When I posted the construction images of 1732 Pacific Avenue to the “Stockton History” and “Memories of Stockton” Facebook groups, it caused somewhat of a stir, and a good amount of further research prompted by comments and uncertainties.
This post office was barely there, from 1948 to maybe late 1956, early 1957, all based on Stockton City Directories, and there were multiple other Post Offices on Pacific avenue over the last 80 years (counting from 1942)
I was going through Box #62, documenting a wedding, when I came across 5 negatives that were tucked away in a sleeve.
These five images complete the story of somewhat of a face lift during 1947-1948, on Pacific Avenue, in the 1700 Block between W Alder and W Walnut, currently part of “Miracle Mile”.
There’s a news stand between W Alder Street and the music store, with house address 1742. What is not clear from the above image, is the amount of space between the news stand and W Alder Street itself. Based on what we see in the next images, both the Sherman Clay music store and the Post Office could very well fit under the same roof, based on the location of the air vent turbine in the top of the roof arch, suggesting the roof covers both buildings.
Next to the news and magazine stand there’s Sherman Clay, a piano and organ store, there’s even a harp in the window. This store is listed in the 1949 Polk City Directory at 1740 Pacific Avenue. This store is still listed at the same address in the 1953-1954 Polk Stockton City Directory, but is no longer there in the 1957 Polk DIrectory.
The Post Office window is clearly marked Tuxedo Park Station, Stockton, CA. This office moved late 1956, early 1957. But is clearly there in the 1949 Polk Stockton City Directory.
And the 1953-1954 Polk Stockton City Directory has the Post Office on the same address.
By 1957, the Tuxedo Park Station is moved to 2618 Pacific Avenue, and as of 2022, it is still there.
Joel photographed every building on the block at the time, so we now have a full account on who was where, anno 1948-1949.
Both the gift store and the men’s clothing store were visible in the original construction images that started this discussion, but the storefront signs were only partial readable.
Hunter G. Gump is at 1720 Pacific Avenue while “The Oxford” has 1718 as address number.
The last store on the block is a women’s clothing store, “The Brown House”, at 1700 Pacific Avenue.
With this, the history for this block circa 1947-1948 is refreshed, with more detail around the makeup of the 1700 Pacific Avenue Block.
As for time frame of the above images, taken in the rain, I’m guessing fall/winter 1948 to spring 1949. These images were found in a box that had a 1948 date on it, the expiration date of the box was Jan 1949. Joel kept as much as possible to the expiration date on the box. This brackets the time frame sufficiently.
For completeness, the original image that started the construction is duplicated below. Scale can be deceiving …
We can now clearly see that both the Sherman Clay music store and the Post Office could fit in the same structure. Which leaves plenty of space for the newstand at 1742 and a later structure at 1744 around the year 1951-1952.
And thanks to the many contributors in the Facebook groups “Memories of Stockton” and “Stockton History” for research in city registries and sharing personal stories.
Cheers !
Finding Joel Pahl Dardis 