North Perth Post Office (fmr)

Statement of Significance

The former North Perth Post Office and residence is a good example of late Federation Stripped Classical style. It has continual associations with the provision of postal services, post masters and their way of life. It has been a casual social meeting place for the local community within the context of the North Perth civic group at the heart of the urban village.

Physical Description

The building comprises the former Post Office fronting View Street, and attached postmaster's residence fronting Leake Street. The View Street facade is of a modest hipped roofed red-brick building with banded pilasters, rendered lintols between pilasters and multi-paned sash windows with stucco surrounds. The formal clarity of the Post Office is diminished by the attached residence which utilises the same materials and elements. On the south-west corner of the intersection of View and Leake Streets, and adjacent to the North Perth Town Hall, former North Perth Fire Station, St Hilda's Anglican Church and North Perth Primary School. Minimal modifications.

History

In May 1905, architect Michael Cavanagh agreed to sell a block of land in North Perth to the Post Master General's Department for the site of a post office. The land was situated on the corner of View and Leake Streets. The Post Office was not built immediately, and post office agencies were established in local shops as the population grew. There was an Allowance Post and Telegraph Office in Mrs Rome's shop at 491 Beaufort Street, and at shops at 21 Angove Street and 90 Grosvenor Road. A branch Post Office was established on the corner of Alma and Fitzgerald streets in 1912, and the instruments and cables were removed from the Angove Street agency and reconnected at the Alma Street branch. As the suburb grew, the horse mail service was replaced with bicycle deliveries. Finally, in 1916, the North Perth Post Office and residence was constructed. It was designed by PWD architect Hillson Beasley, who continued the style of previous PWD post office architects, George Temple Poole and J. H. Grainger. The new building cost £1,720. In the late 1970s, Fitzgerald Street developed as the new shopping centre of North Perth, and patronage of the North Perth Post Office gradually decreased. A new post office was built on the corner of View and Fitzgerald Street in 1996, and North Perth Post Office was renovated to provide office accommodation for the administration department of the Central Business District and Northern Suburbs postal services.

Integrity/Authenticity

High. Current use is closely associated with continuing postal function.

Uses

Historic Themes

Creation Date

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