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THE CENTRAL POST OFFICE, The Ottawa Post Office, at Wellington and Elgin Streets was thu s an obstacle in the middle of Robert Hunter thi s proposed square and was slated for demo­ Alberta Culture, Historic Sites Service lition. On 17 July 1936, T.W. Fuller, the Chief Architect of the Department of Public The official opening in December 1939, by W.L. Work s , corresponded with Mr. Hunter, hi s Mackenzie King, of the new Central Post Office, Deputy Minister, and detailed a dinner he had Ottawa, came at the end of a More than three with Mackenzie King the previous evening during year effort of planning and building. The which King stated that he definitely wanted completion of this structure had significance the new Post Office facing onto the propo sed in the history of federal government direction square, and brushed aside Fuller's explanation of town planning in Ottawa and in government of the technical difficulties involved in re­ es pousal of a particular architectural style using the pink granite of the old Po st Office as the semi-official Canadian style. in the facade of the new structure.2 The very next day, 18 July, King wrote to Hunter Th e federal government from the 1890s onwards Please keep in mind that my wishes in the was sporadically concerned with creating in matter of having this work in readiness to Ottawa a magnificent capital to serve as a bring to completion ne xt year i s ba sed on symbol of the nation. In 1926 the government a desire to have the national war memorial was in the hands of Mackenzie King and his erected in 1937 so that there may be a per­ active interest in the physical appearance of manent association of the memorial with the Ottawa is reflected in the quickened pace of year of the coronation of King Edward Vlll .3 government action on questions of possible Although it was King's stated desire that the development schemes. In 1927 the Federal entire re-development be Di strict Commission was created from the old completed in 1937, the contracts commissioning Ottawa Improvement Committee, with wider execution of plans for a new Post Office were discretionary powers on questions of land use not signed until 19 t·1ay, 1937, and the old and property expropriation.l Po st Office still remained in the War Memor­ ial's ultimate destination . The reason for In April of 1928 the Russell Hotel at Elgin this delay is to be found in King's trip to and Sparks Streets burnt, and the opportunity Paris in September 1936. of possessing this piece of property in the heart of Ottawa was one of the major factors While in Paris King visited the World Exposi­ toward King's allocating a $3 million capital tion and was guided about the site by the grant to the Federal District Commission for fair's chief architect, Jacques Greber, a land purchase with which the Russell Hotel and Professor in the Town Planning Institute of adjoining structures were bought and razed. the University of Paris. King asked Greber to This area was turned into a green space and come to to act as consultant on the named . Nearby, at the development of Confederation Square . It entrance to the Chateau Laurier Hotel was the would seem that the opportunity of having triangular open space known as Connaught Place Greber work on the planning of which had been created in 1912. was more important to King than having the square completed on schedule . Greber' s Since the end of World War I a memorial to initial mandate to study Confederation Square Canada's war dead had been under consideration. broadened after his arrival in Canada to In 1925 Vernon March, an English sculptor, was include a plan for the entire centre of the chosen to design and execute the memorial. city. The resulting sculptural group entitled Victory Response was completed in 1932 and Greber's plans were completed in May 1937 and then stored while the government decided where on 19 May a local architect, W.E. Noffke, was it should be located. The summer of 1936 contracted to prepare presentation drawings and found the administration at last ready to act . plans for the new Post Office, to be constructed The area of Confederation Park and Connaught on the north-west corner of Sparks and Elgin Place was to be joined to create a large Streets, and designed as well to serve as the square with the War Memorial as its focal new home of the Post Office Department which point at the north end of a widened Elgin was centralizing its operations. Noffke, in Street. 6

the middle of a distinguished and busy career sitated the creation of terraces, a promenade in Ottawa had a reputation as an extremely and grading of the plaza sloping upwards to competent and professional architect, who had the west towards the Post Office. The Memorial designed numerous commercial structures, as was in place by October 1938. In August 1938 well as homes for many of Ottawa's most in­ work was begun on renovation of the area known fluential citizens.4 as Connaught Place and new bridge supports, roadways and sidewalks created an eastern In the plans created in the years 1913 to 1915 approach onto the square . 9 by the Federal Plan Commission, not only were questions of land use discussed, but recommend­ The Central Post Office is roughly rhomboidal ations were made as to the appearance of new in shape, has two visible, symmetrical facades, government buildings. The Commission felt one on and one on , that the new structures should harmonize with is eight storeys tall, sheathed in Queenstone the Parliament Buildings and suggested that limestone and is topped by a steeply pitched the architecture of the Chateau Laurier was copper sheathed roof. Although the facade is appropriate as a general pattern.5 A 1920 divided into three horizontal bands, the ver­ Public Works Commission reached much the same tical elements pierce and dominate these some­ conclusions and by 1927 the Department of what arbitrary and thin horizontal divisions. Public Works felt ready to report that since This tension in conjunction with the light and the Holt and 1920 Commissions agreed that the reflective limestone creates a building in buildings should suggest the Norman French which surface tautness is emphasized and which Gothic type to harmonize with the Parliament