Arch Beach Post Office

(June 21, 1889 - June 30, 1894)

Arch Beach today is a part of Laguna Beach, but it was far enough down the coast (at what would be Diamond Street today) that it briefly had its own post office. Like many coastal post offices, it got most of its traffic during the summer tourist season, and like many small post offices it was short-lived. In 1939 the community got a contract station post office. 

Postmasters:

Oliver N. Brooks, 1889

Oliver Brooks, brother of Laguna Beach postmaster and businessman William Brooks, served less than four months before resigning. 

William Schkomodau, 1889-1891

 William Schkomodau also served as local Justice of the Peace for part of his term (1890-91). 

Lila V. Stocking, 1891-1892

“F.E. Stocking, who has the mail contract between El Toro and Arch Beach, and Mrs. F.E. stocking, the Postmistress at Arch Beach, have a store at the latter point, which they keep well supplied with goods suitable for campers.” (Santa Ana Blade, 4-14-1892) Sometimes called Lula, Stocking apparently married Charles E. Neff in Los Angeles in 1899. 

Charles D. Ambrose, 1892-1894

In 1892, Charles Ambrose purchased the Arch Beach Hotel from the Goff Brothers. The post office was presumably located there as he got the appointment as postmaster a few months later. “This deal is the beginning of a new era of prosperity for Arch Beach,” the papers reported, but it did not last and the Arch Beach Post Office closed less than two years later. In 1897 the hotel was moved to Laguna Beach and added to Joseph Yoch’s Hotel Laguna. Ambrose died in an accident in Mexico in 1898 while on a prospecting trip. “He was known as a genial, whole-souled man and was much esteemed as a man and citizen…. Mr. Ambrose has been universally known to be a frank, open-hearted man.” (Santa Ana Blade, 2-16-1898)

(You can find more about Orange County’s post offices and postmasters here)