What's in a Name? 
How the Village of Lily 
Ponds Became Lilypons. 
Ir was by 1 per cent. accident and 
99 per cent. design that Lilypons 
(Maryland), the community, took its 
name from Lily Pons (Kostelanetz), 
the opera singer. 
Here is how it happened: 
By 1930 the Three Springs Fisheries 
was doing such a tremendous busi- 
ness, shipping goldfish and waterlilies 
to all parts of the world, that the 
postal phase of its transactions be- 
came a major problem. 
The fisheries were shipping through 
the Frederick post office, nearly 10 
miles away. At the request of the 
fisheries, postal authorities agreed to 
establish a post office at the Three 
Springs headquarters. 
In choosing a name for the new 
postal address, the authorities sug- 
gested, a single word, something short 
and descriptive, should be considered. 
One of the postal officials, a Lily Pons 
fan, suggested her name. It was an 
ideal name, he pointed out, one al- 
ready well known and certainly very 
descriptive of the locality. 
So Lilypons it was. It became offi- 
cial in 1932. The opera singer was 
delighted. In 1936 Lily Pons came to 
Lilypons to see the lily ponds. The 
famous singer has since kept in touch 
with the little community. She has 
visited on other occasions, sends al- 
bums of her latest songs to Lilypons 
residents, writes now and then to the 
Thomas families, and has her Christ- 
mas cards sent from the post office 
named for her. 
The post office, a 16-pigeonhole af- 
fair located in a corner of a fisheries 
shipping room, serves approximately 
40 families, some two dozen of which 
are on the fisheries payroll, in addi- 
tion to the business which supports it. 
In 1932 the area of Three Springs Fisheries became Lilypons officially. Later, 
when Lily Pons came to Lilypons to see the lily ponds, it became even more so. 
Three Springs Fisheries, Lilypons, Maryland 9 
