Note the two gas pumps in front of the building. A sign indicates that the price of gas was 25 cents a gallon for regular, and 28 cents per gallon for premium. There is an Esso credit card advertising sign on a pole next to the pumps. Some of the store’s merchandise can be seen on the front porch. The items for sale include lawnmowers, garbage cans, and a wagon. The store is housed in a two story wooden structure. I wonder how the second floor was utilized. A man is posed on the porch. He is likely the proprietor of the store (Mr. Robbins?). Victor M. Robbins became the postmaster of Middleville in 1914. Victor had acquired the store in 1903. The store’s building is thought to have been built before 1837. Victor was the postmaster until 1955. Victor was succeeded by his son, Donald A. Robbins who operated the store and post office until 1987. The father and son duo ran the post office for a cumulative 73 years. The Robbins store later housed the “Robin’s General Store and Country Kitchen” which existed in Middleville until at least 2016. This postcard was published in the 1950’s by the Artvue Post Card Company. The firm was located on Fifth Avenue in New York City. The company was formed in 1948 and produced black & white postcards in the 1950’s despite the popularity of color postcards during that time. The company’s “claim to fame” was that it published postcards picturing plaques of the players that were enshrined in Baseball’s Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. They produced the cards from about 1951 through 1963. SOLD
THE CABINET CARD GALLERY 