On Wednesday, 4 January 2006, the President of the Ironwood, Peters Pond and Western Railway gave approval to the final design of the new Post Office Building for Craig Leigh. Mr. Mills said the building will be built on vacant lot north of recently completed passenger station and south of the city’s planned Wellington Street Bridge. The bridge will be built later this year to carry traffic over the IPP&W passenger station tracks.
The first floor will be used by the Post Office for a sorting and forwarding center. The second and third floors will be occupied by IPP&W staff, Post Office employees and other local firms. IPP&W Management declined to say what other local firms were interested.
To maximize the small available footprint, part of the Post Office is to be built over an IPP&W track. “It will provide a secure and covered area for handling Post Office mail” said lead architect Doug Matheson. The building’s exterior will be built of JigStones to compliment the existing passenger station. Co-building contractors Lawrence Watkins and Gord Bellamy were concerned about the flat roof design leaking rainwater into the interior. IPP&W Management stated, “If it happens, we will fix it”.
The corner stone is scheduled to be laid Wednesday, 11 January 2006. Pastor Ralph Dipple will be in attendance to say a few prayers. He is reported to have muttered “There will be many more prayers needed before this is finished”. The planned completion date will be later this year.
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| The back of the building with the covered mail handling area. A railcar shows the relative scale of the building and the location of the IPP&W track. The number of doors (the JigStone arches on the right) required by the clients in the remainder of the building has yet to be determined by the Architects. | The entrance to the covered mail handling area and the loading platform which will run the full length of the building. The Wellington Street Bridge, which will be built to the right of the building later this year, will carry traffic over the IPP&W passenger station tracks. |
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| The back of the building with the covered mail handling area removed to begin adding the JigStones masonry The loading dock and wall have both been painted and an access hatch has been added. | The masonry under the covered mail handling area has been completed and painted. Some additional masonry has been added to the remainder of the wall. |
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| The paints used for the masonry are Newton and Windsor artist acrylics. | Work has begun on the masonry for the covered mail handling area. |
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| The arches are complete for both the mail handling area and the adjacent wing of the building. | There will be 34 windows cast using RP-25 resin in a latex mold. The ornate top of the window has been removed with a band saw. After being sprayed iron oxide red, they will be glued in place with silicone over a sheet of .01 Lexan for the window panes. |
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| Installation of the windows is going well in both the covered mail handling area and the rest of the building. | The photo illustrates why a plywood sub-structure is used to support the courses of JigStones. |
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| The stone work is almost complete. | A few more keys and some grout and it’s ready for dry bushing on some acrylic colour. |
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| The cornice has been assembled from several pieces. | Should be the crowning touch. |
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| Doug Matheson working the grout into the masonry with a sponge. | The windows have been covered to keep the grout out. |
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| A wet sponge is then used to wipe off the excess. | The grout ties all the masonry together and hides and faults. |
The building is 60 inches (120 scale feet) long, 28 inches (56 scale feet) high, and 10 inches (20 scale feet) wide over the covered mail handling area. The construction required 6 open arches, 3 arched doors, 35 windows, over 600 large blocks and 300 smaller stones. The structure weighs in excess of 120 pounds.
The Dominion Post Office Building in place beside the Craig Leigh Passenger Station.