Hey General Store & Post Office

The old Hey general store/post office in 2019 - by that point the "Asian Bistro" restaurant.

Historical Overview

A 2-story, side-gabled wood-framed building with a 2-story gabled rear ell stands at 31 Station Drive, at the intersection of Washington Road and Station Drive. This building, also fearing two single-story shed-roofed additions and hipped-roof porch, operates in 2023 as a restaurant called "Asian Bistro." It is also a member of West Windsor's "100 Club" and originally functioned as Princeton Junction's primary general store/post office starting in the nineteenth century.

In 1884, Isaac Hey (pronounced "Hi"), a German immigrant and retired jeweler from Newark,[1] purchased this property from his father-in-law, (through his wife, Mary[2]) David S. Voorhees.[3] It is unknown if this building existed at the time. However, we do​ know that Isaac and his family lived out of the adjacent Voorhees-Hey house at 14 Washington Road.[4] 

Hey General Store/Post Office, possibly late 1800s.

​By 1892 (if not earlier), Isaac - one of West Windsor's Justices of the Peace in the 1880s[5] - had been appointed Princeton Junction's postmaster as well.[6] By 1895 (again, if not earlier), he also operated the general store.[7] Much could be purchased there - particularly food, clothing, and tools of every trade. One longtime resident - Michael Corio - remembered high button shoes and other items from the nineteenth century hanging high on the rafters.[8] A warehouse next door was also built in the 1880s or 1890s to house general store items; it is (in 2023) Dewey's Upholstery shop at 31 Station Drive.

​Isaac Hey died in 1920 at the age of 85,[9] by which time management of the store had expanded to his sons, Jacob C. Hey and Isaac Voorhees Hey. Legend says that one brother was Republican; the other Democrat, and whichever party was in power, that brother was postmaster.[10]

The general store continued in business until 1947, when Isaac died[11] (Jacob had passed the year prior[12]), after which the post office was moved to Berrien City.[13] Following Isaac's death, the general store property passed to Elizabeth Good[14] - longtime live-in helper for the Hey family, who had emigrated from Hungary in 1912.[15] Longtime residents recalled Elizabeth working as a mail carrier in the 1950s, and delivering mail on a motor scooter.[16]

In 1958, 31 Station Drive was deeded to Maude R. Gilmer,[17] and three years later to Louis and Evelyn Tammaro.[18] Louis Tammaro ran a barber shop in the front portion and rented the rest of the building as apartments.[19] In 1974, the "Peking Express" restaurant, specializing in Mandarin, Cantonese, and Szechuan cuisines, opened in the building.[20] Ten years later it was replaced by the "Good Friends" Chinese restaurant.[21] Finally, in the early 2010s, Asian Bistro opened in this building.[22]

Peking Express ad from the September 29, 1979 Windsor-Hights Herald.

Go to Princeton Junction

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Bibliography

1. United States Census, 1870 - West Windsor Township.” West Windsor Township, 1870.
2. United States Census, 1900 - West Windsor Township.” West Windsor Township, 1900.
3. Hey, Isaac, Voorhees, David S. “Indenture.” West Windsor, 1884. Located in the Mercer County Clerk's Office, Mercer County Deed Book 142 Page 50.
4. United States Census, 1900 - West Windsor Township.” West Windsor Township, 1900.
5. ​​“West Windsor Township Meeting Minutes, 1797-2012.,” n.d. Original Township Committee meeting minute database located in the Municipal Center.
6. “Jersey Post Offices and Post Masters.” Trenton Evening Times. January 3, 1904.
7. “Struck Jury Chosen.” Trenton Evening Times. September 11, 1895.
8. “Broadside,” 1998. Newsletter about the history of Princeton Junction (Part 1 of a 2-part series) produced by the Historical Society of West Windsor. Spring 1998.
9. “Princeton Junction Man Dead at 85.” Trenton Evening Times. August 31, 1920.
10. “Broadside,” 1998. Newsletter about the history of Princeton Junction (Part 1 of a 2-part series) produced by the Historical Society of West Windsor. Spring 1998.
11. "I. Voorhees Hey.” Princeton Herald. February 7, 1947.
12. “Jacob C. Hey.” Princeton Herald. March 17, 1946.
13. “Broadside,” 1998. Newsletter about the history of Princeton Junction (Part 1 of a 2-part series) produced by the Historical Society of West Windsor. Spring 1998.
14. Gilmer, Maude R., Good, Elizabeth. “Deed.” West Windsor, 1955. Located in the Mercer County Clerk's Office, Mercer County Deed Book 1329 Page 125.
15. United States Census, 1930 - West Windsor Township.” West Windsor Township, 1930.
16. “Broadside,” 1998. Newsletter about the history of Princeton Junction (Part 1 of a 2-part series) produced by the Historical Society of West Windsor. Spring 1998.
17. Gilmer, Maude R., Good, Elizabeth. “Deed.” West Windsor, 1955. Located in the Mercer County Clerk's Office, Mercer County Deed Book 1329 Page 125.
18. Gilmer, Maude R., Tammaro, Evelyn M., Tammaro, Louis C. “Deed.” West Windsor, 1958. Located in the Mercer County Clerk's Office, Mercer County Deed Book 1443 Page 288.
19. “Broadside,” 1998. Newsletter about the history of Princeton Junction (Part 1 of a 2-part series) produced by the Historical Society of West Windsor. Spring 1998.
20. Peking Express. (1974, May 10). The New Peking Express Restaurant. Daily Princetonian. Princeton. 
21. Good Friends. (1983, November 11). Grand Opening. Daily Princetonian. Princeton. 
22. Personal recollections of this article's author - Paul Ligeti