St. Arnaud Post Office, 42 Napier Street, ST ARNAUD
42 Napier Street ST ARNAUD, NORTHERN GRAMPIANS SHIRE
-
Add to tour
You must log in to do that.
-
Share
-
Shortlist place
You must log in to do that.
- Download report
Statement of Significance
The St. Arnaud Post Office, 42 Napier Street, St. Arnaud, was constructed in 1924 and opened in 1925. A single storey unpainted brick structure, the building is largely intact from the exterior. It was designed in a Stripped Classical "modern Renaissance" style by officers in the Commonwealth Department of Works and Railways, under the leadership of John Smith Murdoch, Chief Architect. This building also has significance as being one of an unusual grouping of former government and civic 19th and early 20th century buildings, of which most are visually linked to the Queen Mary gardens.
The St. Arnaud Post Office is architecturally significant at a LOCAL level. It demonstrates original design qualities of an interwar Stripped Classical "modern Renaissance" style. These qualities include the central dominant hipped roof form, together with minor hips that project at the sides, and two flat roofed and step-parapeted diagonal porches at the corners with rendered square vestigial pilasters and columns. Other intact qualities include the single storey height; unpainted brick wall construction; Marseilles tile roof cladding; wide eaves; unpainted brick chimneys with projecting brick courses at the top; three bayed vestigial colonnade of plain brick pilasters and timber framed double hung windows (having six paned upper sashes) with narrow window openings in the recessed flanking wall planes of the porches; foundation stone; plain entablature (adorned only by the name "St. Arnaud Post Office" and flanked by roundels); and the unpainted brick stringcourse and rendered brick plinth along the lower reaches of the wall.
The St. Arnaud Post Office is historically significant at a LOCAL level. It is associated with the development of the postal service in St. Arnaud from 1924 until the present day. It is also associated with the Commonwealth Department of Works and Railways, and particularly with First Commonwealth Government Architect, John Smith Murdoch.
The St. Arnaud Post Office is socially significant at a LOCAL level. It is recognised and valued by the St. Arnaud community as an integral part of infrastructure in the town.
Overall, the St. Arnaud Post Office is of LOCAL significance.
-
-
St. Arnaud Post Office, 42 Napier Street, ST ARNAUD - Physical Description 1
The St. Arnaud Post Office, 42 Napier Street, St. Arnaud, makes an important contribution to the streetscape of the town. The site is largely identified by the single storey post office building, with introduced brick ramps and brick paving at the front, and some minimal landscaping at the sides.
The symmetrical, single storey, unpainted brick, interwar Stripped Classical "modern Renaissance" styled Post Office building is characterised by a central dominant hipped roof form, together with minor hips that project at the sides, and two flat roofed and step-parapeted diagonal porches at the corners with rendered square vestigial pilasters and columns. The roof forms are clad in early Marseilles tiles and wide overhangs are a feature of the eaves. Early unpainted brick chimneys with projecting brick courses at the top adorn the roofline. The main street elevation is divided into a three bayed vestigial colonnade of plain brick pilasters and timber framed double hung windows (having six paned upper sashes) with narrow window openings in the recessed flanking wall planes of the porches. A foundation is situated in the centre of the colonnade. Together with the plain entablature (adorned only by the name "St. Arnaud Post Office" and flanked by roundels), the unpainted brick stringcourse and rendered brick plinth along the lower reaches of the walls, the streamlined Classical detailing of the building provides an emphasis on "modern Classical" proportions and lines typical of interwar Commonwealth Government architecture.
Heritage Study and Grading
Northern Grampians - Shire of Northern Grampians - Stage 2 Heritage Study
Author: Wendy Jacobs, Vicki Johnson, David Rowe, Phil Taylor
Year: 2004
Grading: Local
-
-
-
-
-
CROWN LAND OFFICEVictorian Heritage Register H1530
-
ST ARNAUD RAILWAY STATIONVictorian Heritage Register H1594
-
LORD NELSON TAILINGS DUMPVictorian Heritage Inventory
-
-