SAN DIMAS REMEMBERED

THE POST OFFICE

by Martha Glauthier - Curator/Past President
San Dimas Historical Society

Would you rather collect your mail at the Pomona Post Office, or at Covina? The Covina Post Office was at the corner of Badillo and Citrus, and each of them was about six miles from the center of San Dimas. How long would that take with a horse and buggy?

There were only five or six families here in the 1880’s, but when the land boom arrived in 1887 and the San Jose Land Company optimistically laid out a large townsite, a Fourth Class Post Office was secured and operated from the E. M. Marshall Hardware Store on the northwest corner of Bonita and Depot (now Monte Vista). Mr. Marshall was Postmaster, as well as Land Agent for the San Jose Land Company.

However, when the real estate bubble burst in 1889, Mr. Marshall left town in disgust, first writing the Postmaster in Washington, D. C., that the Post Office should be closed, as there was no one in town capable of running it. The local people were highly indignant, and somehow kept the Post Office open. Mrs. E. H. Brownlee was appointed Postmistress, but soon Mr. Kinney, who bought the store building, asked her to move. With the help of friends, she bought the lot on the southeast corner of the same streets, and built a front room for the Post Office and a small store. The five small rooms in the rear, served as a home for her and her five children. (She was their sole support. Her husband had been manager of the Planing Mill on San Dimas Ave. and when the San Jose Land Co. went out of business, he had not been paid. He felt entitled to the machinery as compensation, so shipped it to South America - and followed it!)

Mrs. Brownlee kept the Postmistress job for about 10 years, and had the first telephone in town installed in her store. When she sold the store to Hubert Knox in 1899, he moved the building to his home property on the west side of Cataract Street, just south of Bonita and north of the Grammar School, and became Postmaster for 2 or 3 years.

Mr. W. H. Macy became Postmaster in 1901 and worked out of the W. H. Poston grocery store, now back on the southeast corner of Bonita and Depot. Mrs. Macy was Assistant Postmaster - she was a Democrat and her husband was a Republican. Because in those days (and in fact, until Pres. Johnson abolished the practice)

a Postmaster must be of the same political party as the President, Mr. and Mrs. Macy passed the appointment back and forth as the administrations changed They jointly held the position until 1914. By then, the Post Office was settled in the building on the northwest corner, and was a Third Class Post office, with Floyd Godfrey as Postmaster.

Rural delivery had been started in 1908 or 1909 with an 18-mile route to be covered with a horse and buggy. Robert Mumford was the rural mailcarrier for 30 years, “reading our postcards and being everyone’s friend”. Home and business delivery (twice a day!) in the town itself began in 1918 and it was said, was “equal to that of any city”.

Airmail was first available to San Dimans in April, 1926, at a cost of 8 cents for the first ounce, 13 cents for each additional ounce. A letter posted in San Dimas would go by train to Los Angeles during the night, and in the morning would be flown by Western Air Express to Salt Lake City. From there it went to its destination, and Airmail could be in New York City in 30 hours from Los Angeles. At this time, domestic letters took a 3-cent stamp; foreign postage was also 3 cents to “Pan-American countries, Canada and Newfoundland,” but all other foreign destinations required a 5-cent stamp.

In 1931 when Ollos Way was Postmaster, the operation was located again on the south side of Bonita, in the Ira Morter building between San Dimas Avenue and the Feed Store. A new building was built across the street at 125 W. Bonita by the Carruthers family, and dedicated in March, 1951, with Lynn Breeden, Postmaster. This only served the community until 1963 when a much larger building was built on N. San Dimas Avenue at Third Street. Lynn Breeden was still Postmaster, and was succeeded by Alfred Batchelor, with Elva Gary, Grace Collins, and Hazel Hampton in the office. This location served us well until 1988, when the present Post Office was dedicated.

Now you don’t need to harness old Dobbin and take the day off to drive to Covina. Just hop in your car and drive to Bonita & Walnut - or wait for the reliable daily delivery.

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