Jasper Myers, Special to the Black Press Media
The post office in Union Bay is the only wooden post office in Canada that is still in service.
Operating before the First World War, the Union Bay post office was built in 1913 and is a designated heritage site.
Janette Glover-Geidt, the former chair of the Union Bay Historical Society, said the post office has been a significant part of Vancouver Island’s history.
In July of 1868, the only post office on the north Island was a colonial post office in Comox. It wouldn’t be until after 1871, when British Columbia joined confederation, that another post office would open in the area.
George Howe owned a lot of property in Union Bay and Glover-Geidt said he established the first store and was the first postmaster in Union Bay.
“He had that in his little store on the beach at the bottom of McLeod Road,” she explained. “He had mail service there and it was brought by boat and kind of just unloaded onto a pile.”
Glover-Geidt said people would be waiting to get some mail and Howe would read out the postcards to everyone there.
In 1905, a proper post office was purchased at the bottom of McLeod Road on the North Side in Fraser and Bishop Store. Glover-Giedt noted at this time Jack Fraser was the postmaster, and the mail came three times a week on boats.
In 1913, the present post office was built and opened. In August 1914, when the U.S. declared war on Germany, the mail was brought in by the Esquimalt & Nanaimo (E&N) railroad.
“The train came south and took the mail at 11 o’clock in the morning and then north at 5 pm,” said Glover-Geidt. “And it was sorted in the mail car, they had a mail car on the train.”
Fred Brown was the first postmaster of the Union Bay post office in 1913, overseeing the postal activities while also living above the office with his family.
“He arrived with his 10 kids and they lived upstairs on the top two floors. They had actually planned to build a custom house next door. It was going to be the same style as the post office.”
But Glover-Geidt said because of the First World War, the house was never built, instead becoming part of the post office. It was at this post office that people would gather daily to get the news firsthand about the war.
“Mr. Brown was a trained telegrapher, “ she noted. A small room in the back of the post office was turned into a telegraph room, which now operates as the Vancouver Island Public Library.
Brown died in 1935 and his daughter Edith Hicks took over as postmaster until the 1950s.
Today, Glover-Geidt said little has changed at the post office. The lobby where people come in still has the original 178 mailboxes where people’s mail would be delivered.
“They’re beveled glass doors and you open them with a key. They’re exactly the same as they were originally, and box numbers and keys were passed down through generations. So some of the great-great-grandchildren are probably opening the same boxes their grandparents did.”
In the 1980s, the post office became run down, and at this time the building was owned by Public Works Canada, who wanted to sell it. The plan Public Works Canada had was to put the postal service into a store somewhere.
In 1990, the Union Bay Historical Society was formed, with the goal of saving the building.
“We really weren’t interested in the mail service,” said Glover-Giedt.
She said they spent many years negotiating with Canada Post and Public Works Canada on the building, and in 1995 they started repairing the building to its former glory. During all of the construction, the postal service continued operating uninterrupted in the building.
Today many of the original features and architecture of the building remain. In October 2004, Glover-Giedt said the Union Bay Post Office was designated a heritage site, the first in the Comox Valley Regional District.
READ MORE: Parksville post office re-opens following evacuation scare
READ MORE: Postal workers say millennials perplexed by ‘snail mail’
photos@comoxvalleyrecord.com
Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter