By Nicole DeGuzman, Maplewood Area Historical Society Executive Director
The house at 1800 English Street was home to Rex Shane, Gladstone's first mailman. Rex Shane owned and operated the mail wagon to deliver mail over a large area - east to the Poor Farm, north on White Bear Avenue to County Road D, west to Rice Street, and south to Frost Avenue, which took all day.
The house was built in 1886 as a single-family home by Rex and his wife Jessie. Rex and Jessie were married in 1884. The main level of the Shane house consisted of a kitchen, parlor, dining room, front room and front hallway with an open, beautifully carved, wood stairway to the second floor. Upstairs were three bedrooms, a bathroom and a large open sitting room. The walls were plaster and each door had a transom window above it. The upstairs floor consisted of wide plank boards. The basement walls were fieldstone with a dirt floor.