Window replacement at Melfort's historic post office. (Cam Lee/northeastNOW Staff)

By Cam Lee

Melfort wins heritage award

Lt.-Gov. of Sask. Heritage Award given to Melfort for historic post office window project

Oct 10, 2019 | 8:15 AM

The city of Melfort has been honoured for their work on the windows at the historic post office.

The project received one of three Saskatchewan Heritage Awards in the Physical Heritage Conservation category by Lt.-Gov. Russell Mirasty at an awards ceremony in Regina Oct. 9.

The window rehabilitation project began in January, and featured the replacement of the over 100-year-old windows with replicas that still kept the historic look of the building.

“We have certainly over the last seven years taken great strides in rehabilitating that property in the centre of our downtown,” said Director of Development, Planning and Community Relations Brent Lutz. “This project was specially selected because of the unique way we were able to finance that project without using any tax dollars.”

The city was able to obtain several provincial and federal grants, and along with corporate and individual donations they were able to raise the over $200,000 required to complete the project.

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Lutz said the windows were able to keep the historic look of the building, which was built circa 1912, while vastly improving its usability.

“The new windows will provide occupancy comfort and enables us to start utilizing the building as a rental venue for the city,” said Lutz, adding that the windows will help reduce operating costs for the building and they are all maintenance-free.

“This was a very important step for the building to get this project done, now we can start taking a look at opportunities on the inside of the building,” said Lutz. “However, that is more challenging as most of the grants and programs available for a building of that nature have to do with exterior work.”

The window project completed work on the exterior of the building, which also included extensive work on the bricks and roof.

Lutz said that undertaking helped ensure that the structure was preserved.

“The bricks, by removing the paint, will no longer deteriorate because moisture is being trapped within them,” said Lutz. “Same thing with the work we did on the roof that has helped improve the appearance of the building but now we don’t have water getting into the bricks and damaging them further.”

An assessment and feasibility study in 2012 indicated that the former post office was structurally sound, but would require some conservation and stabilization to ensure to slow the deterioration of the building.

“People may not recall that the building was looking dilapidated in the heart of our downtown and it didn’t reflect very well on our community or our business community,” Lutz said. “We were very thankful that the developer of the StoneGate Shopping Centre [Avatex] saw the building as a stately element of our downtown and acquired that building.”

Avatex eventually donated the building back to the city and also helped in some of the rehabilitation.

Meanwhile, the city continues to look for a permanent tenant for the building.

“Our next hope is to activate that building and find the highest and best use for it so that it can contribute to the traffic that’s generated in the downtown core,” said Lutz.

To book the historic post office for an event, call Facility Bookings at (306) 752-7906.

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cam.lee@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @camlee1974