is not greatly suggestive of interior volume Buildings and be suitable to the northern and external mass. The Elgin Street facade, climate, the Deputy ~1inister could recommend with its pale limestone and polished granite, the adoption of the French Chateau style. topped by the roof which proportionately is The Confederation and Justice Buildings on one-third of the building height speaks direct­ Wellington Street were constructed following ly across the square to a major determinant of these guidelines, and Ernest Cormier the its style, the Chateau Laurier Hotel . The architect of the Supreme Court stated that its Sparks and Elgin facades meet at a curved chateau style roof was imposed on his severe­ corner which functions importantly as the ly classical structure.6 location of the main door of the building and the site of the large ornamental clock at In December of 1937 property at the north-west dormer height. The corner doors are of bronze corner of Elgin and Sparks Streets was exprop­ decorated with eight panels depicting the riated adjacent to Confederation Park to create history of the mails in Canada. Dormers in a large enough site for the construction of the the Francois I style decorate the roofline and .new Post Office. Thomas Scott's old Post Office reinforce the verticality of the uppermost part was demolished in April 1938, as were the build­ of the building. The tower proved a pictur­ ings on the new Post Office site and test bor­ esque solution to the mechanical problem of ings were conducted. In May 1938 Noffke's com­ space for an elevator and fan room. pleted plans for the building were sent to Greber in Paris and initiated a series of l7J The ground floor is allocated to the post office letters and telegrams as Greber decided on and its lobby shows an Art Deco influence in changes in the plans, which although not ex­ the very stark smooth marble walls broken by tensive showed the degree of power he held over contrasting flat pilasters with incised dec­ even relatively small details . By 15 June,l938 orative carving to suggest capitals. Decorative Noffke had made the required changes and was grillwork of silver nickel and bronze includes officially appointed architect for the Central common Art Deco devices. Post Office. Tenders were opened and set for 15 July,l938 while completion was slated for The building is framed with steel, fireproofed 1 May,l939. September saw construction under with brick and terrazzo, contained the most way.8 modern heating, ~lumbing and electrical cir­ cuitry and then was clothed with an historical The construction of the Post Office took place facade. Architects such as Noffke saw no aRidst considerable chaos as the entire Confed­ discrepancy in building a technically and eration Square area underwent a transformation. In January 1938 work had commenced on install­ ation of the National War Memorial which neces- 7 s tructurally modern building and then giving PARK PLANNING IN OTTAWA it an historical skin. The Central Post Office was not completed in Sally Coutts, Ottawa time for the visit of King George Vl and Queen Elizabeth to Ottawa in May 1939, although all st age s of the Confederation Square redevelop­ The notion that Ottawa should become a glittering me nt had been slated for completion by that capital city was first put forward by Sir Wilfrid time. Bunting hid the unfinished building Laurier in 1893. He reiterated this point when he when George Vl unveiled the National War entered Ottawa as Prime Minister in August 1896. Memorial on 21 May, 1939. The outbreak of During his speech that day in Cartier Square he stated: war in September 1939 led to the War Depart­ !have said that Ottawa ought to be the Washing­ ment moving into the building which was how­ ton of the North; I have not forgotten these ever opened as the home of the Post Office by words and will try and 1 ive by them. It is part Mackenzie King in December 1939. of any nation to be proud of its capital ... it is my purpose to make Ottawa a capital of which every Canadian shall be proud. 1 1. National Capital Planning Service, Plan The first federal step towards creating a "Wash­ for the National Capital (Ottawa,l9~ ington of the North" came in the summer of 1899, 147. when An Act Respecting the was introduced into the House of Commons. This act 2. Public Archives. Department of Public provided for an annual grant of $60,000 to the Works Registry File. Record Group 11. city of Ottawa. The grant was to be administered vol . 4156, file no. 12503-3-A, pg.589380. by the Governor-General in Council and was to be used for "the purpose of improving and beau­ 3. Archives, Public \~orks, vol. 4156, file tifying the City of Ottawa, by the acquisition no. 12503-3-A. and maintenance and improvement of public squares, and the improvement of the streets and thorough­ 4. Harold Kalman and Joan Mackie, The Arch­ fares of the said city." 2 The Honourable Henry itecture of W.E. Noffke (Ottawa,l976). Fielding (Finance) supported the expenditure saying: 5. Harold Kalman, The Railway Hotels and the We make this proposal upon the ground that the Development of the Chateau Style in Canada capital city of Canada has claims upon the (Victoria, 1968),24. Government and upon Parliament such as cannot be advanced by another city.3 6. Kalman, Railway,25. The Act was assented to on August 5,1899 and the Commissioners chosen shortly thereafter. 7. Archives, Public Works, vol. 4156, file no . l2503-3-A . The Ottawa Improvement Commission was made up of four men, three appointed by the Governor­ 8. Archives, Public Works, vol. 4156, file General and one by the city. The first members no. 12503-3-A. The total co st of the were, Henry N. Bate, Joseph Riopelle, C.R. Central Post Office wa s $1 ,041 ,965. Cunningham and Thomas Payment. Henry N. Bate was a longtime Ottawa resident who with his 9. Department of Public Works, Report of the brother ran a wholesale grocery business. He Deputy Minister of Public Works(Ottawa, was a director of many companies including the 1938-39) ,42. Bank of Ottawa and,most important to his appoi~­ ment, a life long Liberal and member of the Reform Club. 4 He was one of the members of the Liberal party who welcomed into Ottawa in 1896 and escorted him to Cartier Square. The Ottawa Improvement Commission was