Photo courtesy of Woodinville Heritage Society
A new post office was built in 1960 on the site of John Koch’s old house

Staff photo/Ian Gleadle
Armadillo, Jiffy Print and the Atrium were located in the old post office building after 1984.

Mail is a means of communication on which we all depend. When our ancestors came across the continent to a new life during the 1800s, it became their only tie with the families they left behind.

It was just as important to the people of early Woodinville to go to Susan Woodin’s home to pick up their mail.

Sara and Clara Jacobson took over responsibility for the mail in 1910 in what became the Teegarden Mercantile (currently the site of the Horseshoe Saloon).

Ida Jacklin worked with Clara as postmistress for many years. However it was a political job and Ida eventually lost her job when a new political party came in. In the late 20s the DeYoung family came to town and bought the Teegarden business.

A new building was soon built in what we now call “Old Woodinville.”

After Ida, Lon Crim was the postmaster and then Fred Kelly. The DeYoung family eventually added to the building so the post office had its own entrance. Wayne Gibbs began his job as postmaster in 1955.

By 1960 the post office had outgrown the DeYoung building and a new one was built in 1960 on the site of John Koch’s old house. John had been the village blacksmith for years. This building was the home of Armadillo, Jiffy Print and the Atrium.

In 1970 and 1975 the building was enlarged again to accommodate the growth of the community as it moved from agricultural to being a suburb of Seattle.

In 1984 the post office ran out of room to expand and a site was found on the Woodinville Snohomish Road. A new post office was built in 1984 behind what used to be Woodinville Lumber.

Postmasters through the years (in chronological order): Susan Woodin, Tom Sanders, Milton Russell, Sara Jacobson, Clara Jacobson Teegarden, Ida Jacklin, Lon Crim, Fred Kelly, Wayne Gibbs, Keith Parkins, Tom Cordova, Jim Walters, Roxanne Vanderberg