History
1905
The Ocean Shore Electric Railway (later known as the Ocean Shore Railroad) construction begins which cuts travel time from San Francisco to Santa Cruz from 5 hours (via the Southern Pacific Coast railroad) to 2.5 hours. For decades the Ocean Shore Railroad traveled on the western coastal bluff of the Dollaradio Station property.
1912
Short-wave amateaur radio use is designated to the <200m range by the US government to avoid amateaur radio interference with long-wave Government and Commercial stations as short-wave radio equipment is being developed for the first time.
1920
The Dianna Dollar ship is the first privately owned US freighter to engage in around the world service.
1925
The first short-wave contact ever from ship to land was made between the Kamiloa (a 4-masted schooner) with Fred Roebuck aboard as radio operator using Heintz and Kaufman (the early pioneers in the technology) radio equipment.
1926
R. Stanley Dollar travels to Washington, DC to explain the dire need of communication to/from his ships which were at the time the only ships carrying the American flag on regular schedules around the world via the Dollar Steamship Lines’ famous ‘round the world passenger service’. Dollar acquires exclusive access from the Department of Commerce (the FCC did not exist yet) to use short-wave radio with his ships via the call sign ‘6XBB’ and specific short-wave spectrum assignments.
The term “Dollaradio” emerges for the first time the name of the experimental private ship-to-shore radio network now established with the call sign ‘6XBB’ and short-wave spectrum assignments from the US government, and the operating station is to be called Dollaradio Station.
1927
Dollar Steamship Lines signs an agreement with Heintz and Kaufman (a company of consulting engineers and pioneers in short-wave radio, operating from San Francisco) to equip Dollar vessels with short-wave radio and the Dollar Steamship Lines’ SS President Polk is the first ship to use their Heintz and Kaufman Marine Combination transmitter.
Dollaradio Station is first established with 2 20’x20x wooden shacks separated by 100’ built at the edge of the Pacific Ocean in Pacifica, California - one shack for transmitting and another for receiving. These structures housed custom equipment built by Heintz and Kaufman.
1928
The Dollar Line ship ‘SS President Taft’ sails from San Francisco, CA to Manila, Philippines in constant communication with the Dollaradio Station at Mussel Rock and achieves a first in US commercial land-to-sea radio communication.
The first Pacific Ocean plane flight occurs and maintains constant communication with the Dollaradio Station at Mussel Rock for 7,263 miles - marking the longest period of constant radio communication ever recorded at the time.
The Dollaradio Station is used to communicate via morse code transmissions with Rear Admiral Richard E. Byrd’s Antarctic expedition - the first Antarctic expedition in history, and copies the material for relay to the New York Times for publication in the morning newspaper.
‘Captain’ Robert Dollar is on the front page of Times magazine as the main story, known as the ‘grand old man of the pacific’.
1929
R. Stanley Dollar travels on his SS President Taft with legendary radio operator Fred Roebuck to Shanghai from San Francisco maintaining radio contact the entire time, sending back the radio to R. Stanley Dollar’s father (‘Captain’ Robert Dollar’), “for the first time in the history of shipping, communication by short wave radio is possible at any hour of the day or night between the home office of the Dollar Steamship Line and their ships in the Orient”.
1930
Dollaradio is expanded with 2 red hollow brick buildings (1 of which is still preserved on the property today), 13 more acres, and 2 self-supporting radio towers of 225’ and 250’ that support a 600m antenna.
The Dollar Company begins constructing and operating additional radio support stations in Edmonds (WA), New York (NY), Honolulu (HI), Guam, and Manila (Philippines), and later Shanghai, China.
1932
‘Captain’ Robert Dollar dies at the age of 88 and his children continue the operation of the Robert Dollar Company. ‘Captain’ Robert Dollar was a magnificently philanthropic in his life, and left life with great admiration from many people, communities, companies, and governments all around the world. Over 3,000 people attended his funeral as well as the Governor of California and the Mayor of San Francisco.
1934
The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is formed (in part due to success of the Dollaradio Station) and the Dollaradio Station starts providing public communications under the name of Globe Wireless, LTD after the FCC ruled that the Robert Dollar could no longer operate a private radio system.
1938
The US government takes over Dollar Lines and creates the to-be-historic operating company The American President Lines.
Dollaradio receiving operations move to the Globe Wireless Receiving Station, a facility built on the ridgeline east of Half Moon Bay and 20 miles from the coastal facility.
1940-1941
All 9 Dollaradio Station transmitting towers are demolished as Pacifica grows, where Fairmont West school area now stands.
Globe Wireless is closed down by US government decree shortly after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.
1944-1975
A couple, George Wesley Patterson and (interior design and remodeling) and Robert Poehler (architect), purchased the Dollaradio Station receiving station at Mussel Rock and spent 30 years together treating the building as a historical artifact and constructing a remarkable residence around and within the structure. Poehler passed away in 1975. The couple does a significant amount of the work themselves.
1977
Joan Klass Levin and Marvin Levin purchased the Dollaradio Station from George Patterson following the death of George’s partner Robert Poehler.
1977-1990
Joan Levin founds the San Francisco Friends of Animals (dog and cat rescue) and the San Francisco Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) pet adoption service. Joan assists in the adoption of over 1,000 dogs, 800 cats, and gave the most difficult dogs a home at the Dollaradio Station property with her.
Joan finishes the construction of Dollaradio, including the glass ceiling and wood flooring of the courtyard.
2022
The City of Pacifica makes a proclamation recognizing Joan Levin for her work on the San Francisco Friends of Animals and her preservation of the Dollaradio Station historic landmark.
Over 283 feet of the coastal bluff erodes between 1977-2022.
2010
The Pacifica Planning Department designates Dollaradio Station a historic landmark via the Pacifica Planning and Building Commission (City of Pacifica Ordinance number 770 C.S. on May 13, 2010).
125 feet of the property eroded into the beach/ocean below during 2009 and 2010. Erosion is a common theme, particularly during winters of heavy rain in which vertical slabs of the sandstone cliff slough off.