Bermuda: Perot Post Office - Hamilton, Bermuda

Perot Post Office

Hamilton, Bermuda

N 32° 17.564 W 064° 47.164

Short Description: 

Perot Post Office is named after Bermuda's first Postmaster General, William B. Perot, creator of Bermuda's first postage stamp.

Long Description:

William B. Perot was an unofficial post man for several years. He would meet the ships in the harbor to deliver letters. In 1848 he began to produce his own postage stamps. Three of these postmaster provisionals are catalogued (X1, X2 and X3). Only 11 copies are known to exist today, making each one extremely desirable and valuable to collectors. The catalog value of these stamps range from $125,000 to $175,000.

Because of Perot, Bermuda became only the second British colony, after Mauritius, to have its own postage stamps. He would hand stamp every outgoing piece of mail. A friend, J.B. Heyl, suggested that instead of stamping every piece mail, he create stamps, sign the stamps and sells the sheet of stamps for a shilling. People could then tear off a stamp from the sheet and use it for postage.

On the south end of the historic Perot Post Office, a bronze plaque commemoration the issuing of the first Bermuda postage stamp is inscribed:

FROM THIS HOUSE

THE FIRST

BERMUDA 

POSTAGE 

STAMP

WAS ISSUED IN THE YEAR 1848

BY WILLIAM B. PEROT

POSTMASTER OF HAMILTON

The little post office is still very much the same as Perot kept it - neat and simply furnished. The building has been repaired and restored by the Bermuda Government. There is still an active branch post office operating out of this building.