Edmonds Post Office: A 1901 Multimedia Hub

In 1900, the post office and the phone system could be found in the same building in downtown Edmonds.

Several years earlier, Matthew Hyner, Edmonds' first postmaster, secured one of the several cottages lining Second Avenue to serve as the post office. His primary occupation, however, was his general store located next to the wharf, and in 1896 he resigned as postmaster to concentrate on his store and family.  He still maintained close ties with the post office and the new postmaster, L.L. Austin.

Hyner’s daughter Ruth attended , and at age 16 was hired as an operator by the Everett-based Sunset Telephone and Telegraph Company. In 1899, the Edmonds City Council granted Sunset the franchise to bring telephone service to Edmonds, and Sunset appointed Ruth as the city's head operator. The arrangement included locating the Edmonds switchboard in the Hyner family home. Phone service was inaugurated in 1900.

In 1901, the switchboard moved to the Post Office on Second Avenue near Bell Street. Ruth Hyner continued as head operator in the new location.

Today, the Edmonds Post Office is located at Second and Main, two blocks south of the turn of the century facility. The only remaining vestige of its historic ties to the phone system is a rarely used telephone booth just outside the main entrance.  It stands today as a reminder that 100 years ago the telephone was a modern marvel, and that in our community the story began in the post office.