Mailbox, Etc. .

LACONIA — A New Jersey couple went looking for antiques in Florida and made a friend in Laconia.

Last winter Pat and Nancy Nannola of Park Ridge, New Jersey were rummaging around an antique shop in Fort Ritchie, Florida when Nancy spotted a cast iron mailbox, manufactured for the United States Post office in the 1930s, lying on the floor.

"It was broken in places and needed extensive work," Pat recalled, "but, Nancy thought it would go well with our old home, so we looked at it again and again." The Nannolas left without making a decision, talked it over that evening and returned the next day. "It was kind of expensive, especially for the condition it was in," Nancy said. "They wanted $135," Pat said, "and we eventually settled on $100."

On the side of the mailbox, bold, raised letters read "Hebert Manufacturing, Inc., Franklin, N.H." Pat explained that he found the company, today best known as Hebert Foundry & Machine, Inc. on the internet. "I called and spoke with Calvin Brown," Pat said. "I told him about the mailbox and the repairs it needed. He told me to ship it and they would fix it for nothing."

Pat said he was so taken by the offer that rather than ship the mailbox, he and Nancy, who summer on Frye Island off the coast of Maine, decided to deliver it themselves. "One day this fellow calls wanting to know if we're the guys who made the mailbox," Brown recalled, "and they next thing I know they showed up here with the mailbox."

"We had the best time," Pat said. "Mr. Brown showed us all around the foundry. I had no idea about the history of the company. It was just a great day, and all thanks to an old, broken mailbox. When its ready," he continued, "I think we'll come back to get it."

Brown said the mailboxes were made in Franklin, where the company began as a cast iron foundry in 1912. After acquiring Eastman Machine Company, Hebert moved to Laconia and began casting, machining and finishing in aluminum and bronze. Today the firm manufactures a wide variety of products, ranging from components for precision machines and engines to hardware for docks and moorings.

But, not mailboxes. Brown said that until the Nannolas appeared, he knew of only one other mailbox made by the company, which he believed was also in Florida, at Disneyworld. "My daughter went looking for it, but couldn't find it," he said.