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Marblehead marks 250 years of postal service with town proclamation
Beneath patriotic bunting strung along the metal railings of the Marblehead Post Office, postal workers and town officials stood shoulder to shoulder Thursday between American and Postal Service flags as Select Board member Moses Grader read a proclamation honoring 250 years of mail delivery. The brick building's blue doors framed the group as Marblehead Postmaster Christopher King welcomed carriers, supervisors and residents to the ceremony on Smith Street.
The proclamation, read by Grader on behalf of the Marblehead Select Board, recognized July 2, 2026, as "America 250 and 250 Years of Postal Service Day" in Marblehead. It marked both the 250th anniversary of the United States and 250 years of postal service, and was signed by Select Board members Grader, Dan Fox, Rossana Ferrante, Erin Noonan and James Zisson. The United States Postal Service requested the proclamation ahead of the country's 250th anniversary celebration. In its letter to the town, the Postal Service said the organization traces its roots to the Second Continental Congress, with Benjamin Franklin serving as the nation's first postmaster general.
King used the occasion to walk through the town's place in early American mail history. He said Franklin appointed Marblehead's first postmaster in 1775, and that the town became important to early mail movement because it was a major fishing port. Mail could move north by water from Marblehead to Ipswich, Newburyport, New Hampshire and Maine three or four days faster than overland routes, King said. He also noted that Sarah Black was the first known female letter carrier in Marblehead in 1845, and that mail bound for Marblehead Neck was once hauled by two men with a wheelbarrow marked U.S. mail, where residents would sort through it looking for their letters.
Grader, whose grandfather served as acting postmaster in 1952, said the institution still matters in the age of email. "It's really important to have a post office that is a foundational government function," he said, adding that the postal service links residents "with the rest of the country" and "bounds us as a community."
King said the current post office building was built in 1976, and that the post office previously operated at 61 Pleasant St., a building that still stands and is now apartments. When regular mail delivery began in 1897, Marblehead had four delivery routes, King said. Today it has 29. Letter carriers and supervisors from the Marblehead office, including the town's most tenured carrier, who has delivered mail since 1987, joined King and town officials for the ceremony.
"The post office has come a long way," King said.
After the reading, a photographer arranged the group for pictures beneath the flags, nudging carriers and officials a half-step at a time until the lineup fit the frame. Then King invited everyone inside, where refreshments waited alongside artwork made by the children of Marblehead postal employees.
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