Description of Historic Place

The Canadian National Railways/VIA Rail Station at Clova is a one-and-a-half-storey railway station, built in 1915-1920. It is located in the small community of Clova, on the shore of Lake Duchamp, in northern Quebec. The formal recognition is confined to the railway station building itself.

Heritage Value

The Canadian National Railways/VIA Rail Station at Clova represents the construction of the western trunk line of the National Transcontinental Railway (NTR) across northern Quebec and the creation of the community of Clova. Shortly after the station’s completion, Canadian International Paper (CIP) established a logging station at Clova, building a company town around the railway station. Additional waiting room space was added to the Clova station to accommodate loggers travelling to and from the camps.

The Clova station is a rare surviving example of the Grand Trunk Railway’s (GTR) standard plan type F, developed by the GTR for the western trunk line of the NTR. The western waiting room extension is not sympathetic to the design of the original station, but testifies to the building’s evolution in response to increasing passenger traffic. The station has been altered very little since its construction.

While the CIP facility closed in 1965, the station continues to act as a landmark and gathering place for the community, and provides an important link to other communities. The station retains its relationship to the adjacent rail yards.

Sources: Heritage Character Statement, Gare du Canadien National, Clova, Québec, February 1996; Christiane Lefebvre, Railway Station Report 274, Gare du Canadien National/VIA Rail, Clova, Québec.

Character-Defining Elements

Character-defining elements of the Canadian National Railways/VIA Rail Station at Clova include:
-the simple, elegant form and massing of original station, comprised of a one-and-a-half-storey block with a projecting operator’s bay; capped by a steeply pitched, hipped roof with wide, overhanging eaves; and punctuated by hipped-roof dormers rising flush with the walls on two sides and with the projecting bay on the third side
-the waiting-room extension to the west, comprised of a one-storey, rectangular block with a low-pitched hipped roof
-features typical of early-20th-century railway stations, including: a rectangular plan; hipped roof; wide, overhanging eaves supported on wooden brackets; and a projecting operator’s bay on the track side
-the wide, overhanging eaves which form a platform canopy on all sides of the building; the exposed-rafter treatment of the soffits; and the large, slender wooden brackets which support the eaves
-its exterior treatment, including: clapboard siding to eave level; shingled siding on the dormers; plain, wood coursing at lintel level; plain, vertical boards at corners; and plain wood window and door surrounds
-the original wooden freight door with transom
-the interior plan of its ground floor, comprising: a large waiting room; a small, station agent’s office; a kitchen; and a small room leading to the freight room at the station’s eastern end
-the interior plan of its second floor, comprising: a hall, a small living room, two bedrooms and a washroom