175th Anniversary Celebration

Official 175th Birthday Party for the City of Aurora

Friday, March 2, 2012 you are invited to celebrate 175 years of Aurora history at two special gatherings.

COMMEMORATION OF ESTABLISHMENT OF POST OFFICE IN 1837
PICTORIAL POSTMARK
United States Post Office
525 North Broadway, Aurora, IL 60505
2:00pm

Join city officials and the Aurora Historical Society to commemorate the establishment of Aurora’s post office on March 2, 1837. View a unique exhibit jointly curated by the Aurora Historical Society and the Post Office, including photos and artifacts. There will be comments from community leaders, and musical entertainment, as well as a reading of the 1837 letter that created Aurora’s own post office.

Postal employees will help celebrate the anniversary by offering, until 4pm, a commemorative postmark to mark this once-in-a-lifetime event. The commemorative postmark is free, however it can only be placed on First-Class Mail postage. For your convenience, the Aurora Historical Society will sell special pictorial envelopes with postage already affixed for $3.00 each (2 for $5.00), cash only please. After your purchase a postal representative will cancel the stamp(s) with a cancellation designed for this event only (see illustration). Additionally, cancellations and cancelled envelopes can be ordered for 30 days after the event by using the order form downloaded here. After 30 days the equipment used will be destroyed, guaranteeing this cancellation will become a one-of-a-kind collectable.

In addition, pictorial envelopes which were cancelled at the event may be purchased throughout the year in the gift shops of the Historical Society, while supplies last.


BIRTHDAY PARTY
Aurora Transportation Center, 233 North Broadway, Aurora, IL 60505
5:00-8:00pm

Join city officials and the Aurora Historical Society at a birthday party with hors d’oeuvres, beverages and birthday cake. At 6:00pm there will be a short program featuring current community leadership as well as *appearances* by notable Aurorans of the past and the goddess Aurora. Our oldest citizens and members of pioneer families will be honored. Music, including new pieces composed for this historic moment, will be by the Aurora family blues/rock band, Bradley Keven Green.

Both events are free and open to the public.

Will you be 100 (or more) in 2012?
Did your family settle in Aurora prior to the Civil War (1865)?
Do you think you have lived continuously in Aurora for longer than anyone else?

The City of Aurora wants to honor you! Please click here and send us some basic information. We will verify the details and contact you about being an honored guest at the official opening of the Demisemiseptcentennial on March 2, 2012 at 5pm at the Aurora Transportation Center.