Description of Historic Place

The Old CPR Station is a Municipally Designated Heritage Property located on a large lot at the head of Main Street in the City fo Moose Jaw. The property features a six-storey clock tower and a two-storey waiting hall surrounded by single-storey wings attached on three sides. The building is clad with Tyndall stone and red brick and was built between 1920-22.

Heritage Value

The heritage value of the Old CPR Station lies in its historical association with the community. Chosen by the Canadian Pacific Railway in 1882 as a divisional point because of its central location and the availability of water, Moose Jaw developed into the pre-eminent railway centre of the future Province of Saskatchewan. The Old CPR Station is a symbol of both the confidence placed in Moose Jaw by the Canadian Pacific Railway and the company’s position as a major employer in the community. A bronze plaque honouring the war efforts of company employees and exterior reliefs of a ship, locomotive and a crest for the Canadian Pacific Railway speak to that company’s association with the building and important economic role.

The heritage value of the Old CPR Station also lies in its architecture. Designed by Montreal architect Hugh G. Jones, the building exhibits elements of the Italianate architecture, including its prominent location at the terminating point of Moose Jaw’s Main Street vista combined with a picturesque massing that illustrates the various functions of each section of the building. The Old CPR Station has a six-storey clock tower clad with Tyndall stone and a hip-roof two-storey waiting hall on a rusticated main-storey base. Its varied interior detailing includes wall medallions and reliefs of stone and terracotta, door mouldings and stringcourses often with terracotta. Features such as tripartite windows in broad arches, a clerestory and pendant lighting serve to illuminate the vast space of the courtyard-like waiting hall and add to the building’s prominence. Exterior detailing includes a steel entrance canopy, limestone dentils, quoins and strip courses contrasting with red brick, and blind windows with exaggerated sills and brackets. Other features speak to its use as a rail centre including the ticket office, waiting benches, and the steel door surround on the passenger entrance to train access tunnels.

Source:

City of Moose Jaw Bylaw No. 5086, 1999.

Character-Defining Elements

The heritage value of the Old CPR Station resides in the following character-defining elements:
-the elements which reflect the building’s association with the Canadian Pacific Railway and its historic relationship with the community, including an exterior relief of a ship, a locomotive, a Canadian Pacific Railway crest, and an interior bronze plaque to honour war efforts of company employees;
-those elements reflective of the picturesque architecture, including its layout, prominent location on its present site at the termination of the Main Street vista, its vast size, its varied use of detailing including surrounds, stripcourses, medallions, reliefs, mouldings, use of terracotta and polychromy, and exterior features such as the rusticated stone base, campanile clock tower, blind windows with brackets and exaggerated sills, dentils and contrasting use of Tyndal stone and red brick with strip courses and quoins;
-those features which speak to its use as a rail station including signage that states ‘To Trains’, waiting benches, ticket office and ticket drawers;
-those features which add to the prominence of the building and its utility including the centrally positioned front steel canopy entrance, symmetrical fenestration, and tripartite windows in broad arches, pendant lighting and a clerestory;
-the building’s environment in the streetscape next to the tracks and attached to a four-storey building of complimentary age, design and materials.