Then and now: Post offices come and go
Delivering mail in Tahoe has not always been easy. Photo/Lake Tahoe Historical Society
A sign at the above very early post office has the words “Tahoe Island Park” on the smaller sign. This pre-dates the residential area of the same name that today adjoins the Tahoe Keys on the South Shore which didn’t get developed until the 1950s.
Provided by Carol Van Etten
Carol Van Etten, who runs a historical website, said that two miles northeast of Tahoe City on Highway 28 an area named “Tahoe Island Park” was surveyed and mapped in November 1910. It is the dominant portion of today’s Lake Forest at North Shore. Van Etten believes the top photo was taken in nearby Tahoe City or simply “Tahoe” as the post office there was officially known until 1949.
Bijou Post Office
Photo/Lake Tahoe Historical Society
More than 100 years ago the Bijou Post Office existing in a small lean-to attached to the building labeled “Store.” Many decades later, Bijou would become the first main post office in South Lake Tahoe.
Before the city was formed, there were distinct postmarks for each office, such as Bijou, Al Tahoe, Stateline, Tahoe Valley and Meyers.
Today, the outgoing local mail is postmarked Reno, NV, unless it is metered, or if it is postmarked manually at a local post office.
Two local postmarks before South Lake Tahoe was formed. Photos/Bill Kingman
There was a Tahoe Keys Post Office which operated briefly from 1959 until 1962 as a branch of the Tahoe Valley Post Office.
This was once a post office in Camp Richardson. Photo/Bill Kingman
One more now-extinct local post office and postmark was Camp Richardson, Calif. It operated from 1927 to 1973.
— Bill Kingman
Bill , As always another good one!
I think there was a post office where Dennys now stands. Might be mistaken about that.
One of our weekly errands for my Dad and me was to loadup the old Willys pick up with garbage cans and go to the landfill on Pioneer. Then we would stop at the P.O,(thats what my Dad called it) and maybe pick up a few things at Bijou Market.
I still go to the P.O. to pick up the mail.
Somethings never change! OLS .ps I want those skiis in the first photo.
When I moved here in 1965 I picked up my General Delivery mail at the Al Tahoe Post Office which was where Denny’s is now as Old Long Skiis mentioned. I was on the waiting list for a year before I could get a PO Box there. We would pull straight in off of H50 to park and then back out on to H50 when exiting the PO. There was no traffic light there needless to say.
Yes, the Al Tahoe Post Office lives on in another form. It was moved down the highway and sits next to the Historical Society museum, and serves as the Tahoe Art League’s gallery.
The Tahoe Vista Post Office used to be co-located with a general store at a campground where the soon to be demolished Spindleshanks building is across the street from Sandy Beach on the North Shore. The Current Tahoe Vista post office is a trailer on the corner of Hwy 28 and National Ave.
Around 1977, after receiving General Delivery at the Tahoe Valley Post Office for quite a while, I finally got the chance to get my very own P. O. Box. When I was signing up for the box, the clerk advised me that Tahoe Valley was going to shut down soon and that I should get a box at the new Main Post Office on Al Tahoe. That was 38 years ago…
I got a box at stateline in 1977 in only 2 weeks after I was told it was a year wait. Back then everything was done by hand so I filled out the application, put a little dust on it, crumpled it and back dated it 6 months. I went in a few weeks later to a different clerk and said I had been waiting a long time, he checked it out, saw the date and I got a box. For a pictorial history of some of the offices come check out the photos in the Meyers Post Office. Thanks Bill for all this.
We got our mail at Camp Rich when life was still slow and the south shore was still funky. Good memories. Thanks Bill!
Interesting article…thanks for posting, Bill! A few other Tahoe Post Offices that no longer exist: Emerald Bay, Meeks Bay, McKinney’s, Tahoe Pines, Lake Forest.
LOVE the Tahoe history thanks
Another forgotten P.O.was the one across the street from Perry Boys Smorgy that was located at the east side of Crescent V center. In that building was the Greyound bus station, which later became El Pavo, a mexican resturuant, The Dead head, a record and gift store, Monks Pizza took over El Pavo and a nice family ran the pizza place and some other small busineses.
were there as well.Happy mails to you, OLS