Description of Historic Place

The Former Canadian Pacific Railway (VIA Rail) Station at Sudbury is a one-and-a-half storey railway station, built in 1907. It is located within rail yards at the southeast corner of the downtown business district of the city of Sudbury. The formal recognition is confined to the railway station building itself.

Heritage Value

The Former Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) (VIA Rail) Station at Sudbury reflects the turn-of-the-century prosperity of the CPR and its program to replace existing facilities with larger and more elegant stations. The construction of a new station at the Sudbury divisional point affirmed the CPR’s pivotal role in the city’s economic life.

The Sudbury railway station is a good example of a divisional point passenger station with integrated station agent’s apartment, the commonest type of CPR station built in Ontario during its turn-of-the-century reconstruction program. The station has decorative features characteristic of the Romanesque Revival.

The station retains its yards, many ancillary railway structures and its prominent position in the urban fabric of the city.

Sources: Heritage Character Statement, Former Canadian Pacific Railway Station (VIA Rail), Sudbury, Ontario, October 1993; Anne M. de Fort-Menares, Railway Station Report 175, Former Canadian Pacific Railway Station (VIA Rail), Sudbury, Ontario.

Character-Defining Elements

Character-defining elements of Former Canadian Pacific Railway (VIA Rail) Station at Sudbury include:
-its massing, consisting of a long, low, rectangular block, capped by a hip roof, with a central, hip-roofed pavilion
-its horizontality, expressed in the roof lines, the deep, overhanging canopy and the coursed stone foundation rising to window-sill height
-its symmetry, expressed in the regular rhythm of alternating round- and flat-arched window and door openings, the buttressed pilasters between openings and the regular spacing of simple wooden canopy brackets
-its Romanesque Revival style, evident in the prominent, rounded voussoirs, the use of heavily textured masonry and the pattern and configuration of openings
-features typical of early 20th-century railway stations, including wide, overhanging eaves carried on simple wooden brackets, the projecting operator’s bay on the track elevation and a roof canopy carried on wooden posts, providing a sheltered area between the station and the administration building to the west
-its use of rugged materials in contrasting colours, including coursed, rock-faced stone with red mortar joints for the voussoirs and foundation walls, red brick with red mortar joints for the upper walls
-the high-ceilinged volume of the interior waiting area