| District of Columbia (Washington), West Potomac Park — Air Mail |
| | The world's first airplane mail to be operated as a continuously scheduled public service started from this field May 15, 1918.
The route connected Washington, Philadelphia and New York. Curtiss JN 4-H airplanes with a capacity of 150 pounds of mail flew the 230 miles in about three hours.
The service was inaugurated by the Post Office Department in cooperation with the Aviation Section of the Signal Corps of the U. S. Army. On August 12, 1918, the service was taken over in its entirety by the Post Office Department. — Map (db m17619) |
| Georgia (Elbert County), Elberton — 052-3 — Old Post Road |
| | This Road is older than Elberton. Mail was
carried over it by Post Riders before Falling
Creek Church was built in 1788 and during
Washington's Administration. later a stage
coach ran between Elberton & Lexington three
times a week, stopping at the old Globe
Hotel which stood on the site of the present
court house in Elberton. Stocks for local
Merchants were brought over this road until
1878 when the first railroad came to Elberton.
With the coming of Rural Free Delivery
Mr.Giles . . . — Map (db m21902) |
| Georgia (Liberty County), Screven Fork — Old Post Road |
| | This road on the right
was established in 1736 by
Gen. James Oglethorpe.
First postal route south of
Savannah Stage Coach Road
and line of march
of Revolutionary Soldiers.
Saint John's Parish Chapter
Daughters of the American Colonists
March 3, 1950 — Map (db m9002) |
| Georgia (Warren County), Norwood — 149-2 — The Original R.F.D. |
| | In 1868 at Norwood six men along a five mile rural route hired Jerry Parsons, a Negro who could not read, to deliver and collect mail at their homes each day except Sundays and holidays for his food and clothing. The postmaster at Norwood each morning arranged the mail in correct order and “Uncle Jerry” began his ten mile walk covering, in all, 3,110 miles. Sen. Thomas Watson, then a boy clerking for Hon. T.E. Massengale, observed this perfect plan for Rural Free Delivery. In . . . — Map (db m16000) |
| Maryland (Carroll County), Westminster — The First Complete County Rural Free Delivery Service |
| | In the United States was inaugurated by the post office department on December 20, 1899 covering the whole of Carroll County and small parts of adjacent counties with Westminster as the central distributing point. — Map (db m3023) |
| Maryland (Montgomery County), Silver Spring — Blair Mansion: Silver Spring / Blair Station Post Office — TRANSORMA/TRANSFORMA © 2005 |
| | [Panel 1:] Blair Mansion: Silver Spring
Prior to the development of modern Silver Spring, this immediate area was a bucolic, rural landscape in a portion of Montgomery County then known as Sligo. The property was owned by Francis Preston Blair (1791-1876), who also owned sections of Takoma Park and Washington, D.C. that encompassed over 1,000 acres. Blair used this area as an escape from the summer heat of his work and his home on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C., which is . . . — Map (db m23488) |
| Maryland (Prince George's County), College Park — College Park Airport — First Military Airport In The United States |
| | The following notable events occurred on this airfield
1909 - Wilbur Wright instructed first flying officers of Signal Corps, U. S. Army
1911 - First Army flying school established here
First bombsite tested from an aircraft
1912 - First group cross country flight originated here. Destination Chevy Chase, MD
First machine gun fired from an aircraft
First radio message sent from an aircraft
1922 - First flight of a helicopter made by Henry Berliner
One of the . . . — Map (db m5743) |
| Massachusetts (Worcester County), West Brookfield — Boston Post Road — 68 Miles from Boston |
| | This road is the first mail route in North America, established in 1673 by King Charles II of England. In 1767, while Benjamin Franklin was Postmaster General, mileage was marked out with stone markers from Boston to New York City. — Map (db m18561) |
| Nevada (Elko County), Elko — 107 — Elko Airport — Terminus of the First Commercial Air Mail Route |
| | On April 6, 1926, Varney Air Lines pilot Leon Cuddeback, carrying one bag of mail, landed his tiny Curtis Swallow bi-plane at Elko, Nevada, completing the first scheduled air mail run in the United States.
The single engine, 90-horsepower aircraft had taken off from Pasco, Washington, stopped at Boise, Idaho, for fuel and mail, then completed the 460-mile flight to Elko. The Varney contract was awarded October 27, 1925, at a rate of eights cents an ounce. Varney sold to Boeing, which merged with United Air Lines in 1931. — Map (db m1371) |
| North Carolina (Brunswick County), Calabash — D-30 — First Post Road |
| | The road from New England to Charleston, over which mail was first carried regularly in North Carolina, 1738–39, passed near this spot. — Map (db m6317) |
| Ohio (Williams County), Bryan — 3-86 — Bryan's Air Mail Field |
| | Here, on September 6, 1918, Bryans’ Air Mail Field began oeprations as one of Ohio’s first official airfields ith the arrival of a survey flight to establish air mail service between New York and Chicago. Scheduled servcie began on July 1, 1919, and stretched west to San Francisco on September 8, 1920, completing the 2,666 mile U.S. transcontinental air mail route. Flying the Curtiss JN-4H “Jenny.” R-4. Standard JR-1B, and later the De Havilland DH-4, aviators pioneered cross . . . — Map (db m3358) |
| Virginia (Northumberland County), Callao — O-54 — Chambers Stamp Factory |
| | Two miles northeast, at Lodge, stood the Chambers Stamp Factory, owned by the same family for our generations. Founded in Washington, D.C., about 1830 by Benjamin Chambers, Sr., an engraver and inventor of a breech-loading cannon, the company specialized in postmark and cancellation stamps. From 1867 to 1931 the company was the sole supplier for the U.S. Post Office Department. Benjamin Chambers, Jr., moved the factory to Lodge in 1877. After his death in 1908, his son Henry B. Chambers, Sr., . . . — Map (db m22491) |
| West Virginia (Jefferson County), Charles Town — Charles Town Post Office — Jefferson County Jail |
| | On the site of this Post Office stood the Jefferson County Jail where John Brown and his fellow prisoners were confined after their raid on Harpers Ferry in October 1859.
After court trial John Brown was taken from the Jail here to his death on the gallows December the Second in the year 1859.
From the Post Office in Charles Town, West Virginia, was started the first Rural Free Delivery service in the United States, under Postmaster-General Wm. L. Wilson, October the First, 1896. — Map (db m2027) |
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