In 1920 the Fillmore post office moved to the new Masonic Building on Sespe Avenue, which was a larger and more convenient space. Photo c. 1940.

Richard Stephens "new" store with the post office, Now Estrella Market, "Stephens" is still shown in the entry way.

1951, back to Central Ave. Picture (c) 1993.

Today's view.

Courtesy Fillmore Historical Museum

By Ellen Finley, 1988

Now the fourth home of the post office was the same as it is first – the west corner of Main and Central – where Turner’s rooming house had stood. Stephens soon purchased more property adjacent to the corner and announced plans to erect a new building on the same site. Completed in 1910 this building still stands today doing business as the Downtown Village Market [2020 - Estrella Market]. On the sidewalk in front of the corner entrance, the name “Stephens” still can be seen in large letters of green tile on white. The post office was in the same building as Stephens’ store, separated from the store but with a connecting door as well as a front door on Central Avenue. By 1911, the store was occupied by Cash Commercial Company operated by Charles Harthorne. Mr. Stephens remained postmaster assisted by his wife Stella and Nell Crippen Ward. A picture of the Cash Commercial Store in 1914 shows a decorative cornice on Central Avenue side with a flag flying over the post office. The cornice and flagpole remain today over a wooden insert which probably covers the former front door of the post office.

When Richard Stephens retired a postmaster after a little over sixteen years of service, Philippe P. Roche (Phil) was appointed to the position on February 25, 1915. Mr. Roche owned a jewelry store on the east side of Central, just north of Mack Wooldridge’s Orange Leaf Café (about where Ballard’s Furniture store is now [1988]). Exactly when the post office was moved to Mr. Roche’s place of business is not known. However, a picture in the Fillmore Museum, taken in 1915 shows Roche’s Jewelry Shop as the site of the post office at that time.

When Fillmore incorporated in 1914, the time seemed right for a larger, more convenient post office. When the modern elegant Masonic Temple was built in 1919, space was provided at 455 Sespe Avenue, the post office opened for business there on Monday morning, January 5, 1920. When Mr. Roche retired in the summer of 1921, T. H. Zimmerman was appointed acting postmaster, receiving the appointment of postmaster February 10, 1922.

The city of Fillmore continued to grow at a steady rate so that, eventually, the post office outgrew its home in the Masonic Building. Then in 1941, Duard Gobel, local business man, hired a local contractor, George Dipple to construct a building in the space o the west side of Central formerly occupied by the Fillmore Café and Wilson’s Furniture Store. Plans called for a one-story commercial building with two brick store-fronts and a tall panelized stucco parapet. The larger store-front of the two would be for the post office, built to the department’s own specifications; the smaller store front would be for Mr. Gobel’s jewelry store. On April 6, 1951, the post office department accepted the Gobel Building and, on Monday morning, June 4, the Fillmore Post Office opened for business as usual at the location it still occupies. Gobel’s smaller building is now occupied by Howard Jewelers. Joel K L Schwartz, postmaster at that the time of the move, announced that the same email boxes would be used temporarily in the new lobby; within a few months, a completely new set of boxes would be installed, giving the local branch a total of 485 boxes, 175 more than they then had. (The old boxes are currently at the Fillmore Museum; soon they will be placed in the renovated Bardsdale Post Office located at the rear of the Museum) [2020 - the boxes are on display in the Bardsdale Post Office at the current Museum site.]

Joel K L Schwartz is something of a legend in Fillmore history. Appointed acting postmaster on March 8. 1934, he became postmaster less than a year later February 9, 1935. He served in this capacity for over twenty-six years, retiring on May 31, 1961 as the oldest postmaster in point of service in Ventura county.

Post Script:
Ellen Finley wrote this in February, 1988, for Fillmore’s Centennial Celebration. In 1994, the building the Post Office was in received major damage and was modernized to look as it does today.