The Georgetown photograph from September 28, 1959, captures an important moment in local history. At the time, having mail delivered directly to the front door represented both convenience and progress.
Door-to-Door Mail Delivery Comes to Georgetown in 1959
A photograph taken that day shows postal employees standing on the steps of the Georgetown Post Office, marking the introduction of door-to-door mail delivery in the community.
For Georgetown residents, door-to-door delivery meant that the daily mail no longer required a trip to the post office or another central collection point. Instead, the mail carrier brought letters directly to people’s homes.
Over the following decades, the postal carrier became a familiar figure in Georgetown neighbourhoods. The arrival of the mail became part of everyday community life, connecting local residents with family, businesses, newspapers and government services across Canada.
The 1959 photograph therefore captures more than a group of postal employees. It records a moment when a new form of everyday service was introduced to Georgetown—one that would become a familiar part of community life for generations.
However, door-to-door mail delivery did not begin in Canada with Georgetown in 1959. Canada had a much longer tradition of letter carriers delivering mail directly to homes, although the service was never available to every address.
The significance of the Georgetown date is therefore local: September 28, 1959, marks the introduction of door-to-door mail delivery in Georgetown, not the start of the service across Canada.
Canada’s postal system has more than 200 years of history, including a long tradition of letter carriers delivering mail directly to some addresses. The 1959 Georgetown photograph should be understood in that broader context—it captures the arrival of an established postal service in a new community, rather than the creation of door-to-door delivery in Canada. (Canada)
A Brief History of Mail Delivery in Canada and Ontario
Canada’s postal history stretches back well before Confederation. Mail travelled by foot, horseback, stagecoach, steamship and, later, by railway and aircraft. As the country grew, the postal system played an important role in connecting scattered communities and linking Canadians across increasingly large distances.
One important development came in 1908, when Canada introduced free rural mail delivery. This expanded access to postal services for people living outside established towns and cities and became an important part of rural Canadian life.
Over time, different forms of residential mail delivery developed across the country. Some Canadians received mail directly at their doors, while others used rural mailboxes, post offices, apartment lobby boxes or other centralized delivery points.
A major change came in the late 1980s, when community mailboxes began to be introduced more widely. Canada Post later explained that homes built in new developments had been receiving their mail through community mailboxes for about 40 years.
The most dramatic change came in December 2013, when Canada Post announced plans to convert the remaining addresses receiving door-to-door delivery to community mailboxes. The five-year program was intended to affect approximately five million addresses across Canada.
The first major conversions began in 2014, including communities in Ontario such as Oakville. The program quickly became controversial, with communities and residents objecting to the proposed locations of the new mailboxes and to the loss of traditional home delivery.
On October 26, 2015, Canada Post suspended further conversions to community mailboxes. At the time, approximately 460,000 addresses were being converted.
The federal government subsequently maintained a moratorium on converting existing door-to-door delivery to community mailboxes. By 2024, Canada Post reported that less than one-quarter of Canadian addresses still received letter mail at the door, while more than 70 percent had some form of centralized delivery.
The story has now entered another chapter. In September 2025, the federal government lifted the moratorium on converting door-to-door delivery to community mailboxes and authorized Canada Post to begin converting the remaining approximately four million addresses that still received delivery at the door. (Canada)
In April 2026, Canada Post announced that preliminary work on the multi-year transformation was underway. The initiative includes converting remaining door-to-door addresses to community mailboxes as part of a broader effort to modernize the postal system. (Canada Post)
INFO:
https://esquesinghistoricalsociety.com/
https://www.canada.ca/
https://origin-www.canadapost.ca/