ZIP Code Day in Crestline 9-23-25

BY RHEA-FRANCES TETLEY
Staff Writer

The post office identifies Zip Code Day as the day of the year when the date matches the ZIP Code identified with that area. In Crestline that date is coming up on Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2025, 9-23-25.

Crestline likes to have fun and is excited about the opportunity to celebrate this once in an area event. The day will begin with an official flag raising ceremony by the veterans of the community. It will be followed by many hours of activities in the glass outer lobby of the post office. The community is invited to come join in the festivities.

Zip Code Day 9-23-25 in Crestline has been in the planning for over a year. A unique postal cancellation stamp for the mail, that will be hand stamped that day from Crestline, was designed by Arron Hernandez, and has already arrived for Zip Code Day. It has a drawing of two bears in front of Lake Gregory with the mountains in the background.  Across the top of the cancellation stamp it says “Crestline CA, 92325” and across the bottom it states “Date Meets Zip Station.”

A limited number of special cache envelope have been created. The envelope design has two ribbons across the top and bottom with envelopes floating into a mail box in the center with the words “Date meets Zip Code,” and “Estd. 1919” on both sides. Across the top, inside the ribbon, it states, “Once in a Lifetime” and in the ribbon across the bottom is “Crestline CA, 92325.” The stamps being suggested to be placed on the envelopes are the new 78-cent America’s 250^th anniversary stamps that have just been released. The prices for these items had not been set at press time.

Postmaster Ken Cooper, who has been planning Crestline’s Zip Code Day for over a year, has experience in organizing a Zip Code Day. He held Cedarpines Park’s celebration on their Zip Code Day back on Sept. 23, in 2022. During that event he had a special postmark designed for the mail postmarked from that post office that day and asked the Rim of the World Historical Society to set up a display on the history of the Cedarpines Park post office. There was a timeline display on the history of the community. Cooper offered some refreshments for the customers of that small post office that day and will so for this year’s event too.

Did you know it was almost 250 years ago, in 1776, that Father Garces first saw the Pacific Ocean from Monument Peak in Cedarpines Park? Also, are you aware that from the current Cedarpines Park post office building the original post office building is easily visible?

The Cedarpines Park post office has been in operation since 1927, except for the years 1943 to 1946 when it was closed due to WWII. The post offices in any community are the central part of that community, defining its name and giving a community official status.

Everyone is invited to stop by the post office on Tuesday morning Sept. 23 to celebrate this “once in a lifetime event” in Crestline.  The post office will have the cache envelopes and the postmaster will be there with the official hand rubber cancellation stamp for Zip Code Day. Any letter can be postmarked that day with the special cancellation stamp. Or buy or send the special envelopes and get them hand-stamped.

The Crestline post office had a celebration in 2019 when the post office celebrated its 100^th anniversary from its establishment on Sept. 5, 1919, in Top Town Crestline. That centennial celebration six years ago, was also held in the lobby at the current Lake Drive post office building. It had a cache envelope designed by Mystwood artist John Arthur and a special postmark designed celebrating Crestline’s history.

Historically, the original 1919 Crestline post office was an annex to Postmaster S.W. Dillin’s store. It was used though the 1930s (that building burned over 65 years ago). The post office was in numerous locations on the crest before moving to a location on Knapps Cutoff at Lake Drive in the 1960s and to its current location on 23921 Lake Drive in Lake Gregory Village in 1986.

Rhea-Frances Tetley and Russ Keller from the Mountain History Museum will have displays in the post office’s lobby for Zip Code Day. Keller will have a display on the many postmarks from the various post offices that have served the current 92325 area, most before the creation of ZIP Codes in the mid-60s. Tetley will have a photo history and timeline of the several post offices that have operated in and around Crestline over the last century.

Despite its small physical size, the Crestline post office processes about 20,000 pieces of mail and 1,700 parcels per day, plus handles the mail for Cedarpines Park. There is also a satellite postbox facility in Valley of Enchantment. Their workers receive a high ranking for their personal service in surveys.

The next local Zip Code Day would be next year celebrating the Crest Park post office on Sept. 23, 2026. It is not known if a celebration will be taking place. The Crest Park post office was established just after WWII in 1949, in an area which had a USFS public campground. An original oil painting of the original Crest Park post office is displayed next to Crest Park’s original postal delivery unit in the Mountain History Museum in Lake Arrowhead. That office closed several years ago, and postal patrons with that ZIP Code now receive their mail at the Lake Arrowhead post office.