Myford Post Office

(May 20, 1899 – March 17, 1914)

Myford was the post office for the original town of Irvine (today’s Old Irvine). Interestingly, the Orange County Directory for 1895-96 lists Evan J. Wakeman as “postmaster, telegraph operator and station agent” four years before the community had an official post office. Presumably the mail was being picked up at a nearby post office and carried to town privately. When a local post office was finally approved the Irvine name was not available as there was already an Irvine, California post office in Calaveras County, so James Irvine substituted the name of his newborn son, Myford Irvine. Historian Jim Sleeper noted that “The original post office was … in the grain warehouse, and the postmaster was whoever happened to be foreman at the time.” In 1899, George W. Angle was in charge of the mails. The northerly Irvine Post Office was renamed Carson Hill in 1909, but it was not until 1914 that Myford was renamed Irvine.

Postmaster:

James Irvine, 1899-1914

James Irvine (1867-1947), the owner of the Irvine Ranch, was not actively the postmaster of the post office named for his youngest son, but he held the appointment until the name was changed. 

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