How the USPS began in Philadelphia and its integral role in the American Revolution

Snail mail started in America well over 250 years ago. Philadelphia is the proud birthplace of it all, and Benjamin Franklin is to thank for it.

B. Free Franklin "is the name that Ben Franklin used as a way to protest British rule," USPS spokesperson Paul Smith said.

It is a name that finds itself in ink on thousands of pieces of mail every year. The only place to find it, though, is in Old City at the B. Free Franklin Post Office.

"It's where the Postal Service basically begins," Smith said.

When what is now called the United States Post Office actually began, it didn't happen out of that physical building.

"Post offices did not exist as freestanding buildings," Steve Kochersperger, historian and manager of corporate information services for USPS, said. "They were usually located within other businesses, and Franklin was well-known for his other business, which was printing."

It is in the right neighborhood, Kochersperger explained, but the Postal Service operating in colonial times was much different than today.

"If you wanted to send a letter, you would just take it to the post office and the postmaster or the clerk would calculate how many pages you were sending, how far it was going," Kochersperger said. "But you didn't pay the postage. It was usually paid by the person at the receiving end."

In 1737, Franklin became the postmaster of Philadelphia. Mail then was still under British rule. It wasn't until 1775 — about a year before the birth of the nation — that Franklin became the first postmaster general appointed by the Continental Congress.

"What he was able to do was convince the Continental Congress that, yeah, we've got an army, we've got a general," Kochersperger said. "But unless we can communicate with them, what's the point? You know, George Washington is up in Massachusetts. Congress is in Philadelphia."

This location has something unique, not found at any other post office in America.

"This post office is the only one in the nation that does not fly a flag because Ben Franklin established the Postal Service before America began," Smith said.

Like the generations of uniforms on display inside B. Free Franklin Post Office, USPS has certainly evolved over its 250-year history.

Stamps didn't come around until 1847. ZIP codes? That wasn't a thing until 1963. Informed delivery was made available across the country in 2017.

"The telephone was going to put out as business, and it was the telegraph, and email, but we're still kicking 250 — it'll be 251 years, so we're very proud of that," Smith said.

A proud history stamped with Philadelphia at its core.

"Would there be the United States if not for the Postal Service?" Kochersperger said. "And my contention is that there wouldn't be, because we wouldn't have been able to fight a revolution."

On the morning of the Fourth of July, the post office will debut a new forever stamp honoring the Declaration of Independence.