Airmail Over Mansfield — Vermont’s First Delivery by Sky
Joshua Smith
September 11, 2025
MOUNT MANSFIELD, September 19, 1920 — It was a crisp late-summer Sunday when Captain Henry Stickney brought a Curtiss biplane circling down toward Vermont’s highest peak. In his cargo was something ordinary—letters and envelopes—but his destination was anything but.
Stickney landed near the Summit House, a mountain-top hotel perched above 3,600 feet. With that touch down, he carried out the first airmail delivery in Vermont’s history.
For most Vermonters, aviation in 1920 was still a novelty. Rural towns had little exposure to aircraft, and many had never seen a plane fly. To deliver the U.S. mail by air, even in a symbolic pouch, was a public demonstration of how technology could conquer geography.
The Summit House, built in 1858 as a tourist inn, had long hosted visitors seeking mountain air and views. On that day, however, it was also part of aviation history. Stickney’s flight connected a rustic mountaintop with the modern postal system—transforming Mansfield into a temporary “postmark in the sky.”
The Summit House itself later closed in the mid-20th century and burned in 1964, but the story of Stickney’s flight remains preserved in Vermont’s historical record.
Did You Know?
The building atop Mansfield was always known as the Summit House (sometimes called the “Tip-Top House”), not the “Summit Hotel.” It hosted guests from its opening in 1858 until the 1950s, offering meals, lodging, and panoramic views. When Stickney landed in 1920, he was touching down at a site that had already been part of Vermont’s tourist landscape for over sixty years.
Sources
Vermont History Explorer, “Timeline 1900–1949”: Entry for September 19, 1920 — Captain Henry Stickney delivers airmail to the Summit House, Mount Mansfield.
Vermont Historical Society, Accidental Tourists: Visitors to the Mount Mansfield Summit House in the Late Nineteenth Century.
Vermont Archives Month, “Saving Stories in a Scrapbook: The Summit House.”
Share Your Story
Do you have a postcard or family memory from the old Summit House? Email joshua@thebridgeweekly.com and you may see it featured in a future edition of Then and There: Strange Days in Local History.
Stickney landed near the Summit House, a mountain-top hotel perched above 3,600 feet. With that touch down, he carried out the first airmail delivery in Vermont’s history.
For most Vermonters, aviation in 1920 was still a novelty. Rural towns had little exposure to aircraft, and many had never seen a plane fly. To deliver the U.S. mail by air, even in a symbolic pouch, was a public demonstration of how technology could conquer geography.
The Summit House, built in 1858 as a tourist inn, had long hosted visitors seeking mountain air and views. On that day, however, it was also part of aviation history. Stickney’s flight connected a rustic mountaintop with the modern postal system—transforming Mansfield into a temporary “postmark in the sky.”
The Summit House itself later closed in the mid-20th century and burned in 1964, but the story of Stickney’s flight remains preserved in Vermont’s historical record.
Did You Know?
The building atop Mansfield was always known as the Summit House (sometimes called the “Tip-Top House”), not the “Summit Hotel.” It hosted guests from its opening in 1858 until the 1950s, offering meals, lodging, and panoramic views. When Stickney landed in 1920, he was touching down at a site that had already been part of Vermont’s tourist landscape for over sixty years.
Sources
Vermont History Explorer, “Timeline 1900–1949”: Entry for September 19, 1920 — Captain Henry Stickney delivers airmail to the Summit House, Mount Mansfield.
Vermont Historical Society, Accidental Tourists: Visitors to the Mount Mansfield Summit House in the Late Nineteenth Century.
Vermont Archives Month, “Saving Stories in a Scrapbook: The Summit House.”
Share Your Story
Do you have a postcard or family memory from the old Summit House? Email joshua@thebridgeweekly.com and you may see it featured in a future edition of Then and There: Strange Days in Local History.
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