Page:Architectural Review and American Builders' Journal, Volume 1, 1869.djvu/959

 1869.] Building in New South Wales. 783 low the levels of the three above-named streets there stands a lofty and spacious basement story, giving accommodation to the mail carts — which are to enter the building from the new street con- necting Pitt and George streets. The mails are to be brought, through arch- ways, into a courtyard, where there will be every convenience for turning the vehicles, and for hoisting the boxes and bags, &c, to the delivery, sorting, and dispatch rooms on the first floor ; pro- vision being also made for a simulta- neous reception and dispatch of mails. Here also, in the basement, are large and commodious apartments for the postmen and messengers ; stables for the horses, and rooms for the stowage of boxes, and bags, &c. On the ground- floor will be the receiving and delivery departments, with rooms for the money order, telegraphic, and stamp-selling offices opening on to George street. On the first floor (as we have said) will be the sorting and dispatch rooms, together with the offices of the Postmaster- General, of his secretaiy, and of the superintendents of the now distinct de- partments, the money order office, and the electric telegraph office. On the second floor it is intended to provide for the clerical staff of the Post Office, and to have the operating room of the Telegraph Office. Storage for dead let- ters, general store-rooms, stamp print- ing rooms, and other accommodation, will be also found on the the third floor of this splendid building. The first portion of Mr. Young's con- tract, as seen from George street and the proposed new street, is composed of grey granite, from the quarries of Morivya, opened for this purpose by the contractor, now, for the first time, in- troducing the use of this beautiful and durable stone as a building material. All these blocks of granite are of enor- mous size, weighing from five to as much as twenty tons each. The blocks sup- porting the principal piers, which fate George street and adjoin the western an- gle of the new street, are all of the most remarkable size, conveying a most vivid impression of the vastness of the struc- ture they are intended to sustain. The remaining continuity of the granite blocks constitutes the line of entrance steps to the building, the contrast of the light grey granite with the warmer tint of the main walls of the edifice (of the very best Pyrmont stone) being ex- tremely pleasing. Towards George street a number of the square piers of Pyrmont stone moulded with rusticated work are already built, and give some notion of the grandeur of the proposed building. On one of the granite bases facing the new street, one of the Moruj'a granite columns (beautifully polished by machinery at work night and clay on the premises) was erected on the 21st in- stant, the day of the arrival here of H. R. H., the Duke of Edinburgh, last year. This^irstf piece of polished gran- ite ever produced in the colony is of ex- ceeding beauty. Tt will be one of a range of ten columns, supporting a lofty arcade, which is to reach from George street half-way down to Pitt street — the limit of the present contract. Pas- sing the broad line of granite, standing as a basement for the support of these magnificent grey columns — which end on the George street side only, at the 3 r et more massive sandstone piers of the northwest angle — the attention of the visitor is first attracted by the beautiful finish of the inner wall of the arcade, the whole of the western portion of which (at the rear of the new street front) is now in its place. All along this massive wall, and from the same level, the springing of the cross arches is already shown. On these there will be coffered soffites with carved patera on each coffer, the carving of these de- tails being executed by Mr. McGill, an artist workman, whose accomplished chisel has written his name in stone on some of the finest buildings in Sj-dney. From these cross arches the dome- vault- ing of the entire arcade will rise. The