Toronto's First Post Office
Toronto's First Post Office (also known as First Toronto Post Office , Fourth York Post Office or York's Forth ) is a Grade I listed post office in the Old Town ( St. Lawrence District) of Downtown Toronto . It is the oldest surviving post office in Canada and the only surviving post that has served as the UK Royal Mail 's distribution center. Today it is administered and operated by the Town of York Historical Society .
history
The then postmaster of York , John Scott Howard, had a representative post office built from red bricks in a symmetrical Georgian style with five window axes on the former Duke Street (today: 260 Adelaide Street East ) . The facade had neoclassical elements - such as the two pillar-supported porticos at the entrances, the semicircular arched windows set above the outer doors and the multi-part sliding windows. The architect was John Howard (unrelated) and the cost was £ 2,400 Canadian .
The post office served the then approximately 9,000 inhabitants of the city as well as the population of the surrounding areas. Since it was York's fourth post office building in chronological order, it was referred to as York's Forth . In the east, the land bordering the villa of Chief Justice (Chief Justice) of Upper Canada , William Campbell on. On the west side stood the building of York's oldest bank, the Bank of Upper Canada , which also served as a depository for the gold reserves. When the city was renamed Toronto the following year, it was named Toronto's First Post Office .
Defense of the confidentiality of letters
On December 5, 1837, as part of the 1837 rebellions , an argument broke out between Postmaster Howard and his superior, Upper Canada Surveyor, Charles Berczy. The latter opened and read letters that he thought were pro-rebellious. Howard opposed the procedure by arguing that both British and colonial regulations forbade breaching the secrecy of letters and that letters could only be opened by order of the governments from London or Quebec . In a later written document ( A Statement of Facts Relative to the Dismissal of James Howard, Esq., Late Postmaster of the City of Toronto, U. C. ), Howard also cited this refusal to breach the confidentiality of letters as the reason for his subsequent dismissal as postmaster.
De La Salle Institute
The post office was operated until 1840, at first the postmaster lived here with his family on the upper floor (hence the second entrance on the front of the house), later the family moved into a residential building on today's Yonge Street / St. Claire Avenue . After other uses, it was connected in 1871 with the larger neighboring building to the west ( Bank of Upper Canada ) to form the building complex of the De La Salle Institute Catholic boys' school , which is moving in here . The two buildings were given a common mansard roof ; the former post house now had four usable floors. The school existed until 1916. As a result, there were several changes of ownership and use.
Cold store
In 1925, the United Farmers' Co-Operative Company (UFC) acquired the building and converted it into a cold store for food. It was used in this way until 1956, when it was sold by the UFC. Sheldon and Judith Godfrey bought it together with the former, neighboring bank. They discovered that the cold store had been a post office. In 1978 the house burned down and in 1980 the Bank of Upper Canada was redeveloped , in the course of which the old post office was also returned to its original state; A post office was set up again in 1982.
The original post office has been a listed building ( National Historic Site of Canada ) since 1980 .
today
The completely renovated building has original wooden floors, fireplaces, interior doors and window frames. It is one of the few remaining buildings in Toronto from the colonial days of Canada . It is open seven days a week. In addition to the usual postal services ( Canada Post ), interested visitors can write letters with a quill pen , close them with sealing wax and have them sent worldwide. On the lower floor there are historical and philatelic exhibits as well as a model of the city of York from 1837.
See also
List of National Historic Sites of Canada in Toronto
Web links
Town of York Historical Society website
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Toronto’s First Post Office: Moving the mail in the mid-1800s , Canada's History (in English)
- ↑ a b c d John Goddard, Inside the Museum - Toronto's First Post Office , ISBN 978-1-45972-9-995 , Dundurn, 2014 (in English)
- ↑ Canada's Historic Places: Fourth York Post Office National Historic Site of Canada , The Canadian Register of Historic Places (in English)
- ↑ a b Toronto , Ulysses Travel Guide Toronto Series, ISBN 978-2-89464-6-625 , Hunter Publishing (in English)
- ↑ a b Bruce Bell and Elan Penn, Toronto: A Pictorial Celebration , ISBN 978-1-40272-3-896 , Sterling Publishing Company, 2006, p. 32 (in English)
- ↑ Fourth York Post Office National Historic Site of Canada , Canadian Register of Historic Places (in English)
Coordinates: 43 ° 39 '6.6 " N , 79 ° 22' 14.3" W.