Description du lieu patrimonial

The Gravelbourg Post Office is a Municipal Heritage Property located in the Town of Gravelbourg. Built between 1929-30, the property consists of a two-storey, tan-coloured brick building designed in the Modern Classical style that is detailed with Tyndall stone.

Valeur patrimoniale

The heritage value of this property resides in its original use as Gravelbourg’s Post Office, and its long-time use as a federal government building. Since 1915 a Post Office has occupied the site. Commissioned by the federal Department of Public Works to replace a wood-frame structure, this building was intended to accommodate the Post Office and R.C.M.P. office on the ground floor with the police barracks and caretaker’s apartment in the upper storey. The R.C.M.P. shared the building with the Post Office until 1954, when another federal agency, the Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration, occupied the second storey.

The heritage value of the Gravelbourg Post Office also resides in its architecture, which is representative of many of the federal government’s small-scale public buildings commissioned in the 1920s and 1930s. Stylistically termed as ‘Modern Classical,’ buildings such as this exemplify the trend towards a simplification of design while retaining a measure of conservatism and formality. Modelled upon the federal Department of Public Work’s 1910 plan titled, “Standard Public Building for Centres with Population Under 1500,” this building presents a dignified appearance while being functional and relatively economical to construct. Federal public buildings in Saskatchewan similar in style and design that contained Post Offices were also completed in Rosthern (1928), Tisdale (1928-29) and Wilkie (1929-30). Notably, the final design of the Gravelbourg Post Office was prepared by the prominent Regina architectural firm of Storey and Van Egmond rather than the Department of Public Works, as was the norm. The textured brick cladding and patterned surrounds framing the windows, the metal cornice and the Tyndall stone surrounds that frame the doorway are all elements of the modern classical style.

Source:

Town of Gravelbourg Bylaw #883/89.

Éléments caractéristiques

The heritage value of the Gravelbourg Post Office resides in the following character-defining elements:
-those elements which relate to its architecture, such as its symmetrical and rectangular form, flat roof, rugged brick cladding, metal roofline cornice with frontispiece, dentil moudlings, the central entrance, the one over one wooden sash windows with multi-pane storm sashes, basement window iron grills, and Tyndall stone detailing as seen in the window corner-blocks, doorway surround with bracketed entablature, the inscribed signage, and its setback from the street.