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Okotoks Post Office
Okotoks
Other Names:
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Herbert Bowen Store
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Statement of Significance
Description of Historic Place
The ca. 1891 Okotoks Post Office is an elongated narrow, two-storey, wood-frame building clad with pressed metal decorative panels patterned to look like stone, and a medium-pitched gabled roofline behind a boomtown false front façade with a corbelled cornice. The Okotoks Post Office is set close to the sidewalk and not square with North Railway Street creating an angled front to the rectangular plan. The building fronts along the North Railway Street (formerly Macleod Trail) which was the historic main commercial street, across from the historic CPR Station, and to the west of the Beattie General Store. The Okotoks Post Office is situated in Okotoks community of Heritage Okotoks, just east of the downtown core and north of the Sheep River.
Heritage Value
Constructed in the fall and winter of 1890 and opened in January 1891 as Bowen Store, the Okotoks Post Office building is valued for its early association of contributing to the establishment and settlement of the frontier town and its commercial main street along the Macleod Trail (North Railway Street). From 1884 to 1891 the post office service had operated at McMillan’s stopping house. In 1890, Herbert Bowen built this long, narrow, two-storey, front-gabled building with a boomtown false front to operate his store and the post office. Herbert was the postmaster for one year. The building was purchased by John Paterson in 1892 at which time he became the postmaster from 1892 until his passing in 1909. In 1900, John Paterson built a large two-storey brick general store with living quarters upstairs and a horse barn out back. He moved the post office from the Bowen Store to the back of the Paterson and Sons store and later in 1906, John moved the post office service back to the Bowen Store building for more space. The Okotoks Post Office building served as the post office from 1907 to 1937 after which time it was moved to the Bank of Montreal Block. In 1906, the Lineham’s Plan 1650E layout put the Bowen Store building theoretically in the middle of the road on Alberta Avenue, where it remained until it was necessary to move it to its present location, just two lots east of its original location. After its usage for post office services, the building was a warehouse for Wentworth’s General Store located next door to the east at 64 North Railway Street. Since 1987, the building has been used as a restaurant.
The Okotoks Post Office building is among the town’s earliest businesses along with the general stores that were typically run by, and passed on, through multiple family generations. The first building in Okotoks’ commercial district along North Railway Street was the 1890 Bowen Store with post office services. The building became the nucleus around which Okotoks would quickly develop. After Herbert Bowen and John Paterson, John’s son George served as postmaster for the town of Okotoks for 33 years, from 1909 to 1942, operating from the Okotoks Post Office building until 1937. Upon John’s passing in 1909 George became postmaster until his death in 1942. In addition to this important town role, George helped to establish the Alberta Postmasters' Association, serving on the national executive. He was the only member of the John Paterson family to make his roots in Okotoks, and also served the Town as mayor in 1906, and held executive positions with the Okotoks School Board, the Southern Alberta Old Timers' Association and the Corinthian Lodge.
The Okotoks Post Office is notable and significant for its unique design features of pressed metal decorative panel cladding and a boomtown false front façade with corbelled cornice. Boomtown, or Western, false front facades included an extension of the building front beyond the roofline to create a more impressive facade. The style was almost always used for commercial purposes and to project an image of stability and success along with visual continuity of an urban streetscape. The Okotoks Post Office boomtown false front façade is notable for its usage of the pressed metal decorative panels that are patterned to look like stone. Originally, the building had the pressed metal panels on only the false front façade with shiplap wood cladding on the two sides and rear of the building. In 1930, the pressed metal cladding was added to the two building sides to improve the appearance of the building and provide additional protection against fires. In conjunction with the unique cladding material, the front façade is elaborately detailed to include a widening of the corners of the false front façade and a corbelled metal cornice to emphasize the squared top and grandeur of the false front. The metal decorative finials ornament the corbelled cornice at the top of the façade. The front façade is representative of the value of the Okotoks Post Office with remaining remnants of the Okotoks Post Office signage evident on the building. Historic names scratched into the pressed metal decorative panels are of value to the retained false front façade panels.
Character-Defining Elements
Character-defining elements of the Okotoks Post Office include, but are not limited to:
- Form, scale and massing as expressed by its two-storey height, narrow rectangular plan with an angled front, medium-pitch gable roof with narrow projecting eaves, and boomtown false front façade with corbelled cornice;
- wood-frame construction with horizontal pressed metal decorative panel cladding patterned to look like stone on the front (south) and sides (west and east) facades; wood cladding on the rear (north) façade;
- original fenestration pattern: two upper floor symmetrically placed windows on the front (south) facade; widened boomtown false front façade from the gable roof eaves to the top of the corbelled cornice;
- exterior façade features: moulded pressed metal decorative corbelled cornice; moulded pressed metal horizontal band over the ground floor; decorative pressed metal finials on each corner of the front façade;
- “Okotoks Post Office” lettering above the front façade ground level windows;
- historic carvings of names written into the pressed metal decorative panels located on the front (south) façade west side such as “Ken Walter, Pearl Miller, Margaret Davies and Crissie Visser June 28 1934, and R.B Feb.”;
- placement and orientation on the property parallel with the North Railway Street angle creating a front façade that is not square with the street; narrow sidewalk adjacent to the property line with minimal setbacks on the two sides;
- location fronting North Railway Street; interfaces with the original commercial streetscape, CPR Station and the railway line, and prairie landscape to the south; setting near the Sheep River; and
- relation to other historic buildings like the adjacent Beattie General Store (64 North Railway Street) to the east, CPR Station (53 North Railway) and the relocated Welch House (49 North Railway Street) across the street to the south.
Location
| Street Address: |
52 North Railway Street |
| Community: |
Okotoks |
| Boundaries: |
Lots 3 and 4, Block 5, Plan 1650E |
| Contributing Resources: |
Buildings: 1
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ATS Legal Description:
PBL Legal Description (Cadastral Reference):
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Plan |
Block |
Lot |
Parcel |
1650E
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5
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3 and 4
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Latitude/Longitude:
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Latitude |
Longitude |
CDT |
Datum Type |
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50.724412 |
-113.968065 |
Digital Maps |
NAD83 |
UTM Reference:
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Northing |
Easting |
Zone |
CDT |
Datum Type |
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Recognition
| Recognition Authority: |
Local Governments (AB) |
| Designation Status: |
Municipal Historic Resource |
| Date of Designation: |
2019/11/25 |
Historical Information
| Built: |
1890 to 1891 |
| Period of Significance: |
1891 to 1937 |
| Theme(s): |
Building Social and Community Life : Religious Institutions
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| Historic Function(s): |
Commerce / Commercial Services : Shop or Wholesale Establishment
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| Current Function(s): |
Commerce / Commercial Services : Eating or Drinking Establishment
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| Architect: |
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| Builder: |
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| Context: |
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Additional Information
| Object Number: |
4664-0448 |
| Designation File: |
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| Related Listing(s): |
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| Heritage Survey File: |
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| Website Link: |
http://www.okotoks.ca/culture-heritage |
| Data Source: |
Town of Okotoks, Laserfiche, Internal Repository - Adopted Bylaws, 5 Elizabeth Street, Okotoks, AB. T1S 1K1 |
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