A LOOK BACK -- JERRY PERSON

I was honored to have been a witness to a real Huntington Beach

historical event on April 26.

I, along with about 50 others, was seated in the mail processing room

of the Warner Avenue Post Office. Included in this party were many

postal bigwigs and City Councilman Dave Garofalo. We were here to

witness the swearing in of Huntington Beach’s first female postmaster --

Jeanne Hannahs.

At 12:06 p.m., Bill Almaraz stood at the podium to ask Hannahs to

raise her right hand. With that, Almaraz administered the oath to

Hannahs, making her the 16th postmaster in Huntington Beach’s long

history.

Hannahs is a true California native, having been born in Riverside.

Starting her career in the postal service in 1970, she quickly rose to

supervisor in 1985. She came to the Warner Avenue Post Office in 1996 as

manager of operations.

She now joins a long line of Huntington Beach postmasters that reach

back to the very roots of our town and even back to the Pacific City days

of 1901 to 1903.

When the city changed its name to Huntington Beach in 1904, this area

was still very remote to the rest of the country. The city hall for

Pacific City was on the upper floor of a building that still exists at

122 Main St. On the first floor was Smith’s Grocery and inside that

unassuming store, our first post office began.

Walter C. Smith was not only our grocer, but also served as the city’s

first postmaster. In late 1905, Smith turned over the duties of

postmaster to I.M. Clippinger.

In the 1920s, the post office was in a small office on the side of the

old Security Pacific building at 314 Walnut St. When the great earthquake

of 1933 struck Huntington Beach, Postmaster Walter T. Clapp and his

assistant Martin Murrey collected mail and sold stamps in the street in

front of that post office.

Just after the quake, the post office was relocated to 120 Main St.

for a short time. J. Ed Huston was our postmaster when the modern (for

its time) post office was constructed at Main and Olive in 1935 and

dedicated Dec. 7 of that year.

We now have three post offices in Huntington Beach employing 430

people. Welcome Postmaster Hannahs to Huntington Beach history.

* JERRY PERSON is a local historian and longtime Huntington Beach

resident. If you have ideas for future columns, write him at P.O. Box

7182, Huntington Beach, CA 92615.