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You can still get a St. Petersburg post mark

By MARY JANE PARK
Published June 25, 2006

Regardless of whether postal officials move St. Petersburg mail to Tampa for processing, St. Petersburg residents will get to keep their postmarks. It'll just take more time and effort than tossing a note into a letter box.

For many longtime residents, it is a tradition to have special mail hand-canceled at St. Petersburg's Open Air Station, 76 Fourth St. N, or at the Main Post Office, 3135 First Ave. N.

Those two offices have unique stamps. The Open Air Station's mark is a lamppost more about that in a minute, and the Main Post Office has a postique designation.

"Especially for weddings and other special occasions, for different reasons, people will present these pieces to be hand-canceled," said Gary Sawtelle. He's the spokesman for the U.S. Postal Service's Suncoast District. "They want to be sure the equipment doesn't mar the beauty of the invitation."

Sawtelle said post offices go for months without receiving special requests, then become inundated during prime-time wedding season, especially in May and June.

The Open Air Post Office stamp portrays a wrought-iron lamp that has been a fixture on that building since it opened in 1917, my friend and former colleague Betty Jean Miller reported in the Times in 1992.

Former St. Petersburg postmaster Harry Scott came up with the idea and consulted Julie Decker, an artist and illustrator for the postal division that included central and western Florida. At the time, she was active in restoring post office murals created during the Roosevelt era.

Decker created the design, a pictorial cancellation first used in 1983 to commemorate the Open Air Post Office building's renovation and its inclusion in the National Register of Historic Buildings.

Bettye Black, expert in correspondence etiquette, says custom cancellations are still used, "but you have a lot of newcomers to the city who don't even know about that. It is not used in the volume it was 20 years ago."

She believes more party than wedding invitations receive special cancellations

"I think it's wonderful. I think it gives you a sense of community," she said.

Nonetheless, she is concerned that St. Petersburg will lose its postmark to Tampa.

"I think it's important to have it," she said. "They even call our baseball team the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. It's our own fault for allowing it, but I'll tell you what: If we lose the postmark, a lot of us, including me, will go down to the post office and ask for it."

Debbie Grobmyer, who works at Beach Drive Papery on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Street N, said she encourages patrons to use the custom cancellations, especially with textured and embellished invitations.

Sawtelle, of the postal service, said invitations to weddings and other special events usually are of a volume easily handled by the Open Air and Main post offices. If a request is made for hand-canceling cards or letters that number into the hundreds, he said, the office should be consulted in advance to assure proper staffing is available.

Hand cancellations require no additional fee beyond proper postage.

St. Petersburg's Open Air Station is open 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays. The Main Post Office postique offers a wide variety of stamps, stamp books and stamp collector items. Its hours are 10:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday; 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday.

And get this: Sawtelle said every post office offers hand cancellations, be it St. Petersburg, Safety Harbor, Clearwater or Tarpon Springs. All a customer has to do is to take mail to the customer service window and ask for a local cancellation.

***

St. Petersburg debutantes were guests of honor at a "Let's Get Creative" party on June 17. They decorated picture frames at Bisque-itz, then joined their parents at dinner in the home of Glenn and Dav Mosby.

Additional hosts were Lennie Bennett, Martha Buttner, Cathy and Dr. Steve Collins, Janet and Dr. Bill Hunter, Kim and Murray Silverstein, Elizabeth and David Skidmore, and Karyn and Paul Tash.

***

The 2006-2007 Social Calendar, a comprehensive list of South Pinellas charitable and social events, will appear in Neighborhood Times on Sept. 10.

Please submit information (including sponsoring group, date, time, venue address, ticket price and publishable phone number) to me by July 31. Fax: 893-8675, e-mail: park@sptimes.com or write: P.O. Box 1121, St. Petersburg, FL 33731.

[Last modified June 25, 2006, 03:17:45]