USPS Building Bridges Special Postal Cancellation Series

The first on-the-water theme of the USPS Building Bridges Special Postal Cancellation series was conducted on land, at the Berkeley Yacht Club, by the Berkeley Postmaster and Leonora Clark, the Commodore (rank) of the Pacific Inter-Club Yachting Organization, a retired United States Postal Service Postmaster, paired with the new release of the Global surface temperatures Forever Stamp.[13]

For the 100th Anniversary of the Opening Day on the San Francisco Bay in 2017, there were two Building Bridges postal stations: one in San Francisco and one in Oakland. On April 23, 2017, the San Francisco Station and the Postmaster were on the Californian of Hornblower Cruises, but the majority of the hand stamps were done at the dock of Pier 1 1/2 and for the 30 days after at the local post office. The Oakland Building Bridges Postal Station was done on the dock of Jack London Square where the ceremony was held, but the Oakland Postmaster Daryl Trujillo was aboard the Lady Washington. The Pacific Inter-Club Yachting Association (PICYA) helped commemorate the event, bringing 100 vessels consisting of yachts, power boats, ships and a fire boat.. The open and close of the celebration featured a Tall Ship Cannon Battle between the Lady Washington and the Hawaiian Chieftain.[14][15][16]

Two years later, on April 21, 2019, the cancellation took place two days after a cannon battle on Pier 39 at Sports Byline USA broadcast studio. The actual Postmaster Ceremony with San Francisco Postmaster Abraham Cooper was broadcast on the network's 10 platforms including 200 US satellite radio stations and the 500 radio stations of the American Forces Network to 168 countries.[17] It was broadcast to 82 million people in 168 Countries and on the American Forces Network by Sports Byline USA.[18][19]

The Eureka cancellation was the first time the series moved up the Pacific Coast.[20]

The Lady Washington and Hawaiian Chieftain had planned a battle sail in Eureka as part of the celebration,[21] but the Lady Washington was delayed due to weather conditions on the coast and so the Hawaiian Chieftain ship itself became the Building Bridges Postal Station for the ceremony with Eureka's Mayor Susan Seaman receiving the first inked cancellation.[20][22]

Fantasy Studios closed its doors September 15, 2018,[23][24] as part of a trend of studio closings happening over a period of years.[25] News of the closing of Fantasy Studios went global and recording artists who had recorded there were in mourning at its loss on radio, TV[26] and in the newspapers.[27]

Lile, upon finishing the last music recording[28] at Fantasy Studios for a special KCSM (FM) Jazz [29] Benefit album featuring Kendall Ross Bean and 60 musicians, including Grammy Award Winners, designed a new theme of the USPS Building Bridges Special Postal Cancellation, recognizing the all the recordings that had been preserved over the years in the city of Berkeley, California, and then later in the City of San Francisco. The Berkeley Cancellation had a typo and read 70 years, instead of 80 years. The oldest recording found to date in Berkeley was in 1938.[30]

USPS Building Bridges Special Postal Cancellation: Recognizing 70 years of Music Recording in Berkeley two months after Fantasy Studios closed.[31][32]

Plans of a Cal Alumni Marching Band and audience as part of the celebrations were cancelled due to fires in the area.,[33] but, the ceremony happened as planned inside the Main Berkeley Post Office and was recorded on film.

A Building Bridges Music Recording History Postal Station was established at SF Jazz for 4 hours where the public and collectors purchased specially-designed souvenir envelopes with the newly issued Gregory Hines stamp and a special pictorial postmark applied. San Francisco Postmaster Abraham Cooper gave a speech at the beginning of the concert, which was broadcast live simultaneously on the internet.[34] Cooper then hand cancelled the Hines stamp and pictorial postmark for presentation to SFJAZZ.[34]

The concert and ceremony was live-streamed.[35] The event was part of Black History Month. Members of the audience received the cache with the stamp and postmark as a gift from SFJAZZ Center [34]

The ceremony recognized San Francisco's abundant music recording history and abundance of talent back to 1938, when ethnomusicologist Sidney Robertson Cowell first recorded the folk songs of immigrants living in San Francisco.[34] Her recordings are now part of the Library of Congress collection.