Postmaster General unveils postal card featuring the Mount

James Rada
Emmitsburg Dispatch

(5/1) A United States Postmaster General came to Emmitsburg for the first time on Saturday, April 26, to celebrate Mount St. Mary’s University bicentennial year and unveil an new pre-stamped postal card featuring the Mount.

The 27-cent postal card features an original watercolor of the campus.

Postmaster General John Potter and Mount President Thomas Powell dedicated the card during an April 26 event in the Knott Arena.

“The painting on the postal card is a symphony of color and a tribute to Mount St. Mary’s tradition of excellence. As an organization with its own history of more than two centuries, the Postal Service is pleased to dedicate this stamped care and share in the prestigious bicentennial celebration,” Potter said.

According to the U.S.P.S. Medial Relations representative Yvonne Yoerger, the organization’s postal historian can find no records of another official visit by a U.S. Postmaster to Emmitsburg.

“Mount St. Mary’s University is honored that the U.S. Postal Service recognizes our historical significance and the contributions that the university has made to higher education,” Powell said. “We’re so pleased to have this wonderful stamped postal card to mark the occasion of our bicentennial.”

The postal card is the 58th in the U.S.P.S.’s Historic Preservation series, which began in 1977. The postal card shows three of the Mount’s oldest buildings: Dubois, Brute’ and McCaffrey Halls, collectively called “the Terrace” and make up the heart of the campus. The buildings were built during the 19th Century and are now primarily used as residence halls.

Frank Constantino, an award-winning architectural illustrator in Winthrop, Mass., used historic photos and drawings to create the scene.

Following the unveiling of the card, the Maryland Symphony Orchestra performed an all-Beethoven concert featuring two pieces which debuted in 1808, the same year the Mount was founded.

“I have been to many stamp events, but this is one of the classier ones,” Potter said. “The Mount is lovely, steeped in tradition and yet also modern. … It's an honor to be part of this 200-year celebration.” He noted the outpouring of the community that was present. 

Potter said he was not originally scheduled to attend the Mount’s dedication ceremony. Master of Ceremonies Walter O’Tormey, U.S.P.S. Vice President – Engineering, has a son at the Mount and was the only one scheduled to represent the postal service. However, Father John Enzler, a member of the Mount’s board of trustees and Potter’s long-time paster at Our Lady of Mary Blessed Sacrament, insisted the postmaster general come.