Towered corner in North Fitzroy

26 June 2024

Generally known as the Fitzroy North Post Office, this fabbo pointy towered landmark on St Georges Road was originally built as a ‘land office’ in 1887, selling real estate at the height of the land boom of the 1880s. So it’s got a rich array of arches, columns, pediments, swags, lions too, all the frills, especially that tower, which originally had a dome to boot. Don’t know the architect who put it all together so nicely. In 1908 it become a post office, with upstairs a home for the post master or mistress, still a PO into the 90s I think. Then it was an antique store, and a cafe then about 2000 it became a pub, called the Pinnacle, which survived a smallish fire in 2015, still going. The corner room has rather elaborate cornices and a couple of decorated piers, recalling its heyday. Photos 2014, don’t think I’ve posted before. The marvellously atmospheric @library_vic B&W is from its time and a PO, judging from the dresses c1910, and pic 3 is 1963.