Correo Central Building

This guide to the Correo Central Building in Santiago traces the corner behind its black dome back to an 1881 fire that destroyed the old Palacio de los Gobernadores, where Chile's presidents once lived on land first granted to the conquistador Pedro de Valdivia. It follows architect Ricardo Brown's plain post office rising from those ashes, and the sorting craft practiced inside it: canvas mail sacks built to survive a soaking versus lighter leather bags stitched in England for carteros walking their rounds. In 1908 the government decided a working post office should also look like a palace, and architect Ramon Feherman wrapped the front in French-style stone.