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Postmasters | Photos & Coordinates | Sources
The former Dominion Post Office in Portage la Prairie was designed by Thomas L. Fuller, one of Canada’s foremost architects and the designer of Canada’s first Parliament Buildings. The building is an example of Fuller’s interpretation of the Romanesque Revival style. The 2½-storey hammer-faced limestone building features a steep mansard roof and central gable. Originally, the ground floor housed the Post Office while the upper floor held the Customs and Revenue Office. Political controversy in Ottawa delayed construction, but the building was finally opened in 1898. In 1920, an addition was made on the south side. The building became the Portage la Prairie City Hall in 1960, when a new post office opened on the next block along Saskatchewan Avenue, and the old building has also provided space over the years for the Magistrate’s Court, Youth Court, RCMP detachment (with its jail cells), library, and arts centre.
A plaque was erected beside the building in 1983 by the Historic Sites and Monuments Advisory Board of Canada. It commemorated the building as a representative of small, urban post offices designed by Thomas Fuller, and the fact that it was largely intact and had not undergone major exterior renovation. It is a municipally designated heritage building (1990).
Period
Postmasters
1871-1872
Charles House
1872-1877
Charles Mair (1838-1927)
1877-1879
George Bates
1879-1880
Charles Hay (1843-1924)
1880-1912
William White Miller (1846-1912)
1912-1913
William Ralph Taylor (1863-1913)
1913-1936
Edgar L. Burns (1868-1943)
1936-1951
Albert John Mills
1951-1956
Thomas Chisholm Forbes
1956-1963
James William Cook
1963-1965
F. C. Meadwell
1965
J. A. Brydon
1965-1966
F. C. Meadwell
1966-1981
James Joseph Mulligan
Portage la Prairie Post Office (circa 1908)
Source: Gordon Goldsborough, 2012-0167
The former Portage la Prairie Post Office (June 2017)
Source: George Penner
The former Portage la Prairie Post Office (June 2017)
Source: George PennerSite Coordinates (lat/long): N49.97293, W98.29011
denoted by symbol on the map above
See also:
Historic Sites of Manitoba: Municipally Designated Historic Sites
Portage la Prairie Dominion Post Office Building, 97 Saskatchewan Avenue E, Portage la Prairie, Manitoba Historic Resources Branch.
Post Offices and Postmasters, Library and Archives Canada.
This page was prepared by Tim Worth, George Penner, and Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 29 January 2022
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