Seattle beginnings: Ravenna Post Office opens on January 8, 1890.

  • By Greg Lange
  • Posted 12/12/1998
  • HistoryLink.org Essay 504
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On January 8, 1890, Ravenna Post Office opens. Lafayette S. Beck serves as the first postmaster. The post office is located five miles north of Seattle in what will become the Ravenna neighborhood of Seattle.

The post office closed on February 9, 1901, and became a branch of the Seattle postal system.

Ravenna was the location of the Seattle Female College headed by the Rev. W. W. Beck and the Seattle Flour Mills managed by George B. Landers. Beck also led the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. The population of Ravenna in 1892 was 50. The Seattle, Lakeshore & Eastern Railroad ran nearby, and the station stop was Ravenna Park. Ravenna also had a grocery store and a general store.

Sources: Guy Reed Ramsey, "Postmarked Washington, 1850-1960," Microfilm (Olympia: Washington State Library, February, 1966), 626-627; R. L. Polk & Co., Oregon Washington and Idaho Gazetteer and Business Directory, 1891-92 Vol. 5, (Portland, OR: Published by R. L. Polk, 1889), 960.
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