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 CNHS - St. Stephen Post Office - St. Stephen, NB Posted by:  T0SHEA
N 45° 11.554 W 067° 16.620
19T E 635343 N 5005786
St. Stephen's one time post office was one of a great many erected by the Federal Government in the first decades following confederation "with the aim of establishing a visible federal presence throughout the country".
Waymark Code: WMQNKK
Location: New Brunswick, Canada
Date Posted: 03/08/2016
Views: 5
Two and a half storeys in height, the St. Stephen Post Office is one of a multitude designed by then federal government chief architect Thomas Fuller. Fuller, born in Bath, England on March 8, 1823, studied and worked in England until emigrating to Canada in 1857. His most important commission came in 1859, the design of the Parliament Buildings in Ottawa, in partnership with Chilion Jones. In October 1881 Fuller assumed the post of chief architect of the Dominion of Canada. Of the approximately 140 federal structures which Fuller designed while in this position, 80 were combined post office/custom-house structures such as this one in St. Stephen.
The building's design is not unlike the majority of the post office/custom-houses designed by Fuller, done in a Romanesque Revival style utilizing red brick with brown sandstone trim. With a new round of post office construction 80 years later, the post office moved out and, in 1965, the building began service as the St. Stephen town hall, in which capacity it remains today.
Built in 1885-1887, this building was constructed to house the post office, customs and internal revenue. Designed under federal chief architect Thomas Fuller, the structure is one of a series of buildings erected to establish a federal presence throughout the country. It is a fine example of late l9th century design in its picturesque composition and in the varied colours and textures of the exterior building materials. The round- arched doors and windows and the decorative carving show the influence of the Romanesque Revival style. Since 1965, this building has served as the St. Stephen town hall.
From the CNHS Plaque
St. Stephen Post Office
DESCRIPTION OF HISTORIC PLACE
The St. Stephen Post Office National Historic Site of Canada is a splendid two-and-a-half-storey brick and stone structure executed in the Romanesque Revival style, featuring contrasting colours and textures of materials, a symmetrical elevation with paired entrances and a prominent central gable with decorative carving. Prominently sited on one of the town’s major streets, it now serves as the town hall. The designation refers to the interior and exterior of the building on its lot at the time of designation in 1983.
HERITAGE VALUE
St. Stephen Post Office was designated a national historic site of Canada in 1983 because:
- it is representative of small urban post offices by Thomas Fuller.
Built from 1885 to 1887, this building was constructed to house the local post office, customs offices and internal revenue offices. Designed under the federal government’s chief architect Thomas Fuller, the structure is one of a series of buildings erected with the aim of establishing a visible federal presence throughout the country. It is a fine example of late 19th-century design in its picturesque composition and in the varied colours and textures of the exterior building materials. The round-arched doors and windows and the decorative carving show the influence of the Romanesque Revival style. Since 1965, this building has served as the St. Stephen town hall.
CHARACTER-DEFINING ELEMENTS
- its prominent setting within the sympathetic context of an urban area of the small community of St. Stephen;
- those elements which speak to the qualities of a small urban post office, namely its conspicuous setting in the community, its public accessibility signalled by the prominent main doors and the vestiges of the interior layout and materials surviving from its time as a post office;
- those elements which speak to the building’s architectural merit and integrity, namely, its elevation and massing, its Romanesque Revival design as illustrated by its use of contrasting red brick and pale stone, its generous door and window trim, and the pediment with decorative carving.
From Historic Places Canada
Classification: National Historic Site
Province or Territory: New Brunswick
Location - City name/Town name: St. Stephen
Link to Parks Canada entry (must be on www.pc.gc.ca): [Web Link]
Link to HistoricPlaces.ca: [Web Link]
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