diff --git a/akka-persistence/src/main/scala/akka/persistence/serialization/SnapshotSerializer.scala b/akka-persistence/src/main/scala/akka/persistence/serialization/SnapshotSerializer.scala
index 741b3dfe46..ca9c627fab 100644
--- a/akka-persistence/src/main/scala/akka/persistence/serialization/SnapshotSerializer.scala
+++ b/akka-persistence/src/main/scala/akka/persistence/serialization/SnapshotSerializer.scala
@@ -9,6 +9,8 @@ import java.io._
 import akka.actor._
 import akka.serialization.{ Serializer, SerializationExtension }
 import akka.serialization.Serialization
+import scala.util.Success
+import scala.util.Failure
 
 /**
  * Wrapper for snapshot `data`. Snapshot `data` are the actual snapshot objects captured by
@@ -59,11 +61,12 @@ class SnapshotSerializer(system: ExtendedActorSystem) extends Serializer {
       val extension = SerializationExtension(system)
 
       val snapshotSerializer = extension.findSerializerFor(snapshot)
-      val snapshotManifest = if (snapshotSerializer.includeManifest) Some(snapshot.getClass.getName) else None
 
-      val header = SnapshotHeader(snapshotSerializer.identifier, snapshotManifest)
-      val headerSerializer = extension.findSerializerFor(header)
-      val headerBytes = headerSerializer.toBinary(header)
+      val headerOut = new ByteArrayOutputStream
+      writeInt(headerOut, snapshotSerializer.identifier)
+      if (snapshotSerializer.includeManifest)
+        headerOut.write(snapshot.getClass.getName.getBytes("utf-8"))
+      val headerBytes = headerOut.toByteArray
 
       val out = new ByteArrayOutputStream
 
@@ -74,7 +77,7 @@ class SnapshotSerializer(system: ExtendedActorSystem) extends Serializer {
       out.toByteArray
     }
 
-    // serialize actor references with full address information (defaultAddress) 
+    // serialize actor references with full address information (defaultAddress)
     transportInformation match {
       case Some(ti) ⇒ Serialization.currentTransportInformation.withValue(ti) { serialize() }
       case None     ⇒ serialize()
@@ -88,7 +91,25 @@ class SnapshotSerializer(system: ExtendedActorSystem) extends Serializer {
     val headerBytes = bytes.slice(4, headerLength + 4)
     val snapshotBytes = bytes.drop(headerLength + 4)
 
-    val header = extension.deserialize(headerBytes, classOf[SnapshotHeader]).get
+    // If we are allowed to break serialization compatibility of stored snapshots in 2.4
+    // we can remove this attempt of deserialize SnapshotHeader with JavaSerializer.
+    // Then the class SnapshotHeader can be removed. See isseue #16009
+    val header = extension.deserialize(headerBytes, classOf[SnapshotHeader]) match {
+      case Success(header) ⇒
+        header
+      case Failure(_) ⇒
+        val headerIn = new ByteArrayInputStream(headerBytes)
+        val serializerId = readInt(headerIn)
+        val remaining = headerIn.available
+        val manifest =
+          if (remaining == 0) None
+          else {
+            val manifestBytes = Array.ofDim[Byte](remaining)
+            headerIn.read(manifestBytes)
+            Some(new String(manifestBytes, "utf-8"))
+          }
+        SnapshotHeader(serializerId, manifest)
+    }
     val manifest = header.manifest.map(system.dynamicAccess.getClassFor[AnyRef](_).get)
 
     extension.deserialize[AnyRef](snapshotBytes, header.serializerId, manifest).get
diff --git a/akka-persistence/src/test/scala/akka/persistence/serialization/SerializerSpec.scala b/akka-persistence/src/test/scala/akka/persistence/serialization/SerializerSpec.scala
index 7fd31e2875..09680172ef 100644
--- a/akka-persistence/src/test/scala/akka/persistence/serialization/SerializerSpec.scala
+++ b/akka-persistence/src/test/scala/akka/persistence/serialization/SerializerSpec.scala
@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@ import akka.persistence.AtLeastOnceDelivery.AtLeastOnceDeliverySnapshot
 import akka.persistence.AtLeastOnceDelivery.UnconfirmedDelivery
 import scala.concurrent.Await
 import scala.concurrent.duration.Duration
+import org.apache.commons.codec.binary.Hex.decodeHex
 
 object SerializerSpecConfigs {
   val customSerializers = ConfigFactory.parseString(
@@ -69,6 +70,27 @@ class SnapshotSerializerPersistenceSpec extends AkkaSpec(customSerializers) {
 
       deserialized should be(Snapshot(MySnapshot(".a.")))
     }
+
+    "be able to read snapshot created with akka 2.3.6" in {
+      val dataStr = "abc"
+      val snapshot = Snapshot(dataStr.getBytes("utf-8"))
+      val serializer = serialization.findSerializerFor(snapshot)
+
+      // the oldSnapshot was created with Akka 2.3.6 and it is using JavaSerialization
+      // for the SnapshotHeader. See issue #16009.
+      // It was created with:
+      // println(s"encoded snapshot: " + String.valueOf(encodeHex(serializer.toBinary(snapshot))))
+      val oldSnapshot = "a8000000aced00057372002d616b6b612e70657273697374656e63652e73657269616c697a6174696f6e" +
+        "2e536e617073686f74486561646572000000000000000102000249000c73657269616c697a657249644c00086d616e696665" +
+        "737474000e4c7363616c612f4f7074696f6e3b7870000000047372000b7363616c612e4e6f6e6524465024f653ca94ac0200" +
+        "007872000c7363616c612e4f7074696f6ee36024a8328a45e90200007870616263"
+
+      val bytes = decodeHex(oldSnapshot.toCharArray)
+      val deserialized = serializer.fromBinary(bytes, None).asInstanceOf[Snapshot]
+
+      val deserializedDataStr = new String(deserialized.data.asInstanceOf[Array[Byte]], "utf-8")
+      dataStr should be(deserializedDataStr)
+    }
   }
 }
 
@@ -270,4 +292,4 @@ class MySnapshotSerializer extends Serializer {
     case Some(c)               ⇒ throw new Exception(s"unexpected manifest ${c}")
     case None                  ⇒ throw new Exception("no manifest")
   }
-}
\ No newline at end of file
+}