The Marcelina Avenue branch of the U.S. Post Office in Old Torrance. (October 2015 Daily Breeze photo)
The Torrance post office was authorized to operate on Sept. 18, 1912, a few weeks before the city’s official founding date of Oct. 24, 1912. 68 cents worth of postage stamps were sold on its first day of business.
The post office’s first location was in the office of the Campbell Real Estate Company across from the Pacific Electric railroad depot (now The Depot restaurant) in Old Torrance. It later moved into a designated room in the First National Bank building on the corner of Sartori and Marcelina avenues.
Stewart F. Mager was the city’s first unofficial postmaster, but he only served for a few months as part of his duties as a Campbell employee.
Herman Burmaster took over the job on July 27, 1913, as the city’s first full-time, officially sanctioned postmaster. Burmaster held the office until Alfred Gourdier was appointed to the job on Nov. 19, 1919.
Gourdier would stay in the job for 15 years. One of his first priorities was to establish home mail delivery in the city.
In 1923, he went to Washington, D.C., to plead the city’s case for the authorization of home mail delivery with federal postal officials. His efforts were successful, with home delivery to Torrance residents beginning on Jan. 1, 1924. (In the weeks before delivery began, residents were advised to set out boxes for the purpose of receiving mail deliveries.)
In July 1925, he added free parcel post home delivery to the city’s postal services.
Artist’s rendering of the Marcelina Avenue post office building in Torrance from the Torrance Herald, June 26, 1941 (retrospective article). (Photo: Historical Newspaper Archives, Torrance Public Library)
“With the inauguration of parcel post delivery here, Mr. Gourdier expects that before long a special vehicle will be authorized for that service,” the Torrance Herald reported at the time.
In July 1931, Gourdier warned local residents to be careful when they put their hands in their home mailboxes after his letter carriers reported seeing many black widows in mailboxes on their routes. Three people in California actually had died from black widow bites earlier that year, according to the postmaster.
A much more momentous event in Torrance’s postal history also happened in 1931. The federal government officially authorized the construction of a permanent federal post office building in the city in February 1931.
26 sites were proposed, and the Marcelina site was chosen early in 1934.
Gourdier also retired early in 1934. (He died in 1939.)
Former Torrance councilman C. Earl Conner was tapped to be the city’s new postmaster. We met him here in the blog a few weeks ago as the owner of Earl’s Cafe at 1625 Cabrillo Avenue in downtown Torrance, the first of a series of restaurants on the present-day site of the Crest Sports Bar & Grill.
Postmaster Alfred Gourdier, left, hands the keys over to Earl Conner, right, as City Clerk A.H. Bartlett presides. Torrance Herald, Feb. 8, 1934, Page 1. (Photo: Historical Newspaper Archives, Torrance Public Library)
Conner’s commission became official on Feb. 10, 1934.
The new post office building at 1433 Marcelina Avenue in Torrance was a Works Project Administration project, like many of the city’s early public buildings, including its first city hall and public library (now the home of the Torrance Historical Society).
General contractor Harold Hansen of Hollywood,Calif., headed the construction of the project, and he used local products to do it. Steel came from the city’s Columbia Steel plant, and the Torrance Electric Shop a few doors down at 1419 Marcelina provided electrical fixtures and wiring for the building, and lumber came from the local Consolidated Lumber Company.
It had two stories and a full-size basement, and was described as the first post office to have an automatic steam heat system installed.
The cornerstone was laid on May 31, 1935, and included a steel box with a newspaper from the day and other documents marking the occasion.
The new post office opened on Oct. 12, 1935, and it remains the only one of the downtown civic buildings constructed during the era to still be in use for its original intended purpose.
The Torrance post office grew rapidly along with the city, gaining a first class rating based on its size and revenue on July 1, 1941.
One of Conner’s ongoing projects as postmaster after the end of World War II was to try to resolve the crazy quilt of postal service in the city. The Gardena post office served many residents in the city’s north end, with Redondo handling postal service on the city’s west side and Lomita covering the south end. Conner worked to end the confusion, with the goal of having all the city’s residents served by the Torrance post office.
He had made great strides in the project at the time of his sudden death on Feb. 3, 1949, from a heart attack suffered at home.
Clara Conner, Earl’s wife, received her official commission as postmaster succeeding him on June 22, 1950. She had been acting postmaster since his death in 1949.
She would continue his work of consolidation, and also preside over the city’s expansion of postal services. The old Walteria post office was replaced by a new building at 4110 W. Pacific Coast Highway on Oct. 1, 1954.
A North Torrance branch opened in December 1954. A large distribution center opened at 3611 Torrance Boulevard in November 1956.
Clara Conner, left, with Vincent Thomas at the dedication of the Monterey Avenue post office. Daily Breeze, Dec. 12, 1965.
In May 1960, the Torrance City Council called for a resolution declaring the need for a new, larger central post office facility, calling the existing set-up “completely inadequate.”
In 1962, the new post office was authorized. On Dec. 11, 1965, the building at 2510 Monterey Street was dedicated in a public ceremony. It was built on a 3.5-acre site at a cost of $750,000.
Shortly after it opened, Clara Conner retired as postmaster. She handed over the keys to her assistant, Carl Backlund, on Dec. 30, 1965, after 15 years on the job. Taken together with her husband’s service, Mr. and Mrs. Conners guided the Torrance post office for 31 years.
Clara Conner died on April 8, 1986, and is buried next to her husband, Earl, at Roosevelt Memorial Cemetery in Gardena.
The Marcelina Avenue post office continues in operation today as a branch office that locals often refer to as that cute little post office in Old Torrance. Now we know that the modest little building served a major role in the city’s development.
The Torrance post office on Monterey Avenue. (October 2015 Daily Breeze photo)
Sources:
Daily Breeze files.
Torrance Herald files.
