Castlebar Post Office

Detached five-bay (single-bay deep) two-storey post office, designed 1902; dated 1902; built 1903-4; opened 1904; extant 1917, on a symmetrical plan with single-bay (two-bay deep) single-storey flat-roofed flanking end bays. Closed, 2001. Sold, 2013, to accommodate proposed alternative use. Hipped slate roof with clay ridge tiles, rendered "wallhead" chimney stack to rear (north) elevation having red brick header bond "Cyma Recta"- or "Cyma Reversa"-detailed cornice below capping supporting terracotta or yellow terracotta pots, rooflights, and cast-iron rainwater goods on overhanging timber boarded eaves having carved timber consoles retaining embossed cast-iron hoppers ("1902") and downpipes. Drag edged dragged limestone ashlar banded red brick English bond walls (ground floor) on drag edged dragged limestone ashlar plinth with paired drag edged rock faced cut-limestone banded red brick English bond pilasters to ends supporting drag edged dragged cut-limestone stringcourse; red brick English bond walls (first floor) with paired red brick English bond pilasters to ends supporting dragged cut-limestone "Cyma Recta"- or "Cyma Reversa"-detailed capitals having consoles. Square-headed window openings (ground floor) with dragged cut-limestone "Cyma Recta"- or "Cyma Reversa"-detailed sills, and drag edged dragged cut-limestone lintels framing six-over-six timber sash windows. Camber-headed window openings (first floor) with dragged cut-limestone sills on red brick English bond aprons, and red brick voussoirs framing three-over-three timber sash windows. Street fronted with concrete footpath to front having cut-limestone kerbing.

A post office erected to a design signed (1902) by John Howard Pentand (1855-1919), Principal Surveyor for the Board of Works (appointed 1891; retired 1918), regarded as a particularly important component of the built heritage of Castlebar with the architectural value of the composition, one sharing motifs in common with the Pentland-designed Westport Post Office (1899-1901; see 31212049), confirmed by such attributes as the compact symmetrical footprint; the construction in a vibrant red brick offset by silver-grey limestone dressings not only demonstrating good quality workmanship, but also producing an appealing palette; the diminishing in scale of the openings on each floor producing a graduated visual impression; and the decorative iron and timber work embellishing an oversailing roofline. Having been well maintained, the elementary form and massing survive intact together with substantial quantities of the original fabric, both to the exterior and to the interior, thereby upholding the character or integrity of a post office making a pleasing visual statement in Church Street: meanwhile, a date stone (1904) carrying the royal cipher of King Edward VII (1837-1901; r. 1901-10) survives in the collection of the National Museum of Ireland – Country Life (see 31307009).