Description of Historic Place

McAdam Post Office is a two-storey red brick and sandstone building constructed in 1934. It is located on Saunders Road in McAdam.

Heritage Value

McAdam Post Office is designated a Local Historic Place for its architecture and for providing a solid visual presence for the Federal Government, housing Customs and Immigration, the RCMP, as well as the Post Office over the years.

The building was designed and approved by the Department of Public Works under the direction of chief architect Thomas W. Fuller (1927 to 1933) in an architectural style identified with the federal government. The basic design was that of Thomas W. Fuller, architect of the Parliament Buildings. The building style was meant to demonstrate the presence of the federal government in the country's small municipalities. It presents characteristics typical of the Canadian Post Office design of Thomas W. Fuller’s father’s, Thomas Fuller, Chief Architect for the Dominion of Canada from 1867 – 1896. Perhaps due to the economics of the depression or this period of transition in design, this building is a scaled down version (sans clock tower) of Fuller’s previous designs for small post offices, which were a blend of Gothic Revival and Romanesque Revival forms. These buildings were characterized by their picturesque massing accented by stone gables, providing immediately recognizable symbols of the federal government. Valued by the community, the McAdam Post Office soon became the meeting and information centre for the community; as mail was picked up, other news, greetings and gossip were exchanged. Although no longer a federally owned building, it remains the Post Office and a community focal point where, between 10 and 11 o’clock each weekday morning, one can still meet almost everyone in the village, retrieving and exchanging whatever may be of interest. It is told that the use of the name “McAdam Post Office” above the main entrance, as opposed to the actual name of the village at the time of McAdam Junction, lead to a community name change in 1940.

Source: McAdam Village Office, Historic Places File “McAdam Post Office”

Character-Defining Elements

The character defining elements relating to McAdam Post Office are:
- square two-storey massing;
- red brick exterior walls;
- hipped roof;
- seven flush single-window red brick dormers and one two-window shed dormer capped in copper with sandstone sill plates, visually similar to dormers on the nearby railway station.
- Romanesque Revival sandstone block entrance with peaked copper capped dormer and projected decorative lintel supported by sandstone ancones;
- diamond shaped sandstone block insert inscribed “1934” above main entrance in gabled dormer;
- the name “McAdam Post Office” in copper above entrance.