OLD POST OFFICE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22355, 28 February 1936, Page 13

OLD POST OFFICE

WRECKERS AT WORK SOUND STATE OF TIMBER MOST OF ROOF REMOVED Although it looks much the same as usual from both Shortland and Fort Streets, the old post office building is well on the way toward demolition. A large part of the roof has been removed, and a start has been made with taking down a large stone chimney on the Fort Street side. Before many weeks the site which the building has occupied for about 70 years will be entirely clear in readiness for the formation of a new street 40ft. wide and the erection of an eight-storey Government office block. In spite of its age, the building appears to have been latterly in quite sound order, and the timber now being removed by the workmen is almost entirely free from decay or the attacks of insects. As a matter of fact, the woodwork does not date from the erection of the building about 1866, but from its reconstruction after a fire which destroyed the interior in 1872. No signs of this fire are apparent on the brick walls so far exposed, but doubtless some could be found by a close examination. Iron Columns and. Steel Beams The building illustrates very well the advance that has been made in the art of planning post offices and similar structures, especially since the introduction of reinforced concrete. However, structural steel existed in the 'sixties, and considerable lengths of the internal second-storey walls are supported by steel beams on rows of massive cast-iron columns. A large hall beneath a fine open timber roof with a glazed lantern running nearly its whole length was the central feature around which the building was designed. Here the Auckland public transacted most of its postal business for two generations. The hall was approached from a dignified Gothic portico running nearly the whole length of the Shortland Street frontage. This was a favourite meeting-place for citizens, but latterly, as the volume of business increased, the central entrance was blocked up, and the portico was con>ertcd into the central telegraph office Varied Early Uses Apparently in the early days the public was allowed to enter and leave the hall by either end, for twin staircases lead down from it into Fort Street. Between these is now a hydraulic goods lift, probably one of the oldest in Auckland. The rooms running along the side of the building nearest the present National Bank used to be the city's Cus-tom-house, but that department moved many years ago to its present home in Customs Street. Originally the old post office also contained the offices of the Provincial Government and a number of other official bodies. Apparently thev were accommodated upstairs in rooms running round all four sides of the central hall. In after years, and until the present chief post office was opened in 1912, these rooms housed the telegraph operators and the telephone exchange. Large Dark Basement The architect, Mr. Edward Rumsey, overcame the difference in level between Shortland and Fort Streets by providing a basement under nearly the whole of the building. This is a maze of dark rooms and passages, only about Bft. in height, and even after the introduction of electric lighting it f was only usable for storage space. Last year the Public Works Department put down a number of bores beneath the basement in order to gather data on which the foundations of the future office building could be designed. The old staircases are of some interest because of the methods used in constructing them. One is of cleverly interlocked blocks of volcanic bluestone, each forming a step. The blocks rest one upon another, with one end embedded in the wall. On the whole, the building does much credit to the workmanship of the old Aucklanders. It has served the city well and remains dignified even in the hands of the wreckers.