Description of Historic Place

Smiths Falls Railway Station (Canadian Northern) National Historic Site of Canada is located on the west edge of Smiths Falls off William West. It is a custom-designed brick station with a Chateauesque flavor that features a distinctive turret and polygonal waiting room. It operated as a railway station from 1914 to 1979. In 1983, it became the Smiths Falls Railway Museum. The official recognition refers to the railway station building on its footprint as of 1983, including the Express Room.

Heritage Value

Smiths Falls Railway Station (Canadian Northern) was designated a national historic site of Canada in 1983 because:
- this station reflects the western-based Canadian Northern’s ambition to compete directly with the established Canadian Pacific Railway in populous Ontario in an attempt to achieve transcontinental status; and
- its decorative turret, individualized styling and substantial construction were a signal departure from the Canadian Northern’s usual practice of building cheaply from standard plans.

Smiths Falls Railway Station (Canadian Northern) National Historic Site was built on the Canadian Northern Railway’s new Toronto-Ottawa line in 1912-1914. Its individualized design, likely created by the company's architect, R.B. Pratt, is evidence of the Canadian Northern’s determination to compete for transcontinental business in the central Canadian market.

The heritage value of Smiths Falls Railway Station (Canadian Northern) National Historic Site resides in its presence as a symbol of the Canadian Northern Railway’s determination and practices in the highly competitive railway environment of early 20th-century Ontario as illustrated by the station’s custom design and substantial form, its composition, siting and most especially in the unique decorative turret that renders it a local landmark.

Sources: Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada, Minutes, June 1983 and 1985.

Character-Defining Elements

Features defining the heritage character of this site include:

- its irregular elongated massing and footprint;
- evidence of its original plan with express room linked to the main body of the building under a covered “breezeway” and interior layout of the station building with baggage room, main waiting room, operators bay and polygonal ladies waiting room;
- its Chateauesque features, notably its picturesque conical rooflines with 1 ½-storey polygonal tower;
- its surviving original doors and paired wooden windows with overlights;
- its broad, protective eaves supported by prominent brackets;
- its brick cladding on a stone foundation brackets;
- surviving original interior finishes;
- its setting on the west edge of town in a former railway enclave;
- its siting beside the railway track, set back from the road.