HSJ: Visiting HSJ: Coyote Community Post Office

Coyote Community Post Office

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.

Charles Herrold - Radio Pioneer

Mr. Herrold began broadcasting of news and music from his College of Engineering and Wireless in the Garden City Bank Building in downtown San José in 1909. He was the first person to deliberately transmit radio programs of music and news on a regular basis to a wide listening audience. Herrold was the first to commercially advertise during his broadcasts. He sold his station to the First Baptist Church in 1925, as he could not afford to change his frequency to that licensed to him by the Federal Government. After many changes of ownership, the station was bought by CBS in 1949 and designated KCBS; in 1951 KCBS moved to San Francisco.

The inability to convert to the different wave meter length has led to a dispute as to which is the oldest broadcasting station. Since Herrold never actually was able to use his broadcasting license, other radio stations claim to be the oldest. However, since Herrold's station, KQW, was actually continuously broadcasting as early as 1909, the title of the "oldest broadcasting station" in the world rightly belongs to Herrold and KQW.

For more information on Charles Herrold, see www.charlesherrold.org