Postal Connections

Long long ago when our west was wide open with social distancing the norm, letters and newspapers delivered by ship or stagecoach to the Post Office kept the connection twixt family and friends.

The United States Postal Service’s start-up was in 1775. Benjamin Franklin was Postmaster General. One hundred ten years later Theodore Loop was Postmaster of the newly-established city his wife named Del Mar. It was in the train depot then at 9th and Railroad Street, now Stratford Court. The alternative: the Pony Express existed briefly offering a faster but costlier service with jockey-like riders racing to deliver pouches on their route in record time. From 1885 to 1965 Del Mar had 20 Postmasters, the first serving the city moved from the train depot to the original Main Street, 10th Street. By 1926 it was located at 14th Street and Camino Del Mar then on to the southwest corner of 15th Street and Stratford Court in 1953, and finally to 122 15th Street in 1965.

Our local Post Office is one of 31,322 locations around the country that deliver to more than 157 million addresses in the United States, its territories, and its military bases worldwide, managing some 47 percent of the world’s mail. Busy! You can mail and receive letters and packages there. You can open a PO Box. You can buy stamps in a variety of presentations depending on the time and season, cards, mailing enclosures, domestic and international money orders, burial flags. However, take note: you can’t get a passport at this location should you be gearing up for post-pandemic travel.