Vulcans Post Office
Vulcan is a town in southern Alberta, within Vulcan County. It is located on Highway 23, approximately halfway between the cities of Calgary and Lethbridge.
The original post office opened in Vulcan in September 1910, located in a general store which was situated a kilometer south of the current town limits, while the postmaster waited for the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) to finish surveying the town lots. In November, the post office/store was moved into the village. Until the CPR physically reached the townsite, mail was transported by horse and buggy from nearby Carmangary. The railway would reach Vulcan by the next year and the Vulcan Post Office would become the main mail distribution point for the nearby communities.
The mail counter in the general store wasn’t big enough to keep up with the increased postal usage and a new separate building was built in 1930. By the mid-1950s, mail began to be delivered by truck from Calgary, ending the use of a post office railway car by the CPR. The current post office building in Vulcan was built in 1965 and continued to serve the town and surrounding area.
Fast forward to early 2020 as Canada Post identified the need to renovate the retail area, add more postal boxes, and expand the back sorting area. Alvin Reinhard Fritz Architect was selected to undertake the design/construction drawings for the project, working with a project manager retained by Canada Post. The new design merges the prairie colour palette of the existing post office building with a modern addition that incorporates added glazing elements, which provides natural light to the space.