Air Mail House

It’s known as the Air Mail House.

Which is part of the point.

Owner Drew Coates explains why his North Hills home has a mailbox hanging some 25 feet above the ground from the branch of a venerable maple tree. On one side is painted Air Mail. The family’s name is on the other side. “It’s an easy way to identify the house,” says the partially-retired attorney.

Both Coates and his wife, Anne, also an attorney in the couple’s private practice, mention the flying mailbox when they’re giving directions to visitors and for deliveries. If you’re looking for an address on a street as busy as Limekiln Pike, it’s a helpful landmark to use. And it’s striking how many people do.

Coates gets a kick out of people’s reactions. When his chiropractor retired, Coates’ new chiropractor was making small talk and asked him where he lived. When he learned it was on Limekiln Pike, he asked if it was anywhere near the Air Mail House. Coates responded, “It is the Air Mail House.” The chiropractor immediately called his wife and said, “Guess who I have on my table!”

Coates admits that the idea didn’t originate with him. He’d seen something like it many decades ago – possibly on Second Street Pike, he thinks - and promised himself that when he bought a fitting house, he’d do the same.



It’s been hanging there for 17 years, “protected by the tree,” he says. The family has a regular mailbox on the front porch, so it raises no issue for the post office and Coates calls their letter carrier “a great guy.” In fact, Coates loves the area and thinks his neighbors are terrific.

He suspects that their five kids aren’t quite as thrilled by the Air Mail notoriety as he is. “They tend to think I’m a little wacky,” Coates acknowledges. Are there other things he does to deserve a “wacky” reputation?

“I can’t say anything. I’m an attorney. I have to maintain my image in the legal community,” he coyly replies. Then he reminisces about the days when he was president of the Philadelphia Chapter of the Friendly Raccoons. If you don’t remember the Honeymooners with Jackie Gleason and Art Carney, that’s okay.

Just smile when you drive by. Coates says that smile makes it worthwhile.

Great Glenside Gastronomy #1

Some combinations are irresistible: soup and salad; three sisters; peas in a pod. In fact that perfect trifecta exists on the corner of Keswick and Glenside Avenues in Glenside embodied in a mini-market aptly named Peas in a Pod Produce.

Lemon chicken soup is their best seller at 20 gallons a-Mondays, according to co-owner Susan Bailey, with crab bisque Fridays a close runner up. Vegetarian soup is available on Tuesdays. At this time, there are 21 different homemade varieties in rotation.

Pair this soup with the freshest garden salad and balsamic vinaigrette you’ll ever find, and you’ve got a wholesome take-out luncheon for every purpose.

Not long after Joe and Barbara Plewinski passed away, their three daughters invested their inheritance to set up this shop in their memory. “Throwing caution to the wind,” Bailey says she and sibs Karen Dooley and Kristan Coyle have shared all the work and the fun since the store opened in 2007. Their eight kids, ranging in age from 15 to 24, sometimes help out. The sisters envisioned a community venue emphasizing locally grown and/or organic produce. The soups and prepared salads followed, and more specialties are in the works. Fruit smoothies and cheeses may debut in the coming months.

They’re pretty picky about their products, Bailey says, and their suppliers respect that. Guess they know better than to mess with two nurses and an educator. Shelves are stocked with farm goodies from Bucks County, Lancaster, New Jersey and even Weavers Way Farm in Germantown’s Awbury Arboretum.

Okay … and there’s also the occasional smart aleck who asks what local farm grows the grapefruit.

Asked if they feel threatened by Glenside’s summertime farmers’ market or the coming of Creekside Co-op, Bailey responds graciously. “This is a nice community – local businesses all support each other and send us people.”

Indeed, new first-time customers continue to drop in. When they do, they often see regulars from the neighborhood chatting around the counter. One friendly warning: if by some chance you came into possession of a Mets cap, leave that at home.

Other than the good stuff they sell, the most remarkable thing about Peas in a Pod, in the words of one of the sisters, may be that “After three years of intense daily contact, we still get along and are still speaking!”

Hours: Monday – Saturday: 9:00 a.m. – 5:30 p.m.
Sunday: 10:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.
Phone: 215-887-2719