By TIM MUIR

In 1945, the price of a first-class postage stamp was three cents. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt died April 12 in Warm Springs, Ga., that year, Vice President Harry Truman took over as Commander in Chief immediately thereafter, and Lake City had its first Post Office station located at 12704 Bothell (Lake City) Way. Telephone: SHeridan 5835.

In just a few years the number of deliveries in the area, which included Lake Forest Park and Kenmore, was rapidly increasing: "By the end of March (1947), three new mail routes hope to be added to the districts covered by the Lake City Branch Post Office, J.A. Johnston, acting superintendent, announced this week," reported the Lake City Citizen, a community newspaper that covered the area in those days.

"We really need five new routes. When that time comes, and we hope it will within six months, delivery service will be up to par with mailmen making two daily trips to each box in a scheduled eight-hour working day," Johnston is quoted as saying "At the present time, we have only 10 of what is called mounted city delivery routes to service the territory between East 100th Street to King county line at East 205th and from 1st Avenue Northeast to Lake Washington."

The writer of the Citizen article observed: "Claimed the fastest growing suburb in the United States, by the National Chamber of Commerce and others, this greater Lake City area keeps the Post Office on the jump."

Johnston told the Citizen: "The district is growing so fast, that routes which formerly had 500 stops now make between 700 and 800 stops. Consequently, until the Lake City branch is authorized more routes, service cannot be perfect."

The three new routes were added, two trip delivery mail service was inaugurated, Gerald Little became superintendent of the Lake City branch, and there was the possibility more routes would be added in late autumn "for the end of the year rush."

Ten years later, 1957, operations were transferred across the highway to the newly-constructed Lake City Post Office on Northeast 127th Street. Telephone: GLadstone 1255. Dwight D. Eisenhower was President and the price of a first-class stamp was still three cents.

Today's Lake City Post Office (telephone: 1-800-275-8777) serves 1350 post office boxes in the 98125 Zip Code area, but the delivery area is all within 98115, from Northeast 85th to Northeast 99th Street, from 1st Avenue Northeast to the shores of Lake Washington, 14 mail routes with a total number of deliveries of approximately 6,700. It is one of the smallest delivery units in the Seattle district.

The North City Station, which opened in a former Safeway supermarket building in 1978, has more than 60 routes; this office covers the delivery area once served by Lake City. There's also a contract station at Northgate.

Fifty-one-year-old Ballard letter carrier Ted Milam was sent to the Lake City office from Bitter Lake as a substitute carrier in 1975, after successfully completing his 90-day probation. "Lake City was a great place to work," he recalls. "I knew every route, I could do any route. It was just the right size. It just had that nice feel." After three years there, Ted "made regular" and bid his first route (04) in Ballard.

Twenty-one-year veteran letter carrier John Allen, who bid to Lake City in May 1997 after 15 years at Wallingford Station, likes carrying mail out of Lake City. "They treat us pretty good over there," he says. "My route (95, Park & Loop) is by the reservoir. It's a nice neighborhood. Everybody does their job."

"Everybody" at the Lake City Station is 17 carriers, 6-7 clerks, and the two supervisors, Brenda Murphy and Station Manager Bill Chambers. John plans to retire in the year 2007. Tim Muir is a Fremont/Ross resident and a former postal carrier himself.