Coyote Community Post Office (San Jose)

Now a relic from the days when Monterey Road served as a cattle trail, stage route and Mission road between San Francisco, Santa Clara and Monterey, Coyote Post Office was once the oldest surviving and functioning post office in Santa Clara County before its removal to History Park in 1974.

From its establishment in 1862 until 1882, Coyote Post Office was called Burnett Post Office after the surrounding township. It was originally located in Twelve-Mile House, one of the several public traveler lodges than dotted Monterey Highway, but a minor accounting dispute prompted the Postal Department to enforce an archaic postal regulation prohibiting the near proximity of a post office to a saloon. Since only a wall separated Coyote Post Office from the Twelve-Mile House Saloon, the Post Office was moved to this building next door in 1907.

Coyote Post Office was more than a mail depot, it was a community center where time seemed frozen. Seemingly immune to modern intrusions, the slightly dilapidated Post Office used cast-offs from other branches and did not even have a telephone until August, 1970.

Because Coyote Post Office symbolizes communication in the Santa Clara Valley, the interior building exhibit is divided into two separate sections. The front portion contains a period postal room and exhibit on postal history while the back room highlights the remarkable career of Charles Herrold, the "father of radio broadcasting," and his impact on modern day communications.

www.historysanjose.org/visiting_hsj/buildings/history_p...