Canada Southern Railway Station

Photo showing the north east side of the Canada Southern Railway Station in 1943. The photo depicts the station as the MCRR which stands for the Michigan Central Railroad which leased the right of way from the Canada Southern Railway.

Please Help!!

A campaign is underway to restore the Canada Southern Railway Station, which is currently vacant and in immediate need of repair. The North America Railway Hall of Fame has undertaken several fundraising campaigns. With your support, we can save this significant Railway Station.

This is a unique and historic facility, designated under the Canadian Heritage Railway Stations Protection Act.

A good overview of the significance of the station is provided in a report prepared by Robert Hunter of the Architectural History Branch, Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada. The following contains some edited excerpts from this report, covering: Architecture, Functional/Technical Qualities, and Technological Qualities

Introduction

“The former Canada Southern Railway station in St. Thomas, Ontario ... was built by American railway promoters between 1871 and 1873 to serve both as the local station and as the headquarters of the company. As such, this large and impressive Italianate-style structure served as the symbol of the railway. After 1878 this regional rail line was controlled by the New York Central Railroad and, from 1883 until 1930, under the aegis of one of its subsidiaries, the Michigan Central Railway. Subsequently, the lease was transferred back to the New York Central until 1968 at which time the line was amalgamated into the Penn Central which went bankrupt in 1976. The company was reorganized as Conrail, which owned it until 1983 when it was purchased jointly by the Canadian Pacific Railway and Canadian National Railways. The St. Thomas station functioned throughout most of this period as the company's administrative headquarters and the location of its main shops and yards..."

ARCHITECTURE (Aesthetic/Visual Qualities)

Photo above shows one of the two archways providing access through the station.

Photo above shows the ornate large scale paired brackets along the roof line.

Photo above shows the cast iron column featured in the dining room and waiting rooms on the main floor.

The St.Thomas train station was constructed between June 1871 and April 1873 and exists today as a particularly large, well preserved and handsomely detailed structure in the Italianate style. A local contemporary account claimed:

“In point of substantial construction, in the means of solid comfort, convenience of internal arrangement, adaptation to the purposes for which the structure is designed, and in point of dimensions, there is no passenger station the property of any one Railway Company in Canada at all equal to it; and only in New York, Chicago and a few other such large centres of population is there one on the continent excelling the Station House of the Canada Southern Company of St.Thomas.”

Constructed utilizing 400,000 buff bricks, the station is 354 feet long and 36 feet wide, and two storeys in height with a cellar and attic. The extraordinarily long front and rear facades are divided into 44 bays defined by a shallow grid of piers. Each bay contains a round-arched window enriched by a brick hood moulding and keystone in the upper storey and a basket-arched window on the first storey. Two broad, basket-arched passageways provide access directly through the station to the tracks. Detailing of the simplest nature with vaguely classical allusions such as the line of dentils at the first and second storey line of each bay add distinction to the structure. The gable roof allows for the two short three-bay ends of the structure to be capped by an enriched pediment with oculus. Below each pediment the end facade is defined by the same vocabulary as the rest of the structure. The heavily dentilated pediment is supported by ornate large-scale paired brackets. Similar brackets support a heavy cornice running around the roof line of the station.

The one major alteration to an otherwise amazingly intact structure was the removal in 1969 of the canopy which ringed the station at the first floor level. The essentially flat-roofed canopy was supported by iron pillars with ornamental capitals and cast iron brackets. Early photographs also show eight tall chimneys located along the roof ridge but these were removed in 1962. At some point dormers were added on the roof but they have also been removed. Two low brick fire-breaks now punctuate the roof line and divide it visually into thirds. Although the station is constructed of buff brick it was painted brick red at an unknown point. The peeling away of this paint has left the station with a light reddish hue and some darker patches.

While the sheer scale of the structure (still likely the largest building of any type in St. Thomas almost 120 years after its construction) is one important aspect of its aesthetic effect, it is the extreme length of its facade which has the greatest impact. While there were functional considerations in this scheme (see Functional/Technological Qualities), clearly the prime consideration was the symbolic visual impact of arriving at a station with such an enormous frontage. This structure clearly achieved these desired goals.

This photo shows the 8’ wide hallway that runs along the south portion of the second floor of the Canada Southern Railway Station. At the end of the hallway was the Solicitor’s office, opposite from the Superintendant.

The St. Thomas station may be broadly categorized stylistically as Italianate. An eclectic style based loosely upon an interest in the forms of Italian Renaissance architecture, with several distinct sub-types, the Italianate is generally recognized as having been developed in Britain in the period 1800-1820. The wide range of plans and detailing encompassed within what was labeled Italianate made it a desirable option not only for residences but for a range of public structures. Among these public structures were new building types such as men's clubs, public libraries and railway stations, for which there were no stylistic precedents.

The Italianate style was enthusiastically adopted in the United States by the 1830s and at the end of that decade it appeared in Canada. From 1840 until approximately 1880 it remained a popular design option for Canadian buildings. The classically regular elements of the Italianate vocabulary lent themselves to large scale commercial, public and industrial structures, drill halls being a frequent Canadian example. The Italianate style was not, however, often used for railway stations in Canada, at least certainly not on the scale of the St. Thomas station.

