Yellowknife Post Office facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Yellowknife Post Office |
|
|---|---|
East (front) elevation and south profile, 2015
|
|
| General information | |
| Architectural style | Modernist |
| Address | 4902 Franklin Ave. |
| Town or city | Yellowknife, Northwest Territories |
| Country | Canada |
| Coordinates | 62°27′17″N 114°22′16″W / 62.45464°N 114.37111°W |
| Current tenants | Canada Post |
| Construction started | 1955 |
| Opened | 1956 |
| Renovated | 1958 |
| Owner | 6133 NWT Ltd. |
| Technical details | |
| Material | Wood, concrete |
| Floor count | 2 |
| Design and construction | |
| Main contractor | C.H. Whitham, Ltd. |
| Designations | City of Yellowknife Heritage Site. Canadian Register of Historic Places #10234. |
| Renovating team | |
| Main contractor | Ivor Johnson |
The Yellowknife Post Office is an important building in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada. It handles mail for the X1A postal codes. You can find it at the corner of 49th Street and Franklin (50th) Avenue.
This two-story concrete building has a modernist style. It was built in the mid-1950s. In 2006, the City of Yellowknife named it a Heritage Site. This was because it had been a key meeting place for the downtown community for a long time. It is also listed on the Canadian Register of Historic Places. One city councillor remembered that in the 1960s, "This is where you went to find everybody."
This post office was the first federal government building in what is now called Yellowknife's New Town. Yellowknife started as a gold mining town in the 1930s. After World War II, the town grew quickly. New Town began to develop on higher ground. The post office opened in 1956. It became the main place for mail services for Canada Post. It also held the territorial courts until 1978. These roles made it a very important building in the new part of the city.
Over the years, the building became less central. Other government offices moved to bigger spaces. The city also grew too large for everyone to get their mail there. The building changed physically too. A 1958 update added a back section. A fire ten years later meant the top floor had to be rebuilt. In the 1990s, it was renovated a lot. Its outside look changed, but its basic shape stayed the same. In 2010, the government no longer needed it. Since then, it has been privately owned. Canada Post now rents its space there. In 2014, the city removed benches outside. This led to a sit-in protest by local people.
Yellowknife Post Office: Building Features
The post office is on a corner in a city area. There are both low and tall buildings around it. There are also some parking lots. The streets are laid out in a grid pattern. The land is mostly flat. It is at the top of a small hill from the lake.
Across 49th Street, there is a bank. The seven-story YK Centre office building is nearby. On the other corner, a six-story modernist building holds some territorial government offices. Across Franklin Avenue (50th Avenue), you'll find a fast-food restaurant. The entrance to the Centre Square Mall complex is also there. A three-story hotel sits on top of the mall. A block east is the 60-meter-high Northern Heights tower. This is Yellowknife's tallest building. To the southwest, there is a tall radio tower.
The post office building has two stories. It is made of wood and concrete. It has a flat roof. On the back, a section with three bays rises to an extra story. A brick chimney is next to it. The sidewalks on the north and east sides are wide and tiled with stone. They have shrubs and trees. A parking lot is on the west side. An alley is to the south.
The windows on the street-facing sides are casement windows. They have a large pane of glass over a smaller one. On the ground floor, the window closest to the south on the east side is a double window. Next to it is a side entrance. It has modern metal and glass doors. A flat concrete roof covers this entrance.
The last section on the north side has no window. The main entrance is set back into the corner. It has a low porch with metal railings. A single round metal pillar holds up the upper story. Two plain strips go around the entrance. The section next to it also has no window.
A row of flat strips divides the first and second stories. On the second floor, the southernmost window on the east side is a double. The window above the side entrance is also a double. The northernmost window is also a double. The east side has single windows in all ten sections.
On the south side, the first story has three single windows. It also has two sections with no windows. Then there are three more windows and a garage with a metal door. The second story has three single windows from the east. Then a double window, a section with no window, and then another double. After that, there are four single windows. The back (west) side has no windows. It only has a service door on the east side of the added section. A fence around the other side covers the building's machinery. Above this, there are two windows. These are the only windows on the west side.
The roofline has flat metal plates in strips. Small decorative parts are between them. On the north end of the east side, there are some empty bolt holes. A flagpole rises from the center of the roof on the east side. An air handler is in the northeast corner. The upper story of the added section looks like the rest of the building. On its north side, there are two windows. One is a single casement window. The other is a triple window.
A Look Back in Time: History of the Post Office
Yellowknife started as a gold mining boomtown in the mid-1930s. From the beginning, there were plans for a federal government building in the town center. This building would include Canada Post. However, it was not built for many years. After World War II, development started again. The plans for the building remained. By 1950, the current plot of land was saved for this purpose.
Money for the building was not available until 1955. Construction began that year. By April of the next year, 1956, the building was open. A formal opening ceremony was held in July. The post office was on the first floor. Government offices and courts were upstairs.
This was the first federal building in Yellowknife's New Town. Like in many other places in the Canadian North, the post office quickly became a social hub. Many people used general delivery instead of a street address. They came daily to pick up their mail. They often stayed outside on the benches and sidewalks when the weather was nice. It was also close to Sutherland's Drug Store. This made the area a central part of town.
When it was built, the post office had a chimney for coal. But it did not have a coal furnace. The unused chimney was later filled with sand and dirt. In 1958, the building was made a bit bigger. The back section was added then.
In the 1960s, different government groups moved into the building. These included the Canadian Wildlife Service and the Department of Energy and Mines. Sometimes, parts of the building were even rented out as apartments. In 1968, a fire on the upper story caused a lot of damage. The top floor had to be rebuilt. The rest of the building also had fire and water damage.
In the 1970s, Yellowknife's population grew fast. People thought about starting letter carrier delivery to homes. But it was not possible at that time. So, general delivery remained the main way to get mail. The courts moved to a new building nearby in 1978.
The city kept growing. In the early 1980s, general delivery for everyone became harder. In 1982, post office boxes were offered. Later in the decade, mail delivery to homes finally started. Yellowknife's old postal code (X0E 1H0) was slowly replaced. The current X1A code was introduced.
In the 1990s, the building was renovated again. Its outside look changed a lot. New facades and windows were put in. But enough of its original parts remained. Because of this, it was listed on the Canadian Register of Historic Places in 2006. This recognized its role in helping Yellowknife's New Town grow. It also honored its role as a community center. The city council officially named it a city heritage site the next year. City councillor Amanda Mallon remembered, "when I was a young woman in this town, this is where you went to find everybody."
Public Works Canada owned the building at that time. They did not let the city put an informational plaque on it. In 2010, the government decided to sell the building. A private company, 6133 NWT Ltd., bought it. This company is a partnership between Denendeh Investments and JV Development. Canada Post rented its space there and kept operating. The new owners allowed the city to put up a plaque early that year.
