Caen postal hotel – Wikipedia

L’ Caen Post Hotel or Gambetta Post Office is a post office located in Caen. It is produced by the architect Pierre Chirol. It is inaugurated on July 10, 1932 by President Albert Lebrun ^{[ 2 ]} . The roof and the facades have been registered in the historic monuments since August 2010 ^{[ first ]} .

The site before the construction of the Hotel des Postes

The post office, installed from the January 25, 1826 In the town hall on the side of rue Jean-Eudes ^{[ N 1 ]} , is not very convenient and too cramped ^{[ 3 ]} . From the start of XX ^{It is} century, the authorities plan to rebuild it ^{[ 4 ] , [ 5 ]} . The December 23, 1908 , a commission is appointed to study the possibility of enlarging the building towards rue Saint-Laurent. The resulting report was rejected in 1909 and the construction of a new hotel is acted ^{[ 3 ]} . Three locations are offered:

• at the corner of rue Auber and boulevard du Théâtre, known as Fauvel building;
• at the corner of rue Saint-Pierre and rue de la Fontaine, known as the Lesueur building;
• Location of the boarding school of rue de l’Hotel-de-Ville (current rue Jean-Eudes) of M ^lle Guillaume.

The Commission favors the last location, despite the fact that this project requires the coverage of the Petit-Odon and leads to the disappearance of the municipal school of girls in Place Dela République ^{[ 5 ]} .

In 1910, the state said immediately that it took charge of building the building and that the city just has to provide the land ^{[ 5 ] , [ 3 ]} . The first proposal is rejected the May 14, 1913 by the Minister of Commerce ^{[ 3 ]} .

A new project failed in 1924 because the town hall was not satisfied with the location (at 214, rue Saint-Jean ^{[ 5 ]} ), acquired in 1921 by the administration of posts ^{[ 6 ]} . The administration makes a new proposal based on the locations of 1909 and it is that between rue Auber, the Boulevard du Théâtre and Place Gambetta which is selected. The municipal council accepts this land on December 29, 1924 ^{[ 3 ]} .

In 1925, the city signed an agreement with the post office ^{[ 7 ]} and approves the construction of the building February 27, 1926 ^{[ 3 ]} . The municipality chooses a site in the heart of the administrative district on Place Gambetta between the Hotel de la Préfecture ^{[ 5 ]} , the town hall in place of residential buildings. Consisting of three wings in the U organized around a courtyard opening onto a new street pierced between Place de la République and boulevard du Théâtre (rue Lebret), the new building occupies the whole island ^{[ 7 ]} . The final project is adopted by the municipal council May 31, 1928 ^{[ 3 ]} .

The first work begins in December 1929 ^{[ 8 ]} . The auction of the ancillary work of the building (coverage, plumbing, carpentry, locksmith) is carried out the April 4, 1930 ^{[ 9 ]} .

The work leads to the death of at least one worker, a painter in the month of May 1932 ^{[ ten ]} . Other incidents take place during construction ^{[ 11 ]} .

The building is inaugurated during the passage of President Albert Lebrun in the Caen region on Sunday July 10, 1932 At 4 p.m. ^{[ 2 ]} . The inauguration had been planned with Paul Doumer but his death in the month of May 1932 that it is his successor who inaugurates ^{[ twelfth ]} . After staying at the prefecture hotel, President Lebrun crosses Place Gambetta to go to the new position. He cuts a tricolor ribbon there then visit the public hall where the PTT staff are gathered.

During the occupation, the building which housed the telephone central upstairs, which was strategic equipment, was covered with a camouflage painting ^{[ 5 ]} . During the Battle of Caen, two bombs, however, fall into the courtyard, shaking the building; The right wing on the Boulevard des Allies is strongly damaged. The angle between Lebret and Auber streets is also destroyed by a bomb. The PTT resistance network rewards the hotel’s telephone central in August 1944 ^{[ 13 ]} . The building is restored and enlarged by the addition of a fourth wing which closes the courtyard on rue Lebret. The work is carried out under the direction of Pierre Chirol respecting the original decor ^{[ 7 ]} .

In March 2021, about two -thirds from La Poste were sold to the company Normand’Invest in order to develop around thirty high -end apartments. The marketing of the second floor is scheduled for September for first deliveries in early 2022 ^{[ 14 ]} .

In 1991, during the PTT partition, the building became the property of France Telecom. La Poste is now a tenant of the ground floor where there is a job service as well as a postal banking agency ^{[ 5 ]} .

The hotel is also the headquarters of a telephone central ^{[ 15 ]} .

The office of Caen is built on the post office model created by Julien Guadet during the construction of the central post of the Louvre: organization around a central courtyard, separation of functions in each wing of the building, structure built according to techniques Industrial constructive (reinforced concrete), but façades of waist stone style (Caen stone) ^{[ 5 ]} .

In 1993, the building was deeply renovated and the interior spaces were completely rebuilt ^{[ 7 ]} . Consequently, only the facades and roofs of the building are affected by the registration decree of the August 10, 2010 ^{[ first ]} .

• Vincent Marototeaux (dir.), Pierre Chirol, Norman architect and scholar (1881-1953) , catalog of the exhibition of departmental archives, September- December 2009 , Rouen, Éditions Point de Views, 2009, 179 p.

• Patrice Gourbin, “The Hotel des Préstes de Caen. History and architecture ”, The dispatch. Bulletin of the Association of Friends of the Museum of La Poste and communication techniques in Basse-Normandie , n ^O 23, November 1998 , p. 7-19 [ read online ]

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