Sixty-nine years ago today, on April 1, 1948, the postal service officially added hyphens to the cancellation stamp for what had been the “Croton on Hudson” post office. The transition was recorded on this pair of envelopes, called “commemorative cacheted covers”, inscribed by Croton postmaster Augustus W. Dymes, Jr.—the uncle of Croton’s current Village Historian, Dorothy Pezanowski.
In stamp collecting a cachet is a printed or stamped design or inscription (other than a cancellation or pre-printed postage) on an envelope, postcard, or postal card to commemorate a postal or philatelic event. A pair of envelopes like these are apparently referred to as “last/first covers.”
Another significant date in Croton’s postal history took place on July 4, 1891. That’s the date when the Postal Service officially changed the name of our post office from Croton Landing to Croton-on-Hudson.1
- See The Highland Democrat, July 4, 1891. ↩︎
CROTON 