Description of Historic Place

The Alexander Post Office, a wood frame structure built in 1887, maintains a strong presence among the few other small commercial and residential properties on Alexander's main street. The building, which is set flush to the street, faces a row of trees and a Canadian Pacific Railway line that divides the village. The site's municipal designation includes the building and the land on which it sits.

Heritage Value

The Alexander Post Office, designed in a modified Gothic Revival style, is one of the oldest privately owned post offices in continuous use in Manitoba. Built as a small hotel, residence and store, with the central portion occupied by the post office in 1892, the structure's simple form, materials and detailing reflect its original utilitarian function, adaptable to the various needs of a small rural settlement. The structure was built by Alexander's first postmaster, James Frederick Walker, whose family provided postal services to the village until 1949, and is a well known local landmark.

Source: Rural Municipality of Whitehead By-law No. 1988, September 13, 1993

Character-Defining Elements

Key elements that define the heritage character of the site and its landmark qualities include:
- placement of the building on 2nd Avenue West, Alexander's main thoroughfare

Key elements of the building's modified Gothic Revival exterior include:
- its simple rectangular shape and box-like form, with the distinctive main gable roof and steeply pitched dormers; the west-end roof forming a cross gable with the main roof; the asymmetrical front elevation with three south-facing doors and side-located windows; the double-hung upper-level windows located on three sides; the tongue-and-groove wooden siding painted white; the tall chimneys; etc.
- the central post office door and original rectangular-shaped window
- the small attached single-storey addition at the back of the west end, making the complex L-shaped

Key internal elements that define the heritage character of the post office include:
- the three-part functional division of the structure's main floor, with the post office situated between the two outside spaces
- the small box-like form of the post office, with a low ceiling, wooden wainscotting stained dark brown on three walls, and a partial wooden wall with a screen of keyed mailboxes separating the public space and postmaster's working space
- functional features, such as the board letter box used for mail drop-off; pigeonholes for mail, a heavy oak desk and sorting table in the postmaster's area; etc.