The Vermilion Post Office Moves To A New Home

The post office had been operating for nearly 20 years by the time it was decided a new home was needed for it in Vermilion. In March 1922, many people in the community were trying to decide if the original building should be repaired, or if a new building should be constructed.

Mayor J.W.G. Morrison presided over the meeting to decide what to do. The meeting was put in motion a few days previous when W.E. Mackenzie submitted a proposal to erect a new brick building in the spring west of the Royal Bank building. This new building would be the home of the post office.

The proposal stated that while the main floor of the building was reserved for the post office, the upper floor could be used for a different business.

Mayor Morrison then decided that a meeting should be called to determine what the people of Vermilion wanted.

At the meeting, several people spoke in favour of having a new post office building built, rather than putting in the repairs on the original building. By this point, that original building was showing its age and many felt it could be torn down to make way for a new building. That original building had been the immigration hall, in which the post office was moved in April 1918 when a fire destroyed the previous post office.

Mackenzie stated that improvements on the old building would be a money-wasting venture due to the large amount of things that had to be done on it.

The residents of Vermilion agreed, and it was decided that a new building would be built for the post office, hopefully opening sometime in the spring. A committee of three was formed that would forward its resolution to the department of public works in Ottawa.

As it turned out, it would take a bit longer to get the building built and the post office would instead be moved to the Albert Hall on a site acquired by the government in 1912 for $10,000.

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