Brownie Museum

July 5, 1992: Two dogs that captured city’s heart

Eddie James

“Looking Back” was, I presume, a regular feature column of the Daytona Beach News-Journal. On July 5, 1992, the column featured both Brownie the Town Dog and his lesser known Beach Street pup, Brownie the Post Office Mascot.

Both lived on Beach Street for approximately 15 years. Town Dog Brownie from 1939-1954. Post Office Brownie from 1955-1970.

Both had bank accounts in the Florida Bank and Trust.

Both we buried on Beach Street. Town Dog Brownie in Riverfront Park and Post Office Brownie in the alley next to the Beach Street post office.

Both graves are STILL there today.

Daytona Beach Town Dog and Post Office Brownies
Daytona Beach’s Two Brownie’s: The Town Dog and The Post Office Mascot

 

Two dogs that captured the city's heart
Two dogs that captured the city’s heart

Two dogs that captured the city's heart

Notes

  • This article was the first photo I’d ever seen of the Post Office Brownie. I have since found several more, which I will post here in the next few months.
  • I have asked the current post office employees and even the post master if they know anything about the Post Office Brownie and surprisingly they know very little. I even gave them a photo of the Post Office Brownie so they could hang it in the post office, but I don’t think they have.
  • This article is the first to mention that the Post Office Brownie had a bank account too. Since he was technically a postal employee, a bank account makes sense.
  • Most modern day citizens of Daytona Beach have never heard of the Post Office Brownie. That’s not shocking since even the more visible Brownie the Town Dog is not very well known by modern Daytona citizens.
  • For 30 years Beach Street had a dog named Brownie. That is quite a story. And both are buried here and their graves remain.
  • Both dogs had the same vet. I will post the details of the Post Office Brownie and his vet in future posts.
  • One of the Brownie Project’s goals is to create some kind of memorial for both the Town Dog Brownie and the Post Office Brownie. We are already pretty far along with Brownie the Town Dog’s memorial, but our future plans are to do some small memorial for the Post Office Brownie as well.
  • Robert Hunter, who wrote this piece had started working at the News-Journal in 1933. He retired in 1974 at the age of 64. I’m not sure if he was still alive at the time of this publication in 1992, if this was simply a reprint or if he wrote it in his advanced years. I tried to find the year he died, but nothing came up in a quick Google search.