Guest Post by Terry Hughes via Joe Barkovich (from a reporters notebook) 

A recent announcement by the city to purchase the former post office/customs building on King Street from the federal government acted as a stimulus in recalling experiences that I had in that structure from 1945 until the late 1950’s. My grandparents – Steven and Elizabeth Hughes – were the custodians of the building during this time allowing our family to experience many visits. They lived in the top floor apartment.

My first encounter was witnessing a parade in 1945 celebrating VE Day on the front porch near the main entrance of the post office. My father, along with two other veterans, were on a float heading north on King Street. I believe the north entrance, that would have led to the customs office, was no longer in use.

Unfortunately, the local museum and library do not have photos that show the interior of the main floor at that time so the following is based on my memories.

The main entrance that led to the post office on the right side of the building used a white tiled floor with a high wall counter off to the left where two wickets were used for serving the public. There were rows of boxes for customer use nearby. One flight of stairs that passed what I believe were the offices for customs, were on the second floor and ,finally, the top floor that housed my grandparents.

Their apartment consisted of a long hall with a variety of rooms for sleeping, eating, bathing, laundry and a living room overlooking King Street and eventually the Barclay Hotel. Two dormers that are on the sloping face of the roof served two bedrooms, one of which was mine when we had sleepovers. It was here that I watched the Main Street Bridge and the multitude of ships passing underneath it, belching smoke and whistling for the Lincoln Street Bridge to be raised.

Source: Celebrating 150 Years/Walking Through Welland

The basement was a dark room full of tools, shovels and a variety of floor cleaning items. But dominating the room was a huge furnace that during the winter, ate shovelfuls of coal. It had a half dozen huge pipes sprawling out of the top of the monster, sending hot air to the rooms in the buildings while emitting huge plumes of black smoke.

The building was not outfitted with an elevator and for my elderly grandparents who were using them, that was problematic. For example, in order to get their home-delivered copy of The Evening Tribune, a string was hung over the railing dropping down to the first floor where daily, the newspaper boy would tie the paper to the string to be hoisted up. A similar arrangement using their muscle power hoisted the necessary groceries.

With the opening of the new post office extra work was involved. This would lead to their retirement. Many changes occurred to the facility, too numerous to mention here. Later, it would serve as the unemployment office and finally, abandoned leaving broken windows causing water damage to the floors and mildew polluting the air. The outside structure looks to be in fine shape and could offer much needed facilities to our community.

(Terry  Hughes is a Wellander who is passionate about heritage and history. His opinion column, Heritage Lives, appears on the blog once or twice monthly.)