The aesthetic qualities of the interior can still be perceived despite the virtually uniform application of "hospital green" paint and the introduction of some dropped ceilings and plywood partitions. Again, the scale of the rooms seen by the general public on the first floor was tremendous. These waiting rooms and dining room were distinguished by over 20 foot high ceilings supported by columns with capitals, while the walls were paneled. Major elements of the rooms still exist, including some pieces of the original furnishings.

The architect of this station was Edgar Berryman (1839-1905), who also worked as a surveyor and civil engineer. Little is known of Berryman's early career, the first available reference being in the Toronto Globe in 1863 describing Berryman as “Provincial Land Surveyor, Draughtsman, Conveyencer, etc.”, with an office in St. Catharines, Ontario.

Functional / Technological Qualities

“The plan of the station was informed by several requirements: that the structure serve not only as a local railway station but also as the company's headquarters, that it provide a symbolically appropriate and impressive trackside frontage, and that it offer efficient accommodations for its occupants and visitors. Given that the structure is 354 feet long and 36 feet wide with over 20 foot high ceilings on both floors, the extreme length and relative narrowness of the building were turned to its advantage to ensure ease of access to and circulation within the structure. Every major room on the main floor could be reached through doors on both the track side and the town side of the station. The main floor rooms opened directly one onto another with no space lost to corridors. Thus, ease of circulation was assured from the ticket office to the separate ladies and gentlemen's waiting rooms, or between the dining room and kitchen while maintaining the rooms at maximum width.

In contrast, on the second floor a long corridor runs along the southern edge of the building for much of its length and then bends to-run down the centre of the floor . It provided access to the company offices which housed, in addition to the general superintendent, the paymaster, the solicitor , the engineers and draughtsmen and the freight agents. A contemporary account of the opening of the station stated in regard to this upper storey:

“The corridor is 8 feet wide, and extends over two thirds of the length of the building and from it entrance is had to all the public offices. Above each door is a fanlight on which is painted in green and gold the number of the office, and on the door itself is the name of the office to which the door gives admission. The effect of this arrangement is not only pleasing, but very convenient. Those who may have business to transact with any of the officers can easily discover, without direction, the proper place to enter. Confusion and interruption are thus avoided, and time and temper saved. Another important element which enters into this happy arrangement is that of good steady light. All the offices are lit from the north side. They are thus free from the sudden glare of sunshine, and a steady equable light is obtained.”

Photo above shows the gable roof form at each end of the station.

The long rectangular gable-roofed form adapted well to a variety of functional requirements, in this case the dual function of accommodating passenger traffic and allowing sufficient amounts of office space required for the administration of a large company. The plan of the station, with numerous entrances on all four facades, allowed for a very unusual track arrangement for a Canadian station. The St. Thomas station had track on three of its four sides, as the southern Canada Southern tracks were at a later date joined by three tracks on the western end of the station used by the London and Port Stanley Railway while a single track for Canadian Pacific passenger train connections passed the northern side of the building. Only the southern tracks remain today.”

Representative Qualities

Photo above shows the Wabash Station, and below the London and Port Stanley Railway Station, both have been demolished.

“When the Canada Southern Railway was granted its charter there was vigorous competition from the towns, villages and hamlets of the region as to exactly where the line would pass and who would get a station. Thirty-one stations were constructed in the 1871-73 period, of which the St. Thomas station is the only one known to exist. The other thirty stations of the line are thought to have all been modest in scale and finish. The St. Thomas station was not only an anomaly on the Canada Southern line, due to its status as company headquarters, but is highly unusual in the history of Canadian railway station design. While this structure is visually impressive, it does not fit within the broad confines of the generally accepted stylistic options for railway station design. Stations of this scale in Canada, which were only rarely built, usually tended to follow the Romanesque Revival, Second Empire or later the Beaux-Arts styles.

The Canadian Inventory of Historic Building has recorded only a handful of two storey brick or stone train stations which date from the 19th century. With the exception of one or two structures in major urban centres, such as Montreal's Windsor Station (1889) there is nothing existing in Canada today to compare to the St. Thomas station. As a major railway centre St. Thomas had two other stations, both far more typical of railway structures in Canada. The former Wabash Railway Company (later part of the CNR) station of circa 1897 and the London and Port Stanley Railway station of 1920 have now both been demolished.

Somewhat rare as a combined station and railway company headquarters, the St. Thomas station due to its architectural design and surprisingly large scale must today be viewed as unique in Canada. The removal of the encircling canopy, a prime character-defining feature, has diminished its visual identification as a train station. ...”

Excerpts from: Railway Station Report, Former Canada Southern Railway Station, St. Thomas
By Robert Hunter, Architectural History Branch, Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada (undated copy - 1989 ?)
Unless noted otherwise, photos were taken February 10, 2002 - David MacMillan