The Old post office and Customs House still stands today where it served Bathurst until the 1960s.
It is the most prominent building you see when crossing the bridge from West Bathurst.
Built in 1885, this Second Empire style building was made of sandstone brought in from Grande-Anse
forty miles away.
In the 1850s, mail was carried to towns and villages by Stage Coach or Pony Express.
Apparently, "Indian runners" would also be used as courier service.
One such native courier was said to cover eighty miles on foot in two days.
Curiously, the above post office replaced a pair of Wellington boots.
The post office was in a private home and there wasn't much mail in those days.
One of the discarded Wellington boots served for the in-coming mail and the other for out-going.
This building still remains on Douglas Avenue in the Bathurst downtown district where it was built in 1870.
It was at one time or another, a Telegraph Office, a provincial police station, a restaurant and a yard goods store.
The coal-fired locomotive waits at the Bathurst train station built in the late 1800s.
Water tanks as in the background, were a common sight for the use of steam-powered locomotives.
A Jesuit priest is seen in this picture taken in 1890. The old Bathurst train station was destroyed by fire in 1913.
In 1895, Steve Branch would use this handcar to travel to work and to inspect the tracks.
With his crew, he would work six days a week maintaining the track rails and ties of the Gloucester Junction main line.
Mr. Branch was a foreman for the Intercolonial Rail Line.
The first East Bathurst bridge crossed the Nepisiguit River in 1829.
Earlier, you could only travel across by ferry boat.
The bridge seen above was the second, built in 1840 which was later replaced by an iron-span bridge in 1898.
The West Bathurst mill of the Bathurst Lumber Company had two major fires.
The first one detroyed it completely on March 31, 1908 and almost burned down the entire village, saved by a shift of wind.
Another fire on September 29, 1915 left a sea of flames for half a mile up St. Peter Avenue.
The Leger Hotel as seen in this 1912 photograph, was built around 1898 by John P. Leger.
When it burned down in 1915, it was rebuilt into a larger wood structure which also burned down later.
The third Leger Hotel would be made of brick. All three were well reputed hotels during their time.
This Bathurst train station was seen from 1913 to 1966.
In this picture, there are still horse-drawn taxis waiting for passengers to arrive by train.
On April 29, 1914, one of the worst fires in Bathurst History devastated an entire city block.
It all started by a spark flying from the Holdengraber home which ignited a pot of tar.
The fire station was one of the thirty-five buildings destroyed.
The information and pictures on this page were extracted from
IMAGES of our Past HISTORIC BATHURST by A.J. McCarthy
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