U.S. Postal Service

hartThe earliest post office service in Menlo Park was from the back of the Duff & Doyle General Store on the corner of El Camino Real and Santa Cruz Avenue.

About 1890, a dedicated post office building was opened on the northwest side of Golder Ln (now Santa Cruz Ave) between Merrill St and El Camino Real. See online photo 1:2994 below. Postmaster Mrs. Loveland, who was appointed by Gov. Stanford, lived in the rear. In 1919, when she retired, Mrs. Loveland was given the building, which she moved a few blocks west and converted to a house. The house was demolished in the early 1950s.

Beginning in 1910(?) the post office relocated next door to the corner of Merrill Street (across from railroad depot) as shown in online image 54:1835 (1919) below.

In 1934 the post office relocated to 1159 El Camino Real in the newly constructed Maloney Building on the southwest side of El Camino Real between Santa Cruz and Oak Grove Aves. The building is #6 in the "Historic Tour of Menlo Park" tri-fold (November 2014). The photo below (54:1145-2) was taken during Week in Old Menlo Park (1939).

In December 1948, USPS opened its newly constructed building at 560 Oak Grove Ave. See online photo 5:2595 below. (Note in this 1951 photo, Johnny's Smoke Shop occupied the small space on the right side of the building.) In 1962 this building became the home of the Menlo French Laundry. It was recently demolished as part of the Greenhart Project.

In 1961 the post office moved to it's present building at 655 Oak Grove Ave.

Finally, in 1962 a large 43,000 sq ft postal building was opened at 3875 Bohannon Drive to serve Menlo Park, Atherton and Portola Valley. This became the main post office for Menlo Park, with 655 Oak Grove a sub-station. A smaller sub-station on Avy near Alameda serves the western side of Menlo Park and nearby unincorporated areas.

Menlo Park Post Masters are listed HERE.

Last updated: 14 January 2018