Description of Historic Place

The Carman Dominion Post Office, built in 1913-15 and expanded in the late 1900s, is a two-storey red brick and stone structure. Its unique clock tower distinguishes it from surrounding buildings in central Carman. The municipal designation applies to the post office and its lot.

Heritage Value

The Carman Dominion Post Office characterizes the federal government's commitment to achieving quality in the institutions it erected throughout the country around the turn of the twentieth century. Masterful design and dignified materials spoke of progress, prosperity and stability, while a standardized vocabulary worked towards establishing a unified style. Created by the Department of Public Works, each design was related, yet also bestowed with distinctive elements. The Carman building, like many of its counterparts, shares boxy massing and red brick and limestone facades. It breaks from conformity, however, through its tower that features an elegant dome, emphasizing the clock inserts, versus the more common pyramidal roof. The structure, which initially housed the post office and postmaster's suite above, remains in active public use as the Boyne Regional Library.

Source: Town of Carman By-law No. 89/1632, January 25, 1990

Character-Defining Elements

Key elements that define the heritage character of the Carman Dominion Post Office site include:
- the building consuming most of its lot at the corner of 1st Avenue SW and 1st Street SW in Carman's core, surrounded by commercial and institutional structures
- the small open space in the southwest corner with mature trees, paved surfaces and a flagpole

Key elements that define the post office's eclectic exterior style include:
- the rectangular massing with a flat roof and substantial facades of red brick upon an exposed foundation faced in rough limestone
- the prominent, slightly projecting tower in the southwest corner, with windows vertically aligned in smooth-cut limestone Gibbs surrounds, the uppermost with prominent keystones and bracketed broken-base pediments tied into a modest cornice; another, more prominent cornice above; and the clock portion, identically detailed on all four sides, featuring stone pilasters separated by metal screens, quoin surrounds, circular clock faces inset in round arches and a metallic dome roof
- the two front (south) openings, each abutting the sidewalk with large limestone staircases and surrounds, with the more prominent southwest entrance featuring a bracketed smooth-cut limestone architrave below a limestone tablet reading '1914 POST OFFICE' and the southeast opening with a segmental-arched pediment engraved with 'POST OFFICE'
- the rusticated main floor with tall round-arched windows throughout featuring radiating brick voussoirs and the second level with tall rectangular windows topped by heavy smooth-cut limestone lintels
- the details, including modest cornices, parapets, coping, belt courses, sills and delicately carved scrolled brackets of smooth-cut limestone, etc.


Key elements that define the post office's internal details and finishes include:
- the rectangular plan with the main floor's informal open spaces and the second floor's more formal central-hall plan
- the staircase off the main entrance featuring intact wooden risers and treads and a carved balustrade
- the intact washrooms on the main floor and staircase landing featuring wooden doors with brass hardware, granite floors and marble stall doors
- the details, including the second floor's wood plank floors, cast-iron radiators and wooden doors with transoms and brass hardware, the moulding and trim throughout, etc.